Messages

4451

Post New Requests Here / DONE: Commandline Calculator (for Farr)

« on: February 06, 2006, 01:27 PM »

Farr is my most loved app. I use it to launch everything, and i hope soon, it'll have even more uses.
But I'd like Farr to be my calculator.
Without bugging mouser to include this in Farr, i can just add a groups alias that has a regex that detects mathematics operators (something like: ((.*)+(.*))|((.*)-(.*))
And then, associate it with a ahk script that takes command line parameters, and have the group alias launch it with the expression that i type.
Up until now, everything is easy. The problem is, making the program that does the calc.
I tried something like:

[Select]

;Calc
if 0 < 1 ; if there are not command line parameters, exit
  ExitApp
Expr=
Loop %0%
  {
  counter := %a_index%
  Expr=%Expr%%counter% 
  }
StringReplace CompleteExpr, Expr,`,,.,ReplaceAll
Result:=0 + Expr
MsgBox,.%Result%.
return

But the line "Result:=0 + Expr" isn't interpreted as i expected, Expr has to be a number, and it's an expression
Any ideas?
Or maybe some command line app that does this?
Hope you can help me! thanks!

4452

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 06, 2006, 12:57 PM »

Second, the visible presence of a default OPEN/LAUNCH/RUN verb, in the first entry field, provides a visual clue that other verbs are possible.

Agreed. It made me rethink what i had said before, and I think you're right, it does help new people to understand how Farr v2 works. And if the box below recognizes the actions, everybody is happy
Just one suggestion: if the box below can do everything, why not have an option to remove the upper box? It's a way to make everybody happy

4453

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 06, 2006, 12:38 PM »

jdmarch:
I think that the possible ambiguities in the Farr engine, can only come from the way we define the aliases.
I mean, using the great stack-pile method that Jan-S proposed, i think that Farr only has to do what he does now.
The only difference is that when we select something, it's name gets replaced by it's full path.
The only hard thing is define the aliases, but even that, i don't consider very hard. I've seen that there is much people that are "experts" in aliases, and others willing to learn (like myself )

Another thing you mentioned is selecting with SPACE. I think this has been referenced before, and can't be done, since one of the most asked-for feature was "f f" finding firefox. (i myself would like to select with space too, maybe it could be an option?)

I love the way you said that the switch tasks- function could work, and i think it's perfect. And it even doesn't need to have the option to disable it, if Farr will have the adaptive scoring like it is predicted will have, if you usually don't use the "switch to" option, it won't come first, and ENTER will just open a new instance.

Mouser's "search modifiers", that's a great idea! it has happened too many times to have another option come after the one i wanted, when working on something!

As for the two field-arrangement, i don't agree with you, i think that having a command line to type exactly what you want is more natural, i mean, everything goes in the same place. I understand that it is to have distinction between entering an action or a file, but IMO, it generates some confusion. I think that having the letters change colour when you type an actions would be easier. (I also think this should be features in the stack-bar, to have some idea of what we're doing.)

Amadawn:
My opinion is that is the aliases (or actions, or whatever you call it ) are configurable, you can change their names, and you can include that character in their names. I don't think there is a need to force the character to be there, unless it helps Farr to identify what it is working on, or something like that.

4454

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: WinampKiller

« on: February 06, 2006, 12:02 PM »

I found these plugins:
http://www.winamp.co...etails.php?id=145717 -> a sleep timer
http://www.winamp.co...details.php?id=64006  -> offtopic, but seems to be a very nice plugin, features alarm, snooze, etc.

The plugin i mentioned above, does not check for idle, it only can be set to turn of winamp at a given time.
Though, it wouldn't be hard to do such ahk script, not associating it with Idle Mute ( because i don't want to alter the code since it's not mine), you could have something like this:

[Select]

#persistent
#SingleInstance,Force
;winamp shutdown
SetTimer, Sleeper, 10000
return

Sleeper:
If A_TimeIdlePhysical < 1800000 ;number of miliseconds to wait before closing winamp - this command ignores artificial keypresses, and makes the script only work in windows xp or 2k
  return
Process, Exist, Winamp.exe ; change here, if you use another player
if ErrorLevel != 0
  Process, Close, Winamp.exe ; change here if you use another player
ExitApp ;terminates the app, since winamp isn't running anymore.
return

This program is a very fast and ugly solution, it doesn't close winamp, terminates it. Which means that if you wanted to have the last playlist the next time you open winamp, it might not be the best solution, as winamp won't save anything since it was last opened.
As i have posted before, i can't do any ini files (yet) because, i have not learned how to do them. I will in a few days. In the meantime, I commented the important parts if you'd like other settings

4455

General Software Discussion / Re: Winamp Advanced Control

« on: February 06, 2006, 08:53 AM »

Definatelly agreed!
You had already mentioned that plugin, I downloaded it at the time, and i'm using it ever since.
In that author's page there are also other very good plugins. Worth checking. Here's the link: http://www.myplugins.info/

4456

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: pandora.com - Internet radio for EVERY taste! FREE!

« on: February 05, 2006, 06:54 PM »

I had to express my appreciation for this site. I'm only mad that my ISP is so bad, and have such low transfer limits

Pandora.com has a nice database (sure, there are lost of artist missing, but the best are there), and the audio quality is very good. It's just like listening to radio, but a high-quality radio fully customized by the user. And the adaptive selection is just perfect. If the second music you hear is not of your appreciation, you just mark it as a song you don't like, and the next one will surely be very close to what you are looking for. It didn't take me more that 4 refusals go get a perfect playlist, exactly what i wanted, and it even helped me in finding more artists on the music style i was looking for.
I sure recommend you take a look, at least try it, it's certain you'll love it

4457

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: Translators Wanted

« on: February 05, 2006, 04:37 PM »

I'm available to do translations to portuguese language

4458

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: License Keys

« on: February 05, 2006, 04:15 PM »

karikari39: Es duro entender lo que usted ha dicho. Hable por favor correctamente y puedo ayudarle. (soy portugues)
¿cuál es el programa que usted no sabe utilizar?

4459

Living Room / Tonight show phony photo booth.

« on: February 05, 2006, 03:29 PM »

Tonight show phony photo booth.
"It's amazing how far people will go for one free photo"

Check this out: http://www.youtube.c...&s=B4BC767524043

4460

Living Room / Re: Improving Review section;what website has the best layout for reviews?

« on: February 05, 2006, 05:33 AM »

• break reviews into multiple pages with easy navigation between them
• a separate 'page' for each product, plus some intro, comparison, and summary pages would make it easier to maintain/update and write and read.

-mouser (February 04, 2006, 11:52 PM)

4461

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder.com Logo Contest is Over - We Have a New Official Mascot/Logo!

« on: February 04, 2006, 08:22 PM »

Nice, nudone! That looks cool! Cody the bird just got a facelift

4462

Living Room / Re: Just for fun: What is this ?

« on: February 04, 2006, 01:30 PM »

Mouser, that was a good idea, but unfortunatelly, i also read phill's post before seing the image   

Nice pic, BTW. And a nice idea too

4463

Mouser's Zone / Re: add a link to this forum to the help menu in all your programs

« on: February 04, 2006, 09:00 AM »

Mouser has already agreed to do that, and also add a link to the app's homepage and bugtracker.
Check this thread

4464

Developer's Corner / Re: Is customization worth it?

« on: February 04, 2006, 05:08 AM »

Well, there's a matter worth discussing!
Those two articles are very content-filled and make some good points.
I think this thread is also relevant in this context, as it has some good points about Mac's interface.

IMO, the problem with customization, is how much should be allowed.
I'm not for the windows themes idea, where the "modern" theme only has three different colours and you can't even resize the bar, it has to always take 10% of your screen. It bothers me specially that you cannot iconize the tasks, the buttons have to be very large, so as when you open various apps, the taskbar becomes over-crowded, and you can't find anything.
But I'm also against the way litestep works, because the options are so many, that you get completely lost in the first use. I used blackbox for windows for a few years, and I loved it, but i only started using it because when I found it I was in vacations and had time to spare. It took me two weeks to get everything just as i like it, and even after those two weeks, every week I'd find some option that suited me better.

It is true that when you customize anything, it ends up just the way you want it, and in this matter, i don't agree with Jeff Atwood when he mentions that users often use "color combinations that are known to cause reduced readability of screen text". A user that customizes his desktop to have nice effects, and everything non-standard, only likes having everything nice an shiny, he isn't really worried about productivity.

Joel Spolsky mentions the problem with the resize and replacement of the taskbar. The thing is, some people use it in other places other than the bottom and find it very usefull, and in this forum, you can even find someone that uses the bar taking half of the screen, on the right, and set to auto-hide. (sorry, i couldn't find the link)

I'm for customization, if it respects these criteria:
1) it has to be easy for the user o try out different configurations
2) there has to be a good and easy to restore "default" configuration
3) customization should mainly aim at adapting the program to the user, in order to improve productivity.

My third point has a problem, though. As mentioned by Jeff Atwood, it makes each person's UI different from the next. So, i add a fourth point:
4) the customization options should always be portable
IMO, the way donationcoder's programs work, is the perfect way. Every program should have it's own .ini configuration file, so as you could just grab your .ini, take it somewhere, and use other people's programs just as if they were your own.

4465

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 05:55 PM »

I am now reading about regexes. It's quite powerfull, and associated with what we are discussing here, it might lead us to very good results, i think.

From what i understand, a regex like this:

[Select]

(["][A-Z0-9. ]*["] ){0,1}edit( ["][A-Z0-9. ]*["]){0,1}

would accept entries like this:
"jgpaiva.txt" edit OR edit "jgpaiva.txt" OR "jgpaiva.txt" edit "donationcoder.txt"
And farr already does this. (the testing box in farr's alias group editing is really useful )
The inconvinience with the version that farr has now, is that there is no way to ease the entry of the file names. So, to edit something, you'd have to do:
"C:\documents and settings\joao\my documents\jgpaiva.txt" edit to edit that file.

Which doesn't make sense when you have such a great power of search already included in farr.

So, my proposition to implement this, is to have farr work like this:
You search for anything, and when you press tab, that anything is replaced internally by it's result.

Meaning, when i search for jgpaiva.txt and press tab, the line to be executed by farr would be "C:\documents and settings\joao\my documents\jgpaiva.txt" . Then, the search field searches for possible aliases, since the first thing i selected was a file.
I type edit and my group edit is selected (important: here, farr adds a space to the end of the expression to be evaluated after the word edit, or the following won't work).
Now, if i press enter, the regex is evaluated, and jgpaiva.txt is opened in the editor i had selected.
If i press tab again, my regex specifies that afted "edit " can come anything, and so, the search alows anything to be used. I search for donationcoder.txt, press enter, it's path is quotated, added to the end of the regex, the regex is evaluated and my editor is launched with both documents.

I think that the only problem with this, is that the searches wouldn't be only by the string typed, but also using the rules defined by the last regular expresion selected.
What do you think, mouser? Any problems with this solution?

PS: The regex i presented is highly incomplete, as it doesn't contain the search for only text files, nor it allows fullpaths to be specified. I only presented it like that, for the sake of understandment, since the whole regex would have about 3 or 4 lines
Of course, this kind of "basic action" regexes would come with farr v2, so as the user doesn't have to configure them.

PS2: as this post was very tiring, i'm going to bed.  (g!, regexes are confusing )

4466

Unfinished Requests / Re: Question/Idea - Eye Candy GUI question

« on: February 03, 2006, 03:19 PM »

ahk can make any colour in any window (including the ones in his own gui) to become transparent, and the pixels that have that color, transmit the mouse presses to the window below. So, i think it is possible to do what you are asking. (you didn't ask for ppl to do something, you just wanted information, right?)
Check here for the command specification. There, you can find a better explanation.

4467

Living Room / Re: a grid of cool animal flash games

« on: February 03, 2006, 02:31 PM »

Hey, look, it's me!
(how come did the top scores change?  )

4468

General Software Discussion / Re: Winamp Advanced Control

« on: February 03, 2006, 02:09 PM »

I made my own winamp-remote-control, using autohotkey, recurring to mouse buttons (oh, i love 5-button mouses... ), and i also have keyboard hotkeys, so also don't have need for a plugin like that. But still, i like the fact that it has skins (i don't think I've ever seen one like that that also could be skinned)
For those who need this kind of plugin, this is a nice one! 

4469

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 11:43 AM »

the only choices are always verb first, or combined verb+subject first.

-mouser (February 03, 2006, 11:39 AM)

So, does this mean that the right approach is the context-sensistive groups?

4470

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 11:41 AM »

OK Jan-S, i think you got me convinced
Double-pressing TAB to select the first result seems the right solution to handle all the problems.

I think that now this solution has came to a mature state, it can successfully handle all the cases and is both intuitive and powerfull, now, let's hear the word of the "headmaster" (aka mouser  ), and i think it would be nice if other Farr-using members could post their opinion (who knows, there might be a better way to do this? ).

Actually it's not my idea, I've read that SHIFT+TAB is used by Quicksilver (in another thread). And again, ESC is easier to use than a key combination here, but nothing speaks against using both shortcuts here, does it?

-Jan-S (February 03, 2006, 09:11 AM)

Yes, i agree that ESC is easier to use, but SHIFT+TAB makes more sense. This only proves that not always the most intuitive way of doing things is the easier way

As for the manuals and help files for this, i hereby officially offer myself to do (at least a few) screencapture animations of how to do use these new features.

Pro users should be able to remove them, though

-Jan-S (February 03, 2006, 09:11 AM)

I agree, having the possibility of removing them would be nice, since Farr will also become a launchbar, you want to have as much space available as possible

And the buttons could have a "return key" and a "tab key" icon so users will eventually try them and notice how much easier this can be

-Jan-S (February 03, 2006, 09:11 AM)

Agreed!  

4471

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« on: February 03, 2006, 11:09 AM »

3MB for this app is a little high but since you are using AHK there is not much you can do. 

-LuckMan212 (February 03, 2006, 10:33 AM)

Yep, i also figured you'd consider it a bit too much, but there really isn't any other option

One question, why did you put an additional "X" button in the top left?  something wrong with the normal close button in the title bar?

-LuckMan212 (February 03, 2006, 10:33 AM)

Ops... Put it there for testing and forgot to remove it. Code below is fixed, and i changed a performance setting to see if it consumes less memory. I don't think that ahk can do better than this

1 more suggestion:  how about an .ini file that stores the last window size/position so it gets preserved between launches? that would be nice!

-LuckMan212 (February 03, 2006, 11:06 AM)

Actually, i thought of this, but i still don't know how to do them, but I'm about to learn.
Tomorrow, if i don't forget, I'll post a version with an ini-file configuration

[Select]

; Stability Monitor
SetBatchLines, 100ms
Menu, tray, noicon
gosub ShowGui
return

ShowGui:
  Gui, Add, Button,gButtonSubmit vButtonSubmit x0 y0 w0 h0 +default,&X
  Gui,  +AlwaysOnTop +Resize
  Gui, Color, Red
  ChangeColor = red
  SetTimer, Changer, 1000
  Gui, Show, x200 y200 w20 h100,Stability Monitor
return

Changer:
  GoSub %ChangeColor%
return

red:
  Gui, Color, Red
  ChangeColor = green
return

Green:
  Gui, Color, Green
  ChangeColor = Blue
return

Blue:
  Gui, Color, Blue
  ChangeColor = Yellow
return

Yellow:
  Gui, Color, yellow
  ChangeColor = black
return

Black:
  Gui, Color, Black
  changeColor = red
return

ButtonSubmit:
exitapp
return

GuiClose:
exitapp
return

4472

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 09:06 AM »

It's not difficult to hit "enter" after typing a website, but users want a "go" button, you know?

-allen (February 03, 2006, 08:59 AM)

Got your point allen I understood you completelly wrong
I also think that it is not to forget that there has to be a more (even more??) straight-forward way to do it. And your statement gave me an idea. How about having a "launch" button and a "with.." button?

4473

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 08:42 AM »

One thing to consider is something I've seen in several applications in recent years -- a section of the help file devoted exclusively to listing keyboard accellerators and link directly to it in the help menu.

-allen (February 03, 2006, 08:00 AM)

I sure agree with you, all this will have to be well documented, so as everyone can know how to use the power we are generating here

As for keeping it newb friendly -- the keystrokes and stuff aren't likely going to be used by anyone but power users, so it seems the trick there is to have all those available shortcuts available as items in a right click contect menu as well as, perhaps, a drop down button in the toolbar.  An "actions" button, so to speak.

-allen (February 03, 2006, 08:00 AM)

Here, i don't agree with you. I think we should try to fins a solution that is both suitable to power-users as much as intuitive, so as someone new to farr can see it's power immediatelly. As it is often descibred, most people when trying to use a software, only evalute it in the first use, which means that these kind of functions should be as easy as possible, but also providing as much flexibility as possible. IMO, that's the problem with powerpro, for example, os even my former shell, blackbox. Although being immenselly powerfull and configurable, the average user rejects it imediately, because it's to complex to handle.

Jan-S: that status bar idea is great, exactly what mouser was referring to, having the help file without opening the help file

The problem i was referring before with the {tab} action, is that tab's would have 2 different uses aren't very well specified, and i don't think it should behave differently when there is a file or an alias, or when it is the first item or not, the idea is make everything work the same way, i think.
My point is that seen that you will be using the arrows to select the result from the result list, the way to access it should be with the down arrow (or up arrow, to start at the other end of the results, maybe). Or instead, use a number combined with a modifier, something like that.

I think that esc to go back one level is a good idea, and shift-tab is even better, since you make the queue with tab, it makes sense to dequeue it with the oposite 

4474

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 07:33 AM »

Good to know we're on the same page, jan-S!
I agree with you, replacing {space} with {tab} in my example might be the solution.

But i couldn't give a working solution for the launch of a command other than the first, and i think your solution also has a problem:
Even to select the first result, you have to do {tab}{tab}. Although it's a minor overhead, i think this could be solved with having f# selecting the option and alt + # launching it. This would be a smaller overhead, since the user could  press f# to select, then press enter to launch it with the default action.

@mouser: to delete something that already is in the queue, could be used ctrl + blackspace, or something similar..

4475

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« on: February 03, 2006, 07:13 AM »

Mouser, how about using the prosition i posted, but instead of using space to accept the result, use tab, and space to narrow searches?
(the solution you posted has the same problem, if you type the action before you type the file on that action is to be executed, doesn't it?)