Recent Posts

23476

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Post your FARR v2 Plugin Idea Requests Here - Plugin Writers Read In

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 07:37 PM »

I've split off the idea for a DQSD plugin into it's own thread here:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=13266.0

23477

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Post your FARR v2 Plugin Idea Requests Here - Plugin Writers Read In

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 07:37 PM »

lrosenfeld,

the idea bout storing and retrieving encypted passwords might not be worth the effort, only because the existing good password management tools (keypass) are pretty darn good, and most include live search functionality.  when you combine that with the importance of secure handling of this info, it makes me think this plugin idea may be more trouble than it's worth.

however i do think a general purpose note saver/searcher/displayer is an important missing idea to farr plugin collection, and it's always possible that encrypted items could be added to that that could do the kind of thing you want eventually.

23478

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 07:21 PM »

I don't think there's all that much more to it, but i've simplified the description of all the steps, and i do think the nature of what's happening with dynamically running snippets of javascript is unusual enough that it could be a little tricky.

There are two additional things i glossed over:

• There are a few javascript functions that the blocks of search code call to interface with the main program -- these have to be discovered and implemented.  these are mainly functions to actually load the desired url, but there are some other helper functions.
• Some of the search xmls define an html form, and invoke it -- i'm not sure exactly how that works -- i think it's probably something very close to how some of the existing FARR javascript plugins present a form.

In summary -- there are enough little tricky and unusual pieces that i suspect it will require some effort to get it working.  Definitely a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

23479

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 01:43 PM »

im sorry czb, but hobby or not, you are a coder.  and you should be proud of what you've created.  of course there is always more to learn, that's true for every programmer.

as far as being confused by the the xml search files... there is nothing really to it once you understand the idea -- the xml file is just a couple of sections.  some sections are just html code which describes the plugin -- that text would just be given to FARR function to display it when appropriate.  And then the main section is just pure javascript -- there is nothing to be done with that except to "run" it.  so the dq meta plugin really doesnt have to do anything clever here, just "execute" or eval() the javascript block when appropriate.

like i said it may be that ecaradec would want to write this dq meta plugin by writing it in c++ and executing the javascript the way he does it with his javascript sdk already.  BUT i think you've really done more complicated plugins than this already, or at least very close.

i think the important thing to realize is that the dq metaplugin doesnt have to care very much at all what is in these xml files, there is very little in there that it has to be concerned with.  it just has to read the xml files in to learn which search words are available, and then send certain blocks in the xml (there are xml helper functions built into JS) to the FARR memo mode (or html mode), and execute certain blocks using JS eval() command.

23480

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:58 PM »

I think ecaradec would be the perfect person to take on this challenge if he could be convinced to do it.. as he already has the knowledge of how to execute javascript and interface it with FARR.  I will add the html view mode to make it easier to display search descriptions, etc. and run the search+display entirely from within FARR if desired.

23481

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:56 PM »

Don't you want to prefix these searches with something

yes, that makes sense.

we could display the possible switches and their meanings in it the FARR panel

yes exactly, this is easily done by simply sending the description block from the matching xml search file to the FARR memo view.

also, typing "dq" could display a list of all known search xml alias keywords so it would be easy to search for them.  even better,  allow partial searching for keywords so typing "dq a" would show all dqsd search keywords starting with the letter a.

23482

Living Room / Re: Kitty break

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:29 PM »

Note: edwards links are arguably NSFW.

23483

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:28 PM »

maybe ecaradec can get us started on this.. as i really think this needs a javascript person at the wheels, which rules me out.

the basic functionality of the dqsd meta plugin would be like this:

• read in all the .xml search definition files in some subdirectory of the plugin
• parse these files and record the the keywords used by each
• when farr informs of a new search string, check if it matches any of the keywords of any of the xml search files
• if so, execute the javascript contained within the search xml file

that's really it for the basics.

extra functionality would be:

• when user just types name of a search keyword, display the description from the xml file in memo/html mode of farr
• expose a few extra functions using javascript that the search file javascript code wants to call occasionally.

23484

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:23 PM »

I am not coder

what on earth are you talking about?

23485

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:21 PM »

Well, I am not going to code it.

23486

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 12:01 PM »

that the searches are gpl will have no effect on how this is done -- we aren't going to be modifying the searches at all, or even trying to distribute them here -- the goal is simply to build a compatible sdk that can load these files and use them as is.  gpl would only be an issue if we were modifying the search files themselves and then attempting to keep that closed source, which would be silly.

Being a coder myself, I can try to spare some time on it if neither czechboy nor ecaradec is interested.  I don't want to step on somebody's toes here.

great.  i really do think this will be a very cool thing, not just because it will make all of these existing search scripts available to farr users, but because it provides a pretty easy way to let other people write intermediate custom scripts.

23487

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report] infinite loop ? with alias

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 07:02 AM »

thank you for figuring out the nature of this bug, i will fix 

23488

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report] multiple runs for urls...

« Last post by mouser on May 06, 2008, 06:58 AM »

I'm not sure i understand what you mean when you say:
"if you press Enter a long time then FARR will open one or few or several times the requested url" -- do you mean that you are holding down the enter key or repeatedly pushing it.. why?

23489

Find And Run Robot / Re: Output to Farr's memo mode

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 11:40 PM »

By the way.. this is long overdue:

czechboy, thank you for another awesome javascript plugin -- this Console plugin is INCREDIBLY useful, and i'm sure in time a lot of people will find ways to use it to create some cool alias packs 

23490

Find And Run Robot / Re: Output to Farr's memo mode

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 11:33 PM »

Here's the citytime alias pack, including the citytime.exe with install instructions:



Note to alias writers who might want to use this alias pack as a template for their console-based aliases: This alias, as designed by lanux, uses the "dosearch" functionality, which results in an immediate execution of the console program with every character you type.  Works well in this case but if you are going to shell out to a command that takes a while to run, you would want to use the Console plugin differently.  You can use "restartsearch" keyword instead of the "dosearch" keyword to have it ONLY run the console plugin+exe when the user hits enter.

23491

Find And Run Robot / Re: Output to Farr's memo mode

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 11:18 PM »

Some hints on how to package an alias to work with a plugin like czechboy's Console plugin:

• Console plugin should be left alone in its plugin directory of itself, you shouldn't pack it in with your alias, that could lead to multiple copies of the plugin installed in FARR which is not good.
• Your zip should just contain your .alias file(s) and any helper exes (in this example citytime.exe), and an optional Aliasname.ico file if you want a custom icon displayed with your alias.
• To refer from your alias to a file or exe program inside your alias' directory, use %ALIASDIR%
• Instruct the user to unpack your alias subdirectory into the FARR AliasGroups/MyCustom directory, and then restart FARR.

23492

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 09:35 PM »

We should start a new thread for this dqsd plugin idea and start by begging czechboy and/or ecaradec to work on this.

The dqsd search addons consist of a standalone xml file which includes a description and then some javascript that knows how to execute the search.  You can download and look at them here: http://www.dqsd.net/...dqsdtoc/searchtoc.pl

An example of a really simple but useful one is jsx.xml which simply lets you execute any javascript code you type in the search box.

A more complicated one with arguments is dmda.xml which demonstrates how forms are used to get user input, etc.

The nice thing about writing a plugin to handle dqsd search xml files is that it would then open up FARR scripting to be even EASIER for others to write javascript plugins using this interface.  It's sort of one step removed and simplified from the original javascript sdk for FARR by ecaradec.

A wonderful idea, i hope we can convince ecaradec or czechboy (or even someone new) to go for this.

Since I'm back to coding on FARR as we speak, I stand ready to help add any functionality to FARR that is needed.  One thing that might be desired is to add an html-rendering view mode for the FARR window as an alternative to the richview memo view mode -- might be useful for this project and others.

23493

FARR Plugins and Aliases / FARR Plugin Idea Holy Grail - DQSD (400 searches)

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 08:30 PM »

that's a very interesting idea.. worth looking into.

having gone and looked at all the searches available, i think this is a great idea, and should be done.
the only question is whether support for the dqsd searches should be built into FARR core, or should be done as a plugin for FARR (ie a plugin that knows how to load a bunch of dqsd search files and use them).

because the dqsd's use javascript, this might be a good candidate for czechboy's insane plugin coding skills using ecaradec's javascript plugin sdk for farr..

23494

Find And Run Robot / Re: Hotkey problem with FARR

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 03:42 PM »

Uncheck them rather than delete them.  That will disable them and should solve the problem.

(Actually it shouldnt be allowing you to delete them, but i'll have that fixed in the update this week.)

23495

N.A.N.Y. 2008 / Re: Click2LogIt

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 03:06 PM »

I noticed your absence -- it's good to hear you are busy and still can stop by to visit when you can. 

23496

Find And Run Robot / Re: Hotkey problem with FARR

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 03:05 PM »

Thank you for the kind words

That's strange to hear about it restoring the default hotkey.

Question: does it save the other changes to your settings?

What version of FARR are you using?
The latest versions of FARR have completely customizable hotkeys and once you disable the default hotkeys they should stay disabled.  They do here.

If none of your settings are being saved, could you tell me what operating system you are using?

23497

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 02:14 PM »

I used to use tclockex for that, it's a great free utility that let's you customize what's shown in your system tray -- I use it to put full day of the week, date, year, etc.

But when i moved to Windows XP Pro 64bit, I found that tclockex would not support it, and neither would any of the other free tray clock tools.

Until I stumbled upon t-clock which is free and was upgraded to Win64bit compatibility and is now maintained by stoic joker, who hangs out here at the DC forums.  It works perfectly and I love it

23498

Living Room / Flash Game of the Week: Rollercoaster Creator

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 11:16 AM »

The "http://Rollercoaster Tycoon" series of games for the PC is an amazing achievement in programming.  A perfect game for parents to play with their kids.

If you don't quite have the patience for that, here's a very cute, very cool, well done little puzzler that uses line drawing and physics as you attempt to create coasters that take your people from point A to point B, collecting coins along the way.

Very nicely done and fun to experiment with.

http://www.fatratgam...llercoaster-Creator/

from http://www.neatorama.com/

23499

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Timer

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 10:04 AM »

czechboy : thank you so much !!! It works. And not only does your plugin now works (and it's a really nice one -- I love it), some other things that I was never able to get working work too!!!!!!

very cool.

23500

Find And Run Robot / Re: Folder Nav Bug

« Last post by mouser on May 05, 2008, 07:14 AM »

I'll be releasing a new version of FARR this week and i should have this fixed.