Recent Posts

1001

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 21, 2010, 09:20 PM »

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback. I'll plunk some details into redmine so I don't overlook this stuff and hopefully iron out a lot of these wrinkles in the next release or so.

Item 3
It is not always possible to create folders.
For example, with 2 folders already created, I cannot always create a third.
"New Folder" is created.
Auspex is restarted,
"New Folder" is no more.

Ah, that's because if a folder is empty, it's not saved. What happens is that items themselves reference a folder. If nothing makes a reference, it's not written out when Auspex shuts down. Important, do you think?

1002

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 21, 2010, 06:19 PM »

Build 14 uploaded, and a little progress on the user guide (found in the wiki section of redmine)

1003

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: Response to Question: Can shareware be released in the NANY event?

« Last post by timns on September 20, 2010, 09:04 PM »

In my case, I'm hoping that my NANY app will eventually mature into a commercial product. However, I really support DC and its members, so
what I said in my NANY pledge was this:

    * If you help me test the app and provide feedback, or contribute to it in any way, you get a free copy
    * If you are a supporting member of DC, you get a free copy
    * If you donate to ANY of the NANY entries, you get a free copy

To the outside world, I will be saying "you should pay for a copy and support me, or join DC and support coders in general"

I'm working hard on this software and I feel that users do appreciate something a bit more if they pay for it - at the very least they will try to get their money's worth!

1004

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 20, 2010, 07:07 PM »

No problem re the redmine thing. I'll have a go with KEdit (must admit it's not one I've ever tried before) and see if I  can reproduce/fix.

Update: no luck so far. From looking at the interface settings, I think it may also be intercepting the keyboard itself which means that when Auspex re-injects keystrokes, they are not interpreted correctly. I'll keep this one on the back burner as they say (in fact I've created a ticket in the redmine thingy so I  don't forget)

http://redmine.dcmembers.com/issues/99

1005

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 20, 2010, 03:18 PM »

Just uploaded build 12. This fixes the space/return/tab issue in the replacement text field. However you will still need to activate the main window once when you start the program to get everything ticking over.

1006

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 20, 2010, 02:34 PM »

There's now a redmine project for the software. If you're running the program and come across any issues you'd like to report, please use this link:
 
http://redmine.dcmem....com/projects/auspex

1007

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 20, 2010, 11:02 AM »

Folks, I really appreciate your comments. I'll have to set up some proper bug reporting/tracking thingy to make sure I don't lose all the feedback.

In the meantime I'll try to get this fixed so you can focus on finding out if the program is useful to you.

1008

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 11:28 PM »

Thanks for the feedback - I'll try and reproduce it somehow and get it cleaned up. Irritantingly I think it might be specific to some versions of Windows. I develop on a Vista machine and it's ok. Tomorrow I'll test on my old XP beastie and see what happens.

1009

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 06:38 PM »

Same here on my XP SPIII. Immediately after executing the Access Violation error keeps occurring after an interval from a second, just as in the post from Perry.

My PC has no (group/domain) policies set. Actually it is a rather fresh XP installation (3 days old) and I am running it in the default administrator account.

-Shades (September 19, 2010, 06:34 PM)

Mr Pinhead here has just uploaded build 10 which should address this.

1010

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 06:29 PM »

Whoa! Ok well now the fun begins. Certainly I suspect you will need admin rights, since the first thing the program does is install a hook. [Note to cranioscopical: the hooter is optional at this point]

There's also a little timer that runs - is the dialog appearing fast, or maybe every couple of seconds?

UPDATE: I think this is fixed. Please try build 10 if you get a chance?

1011

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 05:18 PM »

Ok folks, there's a version in place. No help, documentation or Wizard (yet!) but I'm interested to know what you make of the program when going in 'cold' (for all I know, you may come up with some new clever way of using it)

But, to get started, click the 'New' button and set up a test entry to get the feel  of the  program. Try something like this:



Then  go into  (say) notepad,  and type mfat<return> and  the rest should happen automatically,  and I  hope you'll get the idea

After you  leave the program running for a while it will start to pick up on the words you  are using frequently, and suggest them as you  type. Also of course, the assumption is you  will key in frequently used phrases as little acronyms or mnemonics and use them as you go. I  have to say I actually feel quite lost when the program is not running now. I keep sending emails with 'tt' at the bottom where I expect Auspex to make the replacement to 'Thanks, Tim'  


Of course at this point there are so many little issues, but some of the things I know about already are as follows:

1. alt+tab gets blocked at the moment
2. spaces sometimes appear as double spaces when you're typing fast (actually I think this is fixed in build 8.)
3. the program only starts to  work  after you have activated its main form one time.
4. new entries don't seem to work until you re-start the program (to be checked)

Good luck! At some point soon there will  be a dedicated site to visit where you  can post ideas,  issues,  suggestions etc.

1012

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 04:02 PM »

Oh blast 

It's not like the keys are even anywhere near each other.

1013

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 03:44 PM »

Word of caution: for all I  know, this program and AutoHotKey may have disagreements! Both programs use a global keyboard hoot to intercept and fiddle with keyboard messages. Obviously I shall try to make Auspex a good neighbour, but I  can imagine possible interference.

Any feedback on this sort of thing would be valuable.

1014

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 19, 2010, 12:52 PM »

Whoa! Thank you guys for all your comments - even before I let you loose with this thing.

Let's see:

@elvis: this thing corrects any word that you want it to, so (unless I deliver it with some pre-loaded dictionary) it learns the words you use rather than only some preset list. So in your case you can actually make it use nice British spellings.

No plans to implement T9 at the moment - sounds like a good option to put to the vote once the core software is stable.

@NahtanoJ88: the program will pop-up suggestions for words you are using frequently, or words that you have told it you would like it to suggest. You can block words from being suggested, and you can also tell the program NOT to say anything when running specific applications. Auspex will NEVER autocorrect to some other 'close' word (mainly because that drives me nuts too!)

The whole core idea behind Auspex is that it learns only the words and phrases you actually want it to - rather than some large 'general and often inappopriate' dictionary. I hope that makes sense. When you get to use it, I'm sure things will become clearer than my blundery explanations!

TucknDar: that would be great. I am intrigued to see how the system handles other character sets.

@shades: you betcha

Build coming up later today.

1015

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: UQ Web Service

« Last post by timns on September 17, 2010, 10:46 AM »

Sign me up please - I would love to give this thing a try.

1016

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 17, 2010, 10:29 AM »

Will this be able to something like...

type "calc:1+1" and Auspex grabs it and replaces it with 2

is this like the macro functionality you mentioned??

-Perry Mowbray (September 16, 2010, 11:11 PM)

At some point it will be able to do that. At the moment it's more basic like 'insert current date' in various formats. But you can nest them, so maybe you'd have some automatic text like:

You type ds<TAB> (or whatever you have set up)
You get:
Dear , thank you for your email. We etc etc etc [current date] etc etc

Auspex will also move the cursor to just before the comma after 'Dear', so you can just whack the person's name in right away.

At the moment the program will also note words you use a lot and suggest them as you type, and later I'll be suggesting entire phrases. I wrote a nice bayesian analyzer (has anyone managed to find one in Delphi!?!) which will help me know what to suggest as it learns your writing style.

Runnable version coming up for the "in-crowd" (i.e. DC members) over the weekend.

1017

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 16, 2010, 10:50 AM »

Thanks for the comments! I'll have a look and see if the idea fits into what I'm doing. Certainly you can set up shortcuts that include other shortcuts and the latest clipped text. Should be easy enough to pick any of the stored clips.

I appreciate any and all suggestions.

1018

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 15, 2010, 09:35 PM »

Ok I'll put something together. There's obviously no installer or whatnot just yet, but since the program only consists of two files at the moment, I'm guessing that's not a problem. Especially since most of the folks on DC are extremely computer savvy.

1019

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 15, 2010, 09:03 PM »

Thank you very much. It's still a bit sparse-looking: I should ask nudone to re-design the interface, then it will truly be a thing of beauty.

I'm still at the stage where feature creep is a very real danger, but most of the important stuff is working smoothly. Performance was my main concern at this point, but it's surprisingly system-friendly. I'm running right now and it's only using 4mb of memory, somewhat to my own amazement  

1020

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Auspex - a Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on September 15, 2010, 08:46 PM »

UPDATE - the software is running quite well now. Here's a screenshot:



I'm not quite ready for full-on testing yet, but if anyone would like to run a "whatever comes before alpha" version, please feel free to contact me.

1021

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: Twigatelle

« Last post by timns on September 13, 2010, 12:05 AM »

For you old chap, anything. I've not done anything with Twigatelle for a while, which is very poor. As part of my new NANY commitment, I'll fix the tracking and add some new levels.

1022

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on August 21, 2010, 06:37 PM »

Ok folks, here we go with the information on my first pledge. I've updated the first message to include that nifty blue info box.

1023

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Windows Productivity App

« Last post by timns on August 16, 2010, 09:14 AM »

Thanks, all. Development is progressing reasonably well on the application, tentatively called 'Auspex' but most likely to be renamed shortly. There were a surprising number of technical issues to resolve (probably self-inflicted) due to the way I want this thingy to work. Information and screenshots coming up shortly to get the ball rolling!

1024

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: cross-platform puzzle game - They Must Be Stopped!

« Last post by timns on August 07, 2010, 04:49 PM »

Appreciate your comments. It's still totally in the conceptual stage at the moment, but as soon as anything's runnable, I'll start posting details.

Thanks for mentioning Twigatelle - I'll also add some more levels to that thing in the near future.

1025

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / NANY 2011 Release: cross-platform puzzle game - WhirlyWord

« Last post by timns on August 04, 2010, 12:43 PM »

It's running!

A small Java puzzlertimewaster  

And after all that blather about what a great name "They Must Be Stopped!" was, I have renamed it. Mainly because I changed the aim of the game a bit too much. So I might use the other title next year again for something else



More info coming up shortly, but she's playable anyway:

http://www.head-in-the-clouds.com/game/WhirlyWord.jnlp

ps I am pretty sure this is the first NANY app to mention 'gerbils' on its teaser screen.

Playable, and I'll finish it off when I return from holiday in mid-Jan.