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176

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: May 02, 2006, 08:05 PM »

Hey, Skrommel, I think I've got an easier approach.

It's a bit of a kludge, but the end result is the same as described in previous posts. Would it be possible to take the DelEmpty program and add a function to move the files from any folders containing single files to their parent dir and then delete the original (now empty) dir? That should be a heckuva lot smaller project (hopefully) than the original idea.

177

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: April 27, 2006, 12:24 PM »

I make this just for fun, that was an task i could manage with my skill
-AbteriX (April 27, 2006, 02:02 AM)

I understand. It's good to have a project to practice with, and it's definitely a useful function!

178

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: April 26, 2006, 03:51 PM »

should it use the Or or the And parameter for matching? Or a parameter on it's own?
-skrommel (April 26, 2006, 09:00 AM)

Hmm, I'm not sure -- do you mean when moving filenames to existing folder named "antivirus" that match the pattern [ANTI or VIRUS] vs. [ANTI and VIRUS]?

Maybe a less complicated example is to sort music files as suggested by "app103" -- let's use that as a scenario. It could read a dir and look for very close similarities to existing subdirs, such that a subdir named Bing Crosby would match:

Bing Crosby - song name.ogg
Bing Crosby and David Bowie - Little Drummer Boy.wav
Bob Hope & Bing Crosby - vaudeville sketch.mp3

This type of grouping might be made easier by the standardization of the naming convention; you'd have
artist space dash space title dot extension
...one can use a delimiter of " - " to make parsing easier and group by artist.

Another application using the original screensaver idea would be, using a subdir named Savers:

spinning globe saver.zip
screensaver switcher.exe
savers to download.txt

In this case, you'd have to somehow tell it to match [root-word]* (resulting in saver* for that one) to have 'em all grouped.

Does that help?

Reading this thread i am thinking about my start menu with a lot of items
-AbteriX (April 26, 2006, 12:08 PM)

Good idea! But the program we talked about above, File Sieve, sounds perfect for that task.

By the way, I like your avatar! Is that a particular comic character, or did you make it?

179

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: CLI tool to determine if Internet access yes/no

« on: April 26, 2006, 03:17 PM »

Then I'd need to store the output and check it. I think it's just easier to use jgpaiva's idea.
-brotherS (April 26, 2006, 01:48 AM)

Aha! After reading the linked thread I see better what you're after. I've used Pingometer with good success (it's mentioned in that thread). There's a related util called WWIP (Watch WAN IP) if you have a router. It'll basically pull an HTML page from it and look for a string that you specify. Great concept to stay current on a dynamic IP address without having to contact an external server, but I realize that's not exactly what you're looking for.

180

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: April 25, 2006, 11:55 PM »

Thanks, app103! Lanux128, I spent some time with it, and for what I'm describing it's not quite as powerful as the Directify! tool except that it's got a GUI. It will create a boatload of directories, but it doesn't have a way to only create dirs if there's more than X number of candidates, and it doesn't have any way to fix the results (take orphaned, single-file dirs and group 'em again). The result is that you get a lot of dirs, but no telling how the contents are grouped. The preview or "simulation" mode is helpful, but there's no way to sort it. It defaults to the existing alpha sort based on the original paths, which isn't much help when you're trying out new paths to see how well they work.

That said, it's got some other really powerful features, including being able to recurse into subdirs for its operations. It'll solve a lot of file "housekeeping" chores, but not the one described in this thread (at least not yet). It may end up including this capability as well, but I noticed two things that make me wonder how far it'll go: there's no way to edit the existing "methods" (like A-Z, delimiter, word, etc.) or create new ones, although there's a mention in the help file that it might be added to a future version. That may be a pretty trivial consideration, but I also noted that the discussion form referred to in the help file from January of this year is closed, at least temporarily. This says to me that the author may have run into some personal issues taking him away from coding and his website for now. (Then again, I could be way off!)

Lotsa hobbyist (or even pro) coders tend to suffer burnout after awhile -- it's tough work on a good day, wrestling with attempts at logical code and dealing with cryptic error messages, operating system or development system quirks, and who knows what else. When you jump online and try to interact with the world along the way (feature requests, help demands and so on -- some people aren't even nice about their requests and won't give enough info about their situation) it can be a heckuva lot to deal with. Here's hoping he's able to keep going with the project!

181

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: April 25, 2006, 10:26 PM »

Thanks, lanux128 -- it's a good idea, and I'd seen similar utilities, but it always struck me that an A-Z designation would tell me little more than the standard Windows alphabetic sort does.

Still, I'm sure that kind of function has its place, especially if you're making shareware CDs for a computer club or something! The program above has lots of potential -- I love the "smart creation" idea, where only folders are created that would contain files. But it would be a rare occasion indeed for someone to want empty A-Z directories.

Edit: I did some digging, and there's a version 3 beta 3 which seems to be getting much closer to what I'm looking for.

There's a new Delimiter mode that "creates a directory based on a delimiter within an item's name. Depending on the mode selected, the directory name is derived from an item's name as read from the start of the string up until the delimiter character, or it's read from the delimiter until the end of the name."

Another new mode is Substring:

Spoiler

Purpose
Destination directories are created from a substring contained within the
name of the processed items in specification to the options set below.

Options

StartIndex
This is the position of the first character to start at.

Length
This is the number of characters to return.

IncludeExtension
If True, then the extension will be taken into account when
obtaining a substring from an item's name.

Catch-All Directory
If a substring could not be obtained from an item's name,
the item will be placed into this directory.

Example
Item Names
VoiceMate Professional.exe
Hydrogen.exe
Poo.rar

Options
StartIndex: 1
Length: 5
IncludeExtension: False

Result
\Voice\VoiceMate Professional.exe
\Hydro\Hydrogen.exe
\Poo\Poo.rar

There's a Words mode too.

Spoiler

Purpose
Items are sorted into directories based on the word(s) contained within
their name. The worded directories they are placed in depends on the
options set below.

Options
First Word
This is the number of the first word to use.

Total Words
This is the number of words that should be used for
creating the destination directory, starting from First Word.

Include Extension
If True, the extension of any files will be taken into account
as being an actual word itself.

TrimSpaces
Once the item's name has been broken down into words,
they may or may not contain extra spaces at either the start
or end of their names. Setting this option to True will remove
these spaces.

TrimCharacters
Any characters specified here will be trimmed from the start
and end of any words. Please note that each character is
treated separately and not as a string. So for example, entering
test will not remove "test" from the start and end of words, but
instead from the characters t, e, s, and t from the start and end.

Spaces cannot be specified on their own, this is why the
TrimSpaces option exists.

Catch-All Directory
If a word could not be obtained from the item's name,
then it will be placed into this directory.

Examples
Item names
My Test File.exe
Another Test File Here.exe
And Finally The Last One.rar

Options
First Word: 2
Total Words: 2
Include Extension: False

Result
Test File\My Test File.exe
Test File\Another Test File Here.exe
Finally The\And Finally The Last One.rar

I can see I'm going to have to spend some time experimenting with this puppy. I still don't think it does the matching to already-present subdirs, though, but thanks for the tip!

182

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: April 25, 2006, 07:47 PM »

Hmm... are you really downloading dozens of installers etc. that could be auto-categorized each day?
-brotherS (April 25, 2006, 04:12 PM)

No -- just trying to figure out a way to clear out a directory with files that are orphaned. Currently: 15,497 files, 1255 folders.

my memory is this came up in another discussion (in a renamer discussion?) and someone pointed us to a nice app for doing this.
-mouser (April 25, 2006, 04:12 PM)

That was me.

But BrotherS is right; it makes subfolders based on file names and moved the files into those folders. The result is that it leaves orphans when at least one of two things happen: 1. you get new files, or 2. you have subtle variations on the filename.

I keep the threshold set for two or more files to move, because if I let it act on just one then I end up with a bunch of dirs with a single file in each. The developer of the app I mentioned ( Directify!) has been swamped and so hasn't updated the tool from its 0.2 version in about a year and a half.

I thinkCacheSort at https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1592.0 could be changed into what you want. Do you need a complete RegEx, or are wildcards sufficient?
-skrommel (April 25, 2006, 04:56 PM)

That's a great idea! Wildcards would be a great improvement over what I have now, heh! But if even a primitive RegEx is possible, that would allow much more control. Whatever you have time to mess with would be gratefully received.

Even better is if there's a way for the app to make matches with less input, but I suspect that'd massively increase the size of the coding project.

The main issue is to match existing files to existing subdirs -- to join them with the rest of their type. I've got a boatload of utilities gathered over the years, mostly freeware (and I used to be a real regular at download sites, so I've seen pretty much every type of variation that's out there) but I've never seen anything that could make sense out of hundreds or thousands of orphan files that have mates in subdirs.

The only other consideration (just thought of it) is to somehow deal with filename collisions -- I guess "overwrite (yes/no/all/none/cancel)" is ideal if possible. If it uses a GUI then Windows XP and later already allow for a shift-click on the "no" button as "no to all" for the standard dialog.

183

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: CLI tool to determine if Internet access yes/no

« on: April 25, 2006, 07:29 PM »

What about the ping command that comes with Windows?

Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
            [-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
            [-w timeout] target_name

Options:
    -t             Ping the specified host until stopped.
                   To see statistics and continue - type Control-Break;
                   To stop - type Control-C.
    -a             Resolve addresses to hostnames.
    -n count       Number of echo requests to send.
    -l size        Send buffer size.
    -f             Set Don't Fragment flag in packet.
    -i TTL         Time To Live.
    -v TOS         Type Of Service.
    -r count       Record route for count hops.
    -s count       Timestamp for count hops.
    -j host-list   Loose source route along host-list.
    -k host-list   Strict source route along host-list.
    -w timeout     Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply.

184

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Command-line tool to move dir contents to existing subdirs

« on: April 25, 2006, 04:01 PM »

This is one I've been needing for years, and I bet others could use it too (maybe with slight variations). I've got a big directory (folder) containing a hodgepodge of downloads. There're already subdirectories in the same dir, holding grouped files with a common theme. What I'd like to do is move files with a specific part of their name matching an existing subdir to those subdirs. This would ideally support delimiters, or some way to tell the program what part of the filename to use.

A mass-move of zip or EXE files isn't what I'm thinking of here -- more like "* saver*.*" being moved to a dir named "*saver*" (which would break out to savers, screensavers, or something similar -- although that particular wildcard would also include VersaVerter if it exists, which is the name of a cool measurement converter).

If there're multiple "hits", it would it would ideally return a numbered list of candidates, where you could just type the number and hit enter, but if that's a deal-breaker then it could just be whichever the program finds first.

Whatcha think? It sounds simple, but maybe there're coding issues I haven't thought of.

185

Post New Requests Here / Re: DONE: DimSaver, a better PowerDimmer screensaver alternative

« on: April 24, 2006, 08:17 PM »

Cavalcader, I can't reproduce this. Also, what do you mean by
it only seems to permit one exclusion at a time to be checked
?
-skrommel (April 24, 2006, 02:39 PM)

Fixed! Whatever you did corrected the mouse click issue.

Also, I had misunderstood the saver selection dialog -- I was thinking DimSaver would automatically pick from any of the items checked under "Screensaver to run". I'm used to seeing radio buttons when you can only make one selection, where checkboxes are for multiple selections.

No matter. The image addition looks really sharp! As does the color option -- I was experimenting with 202020, which is like turning the contrast way down (as opposed to "dimming to black" which is like turning the brightness down). On some monitors you can see the results better.

Thank you!

186

Post New Requests Here / Re: DONE: DimSaver, a better PowerDimmer screensaver alternative

« on: April 23, 2006, 03:40 PM »

Hi, Skrommel -- looks like a cool saver! Couple bug reports: mouse clicks aren't recognized (at least with mouse movements unchecked and keystrokes checked). Also, it only seems to permit one exclusion at a time to be checked, and I've got several that need to be excluded.

Got a couple goodies to offer, though -- a custom "preview" image if you want it (just the generic default in XP, dimmed, with the saver name in Lucida Handwrighting) and a screenshot of the options dialog in a similar saver called AlphaDim. It doesn't include most the features of yours, but it's got a few other novel ideas for next time you're playing with DimSaver.

187

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« on: April 15, 2006, 09:20 PM »

not sure what that would be.. maybe a charitable fund to bring computers to schools that can't afford them?
-mouser (April 15, 2006, 09:11 AM)

I know it's easy for me to sit back and take potshots at other people's ideas

but there're already groups that work towards school computers -- and then it's just another piece of equipment/furniture collecting dust, breaking down or being outdated pretty quick.

If we put the muscle of a whole community behind a charitable venture, shouldn't it be something where at least one person can look back and say "wow, that really changed things for me!", you know? With computers being a commodity in many countries (I know, not all) it seems sorta impersonal somehow. There're also groups that manage charitable seeing-eye dogs and so on -- maybe it could be something more unique if it's going outside the concept of coding rewards.

I'll be thinking about something more useful to suggest, rather than just trying to shoot holes in others' ideas

but that was just kinda my first reaction...

188

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« on: April 14, 2006, 01:46 PM »

Don't feel bad, zridling -- they're in it for the long haul.

189

Living Room / Re: hard drive resurrection [I'm desperate!]

« on: April 13, 2006, 12:23 PM »

the free data recovery program "PC Inspector: File Recovery" seems to do just as good a job with the data/files
-Hirudin (April 13, 2006, 07:57 AM)

Very nice! Thanks for the link.

190

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« on: April 10, 2006, 08:14 PM »

Also, Scooter Software (Beyond Compare creators) have a good support forum where the staff are responsive to requests for help. I registered Beyond Compare over four years ago and I can vouch for the program's ongoing improvement and reliability.

191

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« on: April 10, 2006, 09:34 AM »

Today's special is Beyond Compare at half price -- so if anybody's on the fence about this excellent, well-supported program, today's the day!

192

Living Room / Re: hard drive resurrection [I'm desperate!]

« on: April 05, 2006, 12:21 AM »

I can't use Spinrite, because the drive won't be detected.
-superboyac (March 20, 2006, 11:52 PM)

Actually, SpinRite goes directly to the hardware (boots directly into a custom environment) so you've got a chance -- but it's probably still better to pay a pro company to do it since that's what they do every day. Sorry to hear about the hassle, though!

193

General Software Discussion / Re: Review of File Renamers

« on: April 04, 2006, 11:33 PM »

Maybe this upcoming renamers review could somehow be the first part of a "mass file maintenance" overview. For example, I use a cool (free) tool called "Directify!" that auto-creates subdirs based on existing filename patterns and then moves the files to them. Truly indispensable if you've ever needed something like that.

Here're the current command options if you're interested...

Spoiler

---------------------------------------------------------
Directify! v.0.0.2 (beta) for NTFS partitions
Copyright (c) 2004-2005 N37dev - All Rights Reserved
www.n37dev.com for updates/bug reports
---------------------------------------------------------

Usage: [-<switch options>] [directory]

The following switch options can be combined:

-V Verbose output

Filters

-D/string/ Only consider characters left of delimiter string
-E/chars/ Exclude files starting with specified characters
-I/chars/ Include files starting with specified characters
-M/filemask/ Consider only files dictated by mask
-S Case sensitive comparisons
-T/threshold/ Number of matches required before creating directory

Preprocessing

-C Convert underscores and dots to spaces
-W Remove last word from proposed directory name
-R/string/ Remove string from filename

Grouping Modes

-A Grouping Mode 1
-B Grouping Mode 2 (more strict)
-s/string/ Group only files containing string

-L Live Mode ***CHANGES WILL BE MADE***

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