Messages

1

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.07 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - December 23, 2006

« on: January 01, 2007, 03:24 PM »

thank god for all you alpha-beta testers.

-mouser (December 31, 2006, 06:51 AM)

We're all happy to help, and thank you for both the preview and the continued work on FARR.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.07 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - December 23, 2006

« on: December 31, 2006, 06:41 AM »

You may consider this a light bug, but I don't think the "calc" script works properly anymore with directory search.  "calc 5+5" works, but "calc 5/5" will start searching instead.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.07 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - December 23, 2006

« on: December 27, 2006, 10:30 AM »

lanux128, could you tell me what skin you're using?
Some thoughts from a bit of playing with Alpha 7:

It's surprisingly fast, directory searching works far better than I imagined.

I'm very glad by default it opens up the standard folder view like you'd get from browsing by "my computer" rather than Windows Explorer with the 2 pane view.  I've never liked that view, yet so many launcher programs use solely that.

Tab auto-complete is great.

It's a little confusing at first on how to navigate to a root, ie C:\ (alt+enter), so you may want to make this more clear or work with a standard enter.

I will definately be using FARR 2 over FARR 1!  Great improvements all around.  Seems stable to me so far, no bugs yet.

File explorer wish list:
--

It's tempting to try and use FARR as a file explorer, because it's so handy and works so fast.  There's been some good suggestions here on doing that.  Things that would also interest me, perhaps things that wouldn't work in general, but just throwing them out there:

Though 9 results are perfectly fine, it'd be nice to be able to scroll down to get more results as needed if possible.  Search for all matches can be pretty slow going.

I'm a little curious how when I type a directory, say C:\downloads\, it decides what 9 to show by default?  I'm guessing it's by alpha.  It would be nice, at least I think, to be able to sort by last modified.  Typically that's what I'm looking for when going to any directory.

Delete via keyboard key would perhaps be nice, if possible.
(Also just noticed the "shell context menu" option, that's really nice.)

Visuals:
--

I'm sorry to say I have to agree, the big bold font on a plain window background isn't too appealing to me.  It's counter intuitive to how input boxes usually work.

I'd go with either the original default icon, or the square-man icon.  Many of the new icons seem to have white pixels around the edges and it looks a bit unprofessional.  Perhaps its because I use a slim taskbar.

I also feel the skin should not colorize the results by default.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR v2.00.01 ALPHA PREVIEW Release

« on: December 23, 2006, 05:52 AM »

Really looking forward to this one, FARR was my original reason for joining, along with Screenshot Captor.

I've been using a custom alias called C:\ with the expression   ^([a-z]\:\\)(.*)   and  Open $$1$$2 | $$1$$2    to go directly to folders, but actual folder searching WITH auto complete would be great.  With my expression, a wrong dir name simply does nothing.

5

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for December 22nd, 2006 - Codename Software Snowflakes

« on: December 23, 2006, 05:48 AM »

50,000 huh?  This place sure has grown.  Looking forward to FARR v2.

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Find And Run Robot / New FARR flash video demo

« on: April 24, 2006, 02:52 AM »

As a big fan of FARR, I honestly have to say I was surprised at the flash video demo.  Not to sound harsh, but I'd recommend remaking it completely. I doubt I would download the program from watching that video.  Nobody watching the video will be 'used to all this', nor will they want to watch someone click through the help file.

My suggestion is to simply demonstrate FARR as one would typically use it.  Show how you can hit the break key, type a name, and go.  Don't go moving the mouse around and clicking and such, keyboard is the key here.  After you launch and close (don't play minesweeper) a few programs, noting that these are automatically added from the startmenu and such, /then/ throw in a mention about how you can make aliases.

Write yourself a script beforehand to read, and demonstrate it as though it is simply an extension of the features tour on the website.  The video should be as precise as screenshots in motion.  I know a much better video can be made.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: Open path expression + slight typo?

« on: March 14, 2006, 05:36 PM »

nice alias by the way, ill add it to the default selection if you dont mind.

-mouser (March 13, 2006, 03:50 AM)

Not at all, hope it's as useful to others as it is myself.

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Find And Run Robot / Open path expression + slight typo?

« on: March 13, 2006, 03:34 AM »

I know this is basic stuff, but I was building a simple expression to open a folder on command like C:\misc files\ or F:\misc files\, etc.  Might be a good one to have built in some day, though you can use the "Run" alias with a bit more typing. For anyone else who wants it, use:

Name:
C:\ or whatever drive you know will be included

Regular expression pattern:
^([a-z]\:\\)(.*)

Results: (use two dollar signs, forum edits it out)
Open $1$2 | $1$2

Doesn't check for upper/lowercase, but doesn't seem to matter.

And am I mistaken or is there a slight error in that dialog?
"prefix descriptions with |"

The left side seems to be descriptions, and the right side commands... so | would prefix the command and not the description, wouldn't it?

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General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: March 07, 2006, 09:59 AM »

Just to add a few of my own semi-on-semi-off-topic musings to this random cluster of a thread...

I was a big Keynote user, but eventually the shortcomings got to me.  I tried setting up MediaWiki as a genreal note taking database, but that proved somewhat cumbersome.  I've since coded up my own little hierarchal type solution in PHP which although doesn't do a heck of a lot, does what I need.  For one thing, it automatically looks for relationships between notes based on keywords and content, like a wiki.  That to me is a big time saver, especially for brainstorming.

For organizing images and visual information, I've delegated that task to Picasa2.  Simply make some labels or collections and you're good to go.  And for webpages, nothing beats the ScrapBook extension for Firefox in my view.  Works like bookmarks, except saved locally and completely editable.  Now supports sticky notes and a dropdown bookmark like list from the toolbar menu.  Recently won the 'Most Useful Upgraded Extension' prize in the Extend Firefox Contest.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Will Wright's Spore - 30 minute amazing video

« on: March 07, 2006, 09:39 AM »

Anyone remember the game EVO for the SNES?  Finally, we get a proper spiritual successor!

Slight spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the video:

Seriously, the option to blow up a planet if you desire?  How cool!  And I wonder if he was serious when he said that star was about to go supernova and "we need to stay clear of that"?  Could you?  Even if not, the idea of your whole solar system you built from scratch being wiped out by a supernova star is amazing.

I seriously hope it takes some long, hard grinding to get to such levels of power though.  I can understand if the casual gamers aren't looking for a game that long, but I don't want to go from a spore to an intergalactic master in the span of a few hours, personally.  I'm a little confused as to WHY they want to populate the game world with other player's creatures, cities, planets etc... personally I would think the computer could probably randomly generate something just as good.  I'm sure they've tested this though, and perhaps the game will truly feel contentiously fresh and unpredictable.

I have to wonder how lizard creatures drive tanks and planes, though.  I was a little bit disappointed that in no time after the mating phase did they ever evolve.  Why would your primitive creatures not further evolve from what we would consider the cavemen days?  I was quite hoping for one more evolutionary leap before cities and vehicles.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: Only matching .exe files within a folder (or its subfolders)

« on: March 07, 2006, 09:18 AM »

Once again it seems you've thought of just about everything, and everyone.  I'm amazed by how completely customizable both FARR and Screenshot Captor are; you've read my mind for what I'd like in such programs.  I look forward to poking my head around these forums and getting up to speed.   Thanks.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: Only matching .exe files within a folder (or its subfolders)

« on: March 07, 2006, 03:44 AM »

Is there (or will there be) an easy way to match only certain file types, like .exe?  Personally I'd like FARR to find only .lnk and .exe in the start menu / program files.  I have its dir searching limited correctly, then I add a -9999 to *   (to try and also catch files without extensions)  I also add in a +10000 or more to .exe and .lnk.  This works fairly well most of the time, but not completely.  It also somewhat breaks things like -9999 to *uninstall*, though sometimes it seems to work by playing with the values.

Personally I don't like simply giving .exe's a score boost because it results in a lot of unneeded and unnecessary returns, which can sometimes get confusing.  Will there ever be regular expression support perhaps?  Then one could say -9999 to all extensions NOT .exe or .lnk.  Adding -9999 to the dozens or hundreds of other extension types is a bit of a losing game.

I love FARR though, it's a truly robust little app and the best of it's kind.
For now I simply limit it to searching the start menu, desktop, and other lnk folders.