Messages

476

Find And Run Robot / [FARR tip]

« on: July 18, 2007, 12:22 PM »

i wanted to share a trick with the community 

the following "clipboard" alias :

[Select]

^clip$

[Select]

$$c | restartsearch $$c

will "paste" the clipboard content to the search box (I know you can Ctrl+V to paste the clipboard content )

sounds dumb ... but it is in fact really handy when used in conjunction with aliases with powerful regex masks :

for instance this one which recognize urls...

[Select]

^(https?://)?(([0-9a-z_!~*'().&=+$%-]+: )?[0-9a-z_!~*'().&=+$%-]+@)?(([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}|([0-9a-z_!~*'()-]+\.)*([0-9a-z][0-9a-z-]{0,61})?[0-9a-z]\.[a-z]{2,6})(:[0-9]{1,4})?((/?)|(/[0-9a-z_!~*'().;?:@&=+$,%#-]+)+/?)$

you can have one that recognize email, telephone, etc.

now let's say you choose the "auto copy selected text to clipboard on trigger" option in the general tab of FARR

you can just select a url (for instance) ... open FARR ... find the "clipboard" alias press enter then the url alias is triggered 
my "url" alias offers me different things : open the url in my default browser, in firefox, in opera, save the url to my delicious account and more to come...

if you assign an hotkey to this "clipboard alias" :

• you select some text (url, email, etc.)
  
• press the hotkey
  
• press enter (to bad we can't skip that step)
  
• one of your aliases with powerful regex masks is triggered

hope it gives you some ideas

Cheers, Nitrix

477

Find And Run Robot / Re: Thanks Mouser great new feature for FARR !!

« on: July 18, 2007, 10:15 AM »

easy and seems reliable

i'm quoting myself 

true it's easy and reliable, but slow
it take almost a second to bring up FARR using the search string

it would be great if it could be faster 

478

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.132 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« on: July 18, 2007, 05:06 AM »

Yes, the result display is better. But the feel of unresponsiveness is not because of the result display but because of the display of the keys as I type them (just that one line). The user should never have any doubt whether her keystrokes have been received... or worse, be in any doubt about what keystrokes she has already typed. When a keystroke is received, top priority should be to update this line.

Mind you, this is really borderline, really close to perfect, just not quite.

exactly what i wanted to say, thanks jdmarch 

479

Find And Run Robot / Thanks Mouser great new feature for FARR !!

« on: July 18, 2007, 04:38 AM »

You can start FARR with some commandline options for advanced usage:

• -standalone = start FARR visible and in taskbar, and exit on close of window
  
• -search "search string" = start FARR visible (or bring up any running copy) and start a search
  
• -show = start FARR visible (or bring up any running copy)
  
• -exit = exit any running copy of FARR.

This is great new feature !
i personnaly use it with autohotkey
i set up an hotkey to copy text or files path (when in my explorer) and open FARR with a search string ...

[Select]

^!+c::
SendPlay ^c
ClipWait, 0.5
Run, C:\Documents and Settings\Nico\My Documents\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\FindAndRunRobot.exe -search "c "
return

easy and seems reliable 

one other idea, still using autohotkey, is to open FARR with the clipboard content as the search string...

[Select]

^!+c::
SendPlay ^c
ClipWait, 0.5
Run, C:\Documents and Settings\Nico\My Documents\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\FindAndRunRobot.exe -search "%clipboard%"
return

let's say you select an url, press the hotkey and it brings FARR with the url in the search box, ready to be opened in a new browser, saved to del.icio.us (using curl), etc... thanks to a regex alias

[Select]

^(https?://)?(([0-9a-z_!~*'().&=+$%-]+: )?[0-9a-z_!~*'().&=+$%-]+@)?(([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}|([0-9a-z_!~*'()-]+\.)*([0-9a-z][0-9a-z-]{0,61})?[0-9a-z]\.[a-z]{2,6})(:[0-9]{1,4})?((/?)|(/[0-9a-z_!~*'().;?:@&=+$,%#-]+)+/?)$

that's a cool idea 
 

480

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.132 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« on: July 18, 2007, 04:19 AM »

new version is up -- those of you who prefered the old refresh method -- can you see if this one is any better.

it's not that i prefer the old refresh method, it's more that i prefer the old feel of the search box
i just feel it is not as "free" as before ... when typing or backspacing

keep in mind, yes there is a slight delay now between your keypress and the update of the display of results, but in fact the underlying search should be a little faster.

the delay between keypresses and update of the display of results is not my concern (although it would be great to choose which it is), what really concerns me is the fact I feel that the search box is linked to the display of results...
i'm not in the internals of FARR here... but is it possible to have a routine monitoring the search box and taking care of updating instead of (WARNING !!!    WILD GUESS) keypresses in the search box launching updates (with delays) of the display of results...

[edit]
i forgot to tell you that IT IS better !!
keep up the good work

481

Find And Run Robot / Re: CPanel alias problem

« on: July 18, 2007, 04:05 AM »

Here is one...

482

Find And Run Robot / Re: question to mouser ...

« on: July 17, 2007, 04:39 PM »

By the way, member Ehtyar has written an extremely cool plugin he is going to post soon that is made to let other programs talk to FARR, and he might be willing to add stuff to help you..

seems like a very interesting plugin
i'm sure i will find ways to use it 

483

Find And Run Robot / Re: question to mouser ...

« on: July 17, 2007, 04:34 PM »

what i'd like to do is code a script (in autohotkey) that do the following :

1) runs in the background
2) monitor when FARR gets activated (this is possible already)
3) monitor the search box... triggers the previewing when say the search box begins with "s " (stands for snippets)
4) previewing routine monitors the status bar (which reflects the selected file in the result list) to create a tooltip somewhere on the screen with say the first 200 characters...


it is also related to an other post of mine asking you to add a new feature which would enable me to send a string to the search box through command-line
i asked this because i can't get ControlSetText to work with FARR, so i use Send command....

[idea]
maybe someone could write a plugin to send messages outside of FARR
you would set up :

• what is the trigger : result selection, etc.
• which FARR parameters/values to send
  
• to which application

[Select]

trigger = onselect(result)
myapp.exe %statusbartext% %searchboxtext% %selectedresultx% %selectedresulty%

It would allow noob like me to customize FARR even more !!

Nitrix

484

Find And Run Robot / question to mouser ...

« on: July 17, 2007, 04:08 PM »

Hi Mouser,

i wanted to code an autohotkey script to open some kind of preview window for my "FARR code snippet manager" 

i tought i would use the status bar text to get the file names...
i tought i could also check the search box text to trigger the preview script to work only when i'm using my snippet alias...

BUT i have the impression i can't get anything... ControlGetText, etc. does not work ...
i have no idea about windows classes, controls, etc. so i may very well be out of the subjet but do you have any ideas to get some info ?

If i could code some C++, i would (not enough time to learn) try to code a plugin, but i thought i could code a tiny script with autohotkey to get the job done...

if the control you use are invisible, could you add a "standard control" with hidden texts of the search box, status bar, etc.
I'm highly speculating here, so bear with me ! 

Cheers, Nitrix

 

485

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: FarrUninstall plugin - v1.0

« on: July 17, 2007, 09:41 AM »

Congratulations, great plugin !
i was using Safarp until today

Someday, i guess it will be just windows, FARR and an few software... 

486

Find And Run Robot / [bug report] pb when passing C:\

« on: July 15, 2007, 07:34 AM »

I have the following alias

[Select]

Favorites search $$1 | dosearch +folder_fav +open_fav -alias $$1

to open my favorite folders into my file explorer using the action modifier +open_fav

[Select]

Open | C:\_joker\Utilities\Ahk\OpenFav.ahk "$$1"

i discovered that one of the last release broke the $$1 variable (i think)
for all my shortcuts the $$1 variable is passed correctly :
C:\Program Files
C:\Documents and Settings\Nico\Documents
etc.
BUT for my "C drive" shortcut it does not work anymore
and the $$1 variable content is :

[Select]

C:"

instead of

[Select]

C:\

i guess it has to do with the \

Nitrix

487

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.129 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 13, 2007

« on: July 15, 2007, 06:40 AM »

@mouser,

since the new "refresh result routines", i have the impression that the search edit box is not as "free" as before
sometimes there is a (very very small) delay to show what i type or what i delete

i reinstalled a previous version (a private 2.00.129 where the refresh routines were not implemented yet) and although there are many flickering...
the search edit box feels much more responsive

In conclusion, i prefer the responsiveness of the search edit box than the "non flickering" of the result list
(that is if we cannot have both ! )

if it is only linked to the new small delay implemented between result updating, i would be great to be able to set it (even in the FARR ini...)

Keep up the good work 

488

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug] v2.00.130 start farr via alias hotkey does not execute alias

« on: July 15, 2007, 06:22 AM »

For example: how should a pattern like ^([0-9]*)hello[a-z]*$ be filled out? That could represent 0089123helloaasdfasds or just hello or something else.

that's why i once suggested that there could be a other text box near the regex pattern box to tell FARR what to autocomplete... (it would be up to the user)

for the moment I just name the alias like the regex mask (i'm talking about the simple ones ) like jgpaiva suggested

489

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Announcing Winners of the (first?) Find and Run Robot Plugin Programming Contest

« on: July 14, 2007, 06:31 PM »

Congratulations for your wonderfull plugins !!!

if you feel the urge to code other plugins, i'm still waiting for :

- msn plugin
- itunes/winamp plugin

 

Keep up the good work !

[edit] oups i forgot ... one to switch the active window (alt+tab replacement)

490

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.129 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 13, 2007

« on: July 14, 2007, 01:27 PM »

@mouser

i'm mainly using "dosearch alias", so i'm not sure it would work

i type the "dosearch alias", then the search terms...

Cheers, Nitrix

491

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.129 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 13, 2007

« on: July 14, 2007, 12:02 PM »

I have made a big under-the-hood change the way that the window is refreshed with new contents.

There is a fair chance that this update will have a bug or two in display updating in some cases but i wanted to push it out to get bug reports coming in as soon as possible.

The new refresh is *MUCH* smoother -- if you try out previous versions, expecially in directory browsing, you would see lots of "flickering" as new window contents were updated and window was shrunk and resized.  You should find now a much gentler update of window contents.

Let me know what you think.

this rocks ! 
mo more flickering
 

Implemented small (500ms) delay between updating of results -- yields much faster directory browsing and somewhat faster display of results when there are lots of results.

It would be great if one could set up the delay between updating of results...
I almost always use FARR with aliases (folder modifier with action modifier, ...) so in fact i have the impression the delay (even small) does not yield to faster display of results

492

Find And Run Robot / Re: please don't do that !!!!

« on: July 14, 2007, 09:56 AM »

Thanks !!!!

you are my hero ! 

I assure you this is one of 3-4 features that makes FARR unique

493

Find And Run Robot / please don't do that !!!!

« on: July 14, 2007, 03:46 AM »

Clipboard text is now used with $$c only when it is <128 characters

what ?????
please no !

half of my aliases does not work anymore
I use $$c all the time

to save snippets, urls, manipulate files, modifiy clipboard content, etc...

Half of my aliases does not work anymore !

Please mouser for FARR sake, undo this change, please, please, please

it's one gigantic step back, if you keep this change (well at least for me)

excuse me if i'm overreacting, but this is REALLY REALLY REALLY important to me (at least make it an option)

Nitrix

494

Find And Run Robot / [feature request] concerning tooltips

« on: July 13, 2007, 05:22 AM »

Hi Mouser,

the tooltips are a very nice add

however, is it possible to offset them, so that it's easier to choose results...
now when tooltips are big you just don't see the results below
i would love to be able to set 2 parameters (offsetx, offsety) in the options

what would be VERY VERY powerfull is a way to create dynamic tooltips...(triggered on demand)
for instance, the tooltip instead of showing the complete result name could show the content of the result ! (great to preview code snippets or contacts)
it could launch a specific script which would use the result file

for instance :

[Select]

Snippets $$1 | dosearch +folder_snippets +open_snippets -alias -.ini +. $$1 \tooltip="show_preview.ahk $$selectedresult"

could then be used to show a preview of pictures....

[Select]

Pictures $$1 | dosearch +folder_pictures +open_pictures -alias  +. $$1 \tooltip="show_picture.ahk $$selectedresult"

preview mp3 files etc...

======================================

or maybe it could be with a new tooltip modifier which would be specified like the +action trick as an alias

[Select]

Pictures $$1 | dosearch +folder_pictures +open_pictures +tooltip_previewimage -alias  +. $$1

then alias "tooltip_previewimage" with result :

[Select]

tooltip show_picture.ahk $$selectedresult

Keep up the good work
Nitrix

495

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report] last version 126 introduced new bug ?

« on: July 13, 2007, 05:04 AM »

i think the +action trick is trying to be clever and detect that there is only one result, and so it should show you text about the action.  that's normally what you want, so that you can see what action will be applied to what file.

Mouser, i'm not sure i want the +action trick to be that clever

what i really want is to see what i manipulate, not what FARR is gonna do, i would really prefer seeing this one result then choose it to perform the action...it just makes more sense to me

i use the +action trick to use FARR as a code snippet manager (and many other things, mp3 play and enqueue, favorite folder launcher, etc.), what i really want to see is the code snippet name, not that FARR will open it up (that i know...)

i understand that it is interesting when you search then add the "+action" that in that case FARR shows what it will do, but when using a "dosearch" result, it's far from convenient
and what if i want to right-click the result, etc.

here i just don't know what it will open, see capture below


Hope you will make it a option

Cheers, nitrix

496

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report] restartsearch bug

« on: July 12, 2007, 08:00 AM »

[update]

the very same bug appears when using FCalc plugin...

Since when i don't know, but with the last release, when pressing enter after each calculation, the cursor is positioned at the very beginning !

"the cursor" then "fc"

i guess you use the restartsearch command for the FCalc plugin

Nitrix

497

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report]? Farr v 2.00.126

« on: July 11, 2007, 12:16 PM »

well actually i managed to make it work !

you have to RESTART Farr 

@mouser, that's a great feature !
Again i'd like to be able to add a space after the alias name to trigger the regex mask
Possible to add the "/s" modifier somewhere ? (in an textbox near the hotkey, so that we can specify exactly what to do ?)

Nitrix

498

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report]? Farr v 2.00.126

« on: July 11, 2007, 12:07 PM »

same here

499

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report] last version 126 introduced new bug ?

« on: July 11, 2007, 02:37 AM »

for anyone keeping score, nitrix is on track to win the MVT (Most Valuable Tester) award for farr 2

  I hope I will get a mug for that

Keep up the great work mouser !

500

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report] last version 126 introduced new bug ?

« on: July 10, 2007, 03:07 PM »

ok, let me try to tackle one thing at a time, since this is a bit confusing!
first, you can tell FARR to not match items in your search history if they are not in current search path; this is a controversial option and i'm not sure what the default should be.  Maybe i can make it a little smarter so that when it sees you are using a directory modifier it will never try to match it against history items not in path, but when you dont use a directory modifier it will.

this does not change a thing ... same bug...
the thing is i didn't change those options... and i think it worked before as expected

Now this bug:

Quote
if i type "f ph", i should only see my "Mes Photos" folder, but instead it only shows my action keyword result ! trying to launch my photoshop cs2 exe...

is something different altogether, and i think i just realized the cause..
i think the +action trick is trying to be clever and detect that there is only one result, and so it should show you text about the action.  that's normally what you want, so that you can see what action will be applied to what file.

but something is confusing it.. some interaction between the aliases.. i'm just not sure exactly what.  can you email me your alias file(s) -- might make it easier for me to fix.

as always i appreciate these bug reports so much -- especially when they deal with these esoteric uses that wouldn't otherwise get much testing

there should not be only this photoshop result, it should find the "My Photos" shortcut
and the funny thing is that if i add "--" or "-xxx" or many many other strings in the alias it MAKES it work

[Select]

Favorites search $$1 | dosearch +folder_fav +open_fav -- -alias $$1

i'm sending you my alias files by email
hope it will help

Nitrix