Recent Posts

36351

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: A new name

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 07:11 PM »

"Death to Clippy Xp Pro"

"Clipboard Tamer"

"Clippy 3000"

"WTF Another Clipboard and Notes Program?(tm)"

"Clip It and Forget It"

36352

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: mouse location launcher

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 01:09 PM »

i really like your ideas of combining big giant menus with applications docked inside them.
i would like to hear more ideas..

36353

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 01:03 PM »

the issue of popup list of filter groups and checkboxes are all related -
they have to do with making it easy to remember what filter groups you've set up.

i definitely hear what you are saying about wanting a pop up reminder of what goes in each filter group -
though i wonder if just a list of filter groups available on the main screen wouldn't be sufficient and better in some cases.
it wouldnt' show you what each filter group actually DOES, but then you probably won't forget that..
the main thing you are bound to forget is what the names of the filter groups are..
so thats why i was thinking like just a row of checkboxes like:
[] music  []mydocs  []system

and then to search in music you would type
music blondie

OR
you could just CHECK the box marked music and type blondie.

at least that was my idea.


as far as searching in files..
i already have written for another project some nice fast code for searching in files... the real thing is that this is more a task for a real file searchers instead of something like F&R, so its probably best left out of it i'm guessting.  but i can see the argument for some limited stuff like mp3/ogg tag searching, and i think its worth adding that stuff at least.  if we want to give F&R a full fledged file search mode then we might reconsider adding full text / hex search to it.

36354

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 11:19 AM »

i think it sounds like we have come to some good compromise solution.

percentage match is differen from begining of filename bonus
begining of filename bonus is in the score list described as "leftmost match bonus"
sorry if i confused the issue by making it sound like they were both called "percentage match"
see help file for description of what all the heuristics do

i think i agree with the toolbar button idea - i want to add toolbar buttons for other things and i think we can spare a short row of buttons on f&r screen for such things.

i like the idea of special file-type plugins that would allow you to search specific details of files like mp3 tags.
(though i think i might just build in mp3 tag and url favorites checking and some other common ones).

so there are really 2 different kinds of plugins,
first would be file scanning plugins, like looking for mp3 tags.

the other kind would be a plugin that would react to what you type; like if you typed "dict blah" it would show you the definition of the word in the window.. im still not convinced this is really much of an improvement over the already planned command exe launching function, except that it would be faster to view.

36355

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: A new name

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 08:03 AM »

i've got it:
"Revenge of Clippy Xp Pro 2005"


 

36356

Living Room / Re: IRC DAY 7/29 and 7/30

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 06:53 AM »

irc weekend is almost over... hurry up and visit if you plan to.

36357

Clipboard Help+Spell / A new name

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 06:52 AM »

i know it's stupid but i always find myself motivated to work on programs when they have a good name..
Clipboard Help and Spell needs a new name, since its going to be as much about note taking as clipboard and spelling.

suggestions for a new name?

ClippyNote ?

36358

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 31, 2005, 12:51 AM »

percentage score does exactly what you say - its meant to favor more exact matches over partial matches;
there is also a bonus for matching the start of a filename vs. middle.

you previous points about config file selecting modes of display - this is the real issue that must be resolved.

my inclination is to make those display options NOT part of multiple configuration groups; it just seems too messy.

let's simplify our discussions a bit by defining some terms.


lets use Config Files to talk about the configuraiton file which contains ALL options.

and lets use Filter Groups (instead of config groups) to mean the new proposed method of being able to label search directories and scoring patterns to be used when you specify an extra filter group name (like music).


so what i would like to propose is the following:
Filter Groups as we've discussed in this thread, which only affect search folders and scoring patterns.

but i'm open to the idea of a ability to maintain multiple Config files, and load them when you want, and load them on startup through commandline; A config file will be a complete set of independent options, search folders, aliases, etc.  Frankly i would be loathe to use multiple config files, but i'm willing to add it if its something people are compelled to you because they sometimes want one kind of display mode and sometimes another.


i think we have to ask ourselves how often it will be that people will want to quickly switch between display modes - and if so, lets make quick button options for this - rather than separate config files.

cracksloth i hear what you are saying about multiple config files and then having other options that would be shared between all config files (e.g. aliases), but what i'm saying is that maybe this is overkill.

lets identify the things that users will want to easily switch between frequently (if its number of results, then lets have a button for changing betweeen few and many).  if its size of window, ditto.  rather than having different config files which is really a pain to deal with both from programming standpoint, user interface standpoint, and explaining to user standpoint.

i think if we can capture 90% of the motivation for separate config files using Filter Groups, i'm inclined to go with that and find an alternative to having separate config files for the other settings.

ps.
cracksloth i was thinking a little more about your plugin idea and i'm actually starting to consider it.. i'll report on this more, but basically it would be just a little more than what is already planned to let you type arbitrary commands into F&R.  i'll post more later when i figure out a little more.

36359

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 12:49 PM »

i think i really like this new approach - nice and clean and only 1 config file.
but i'd like to hear cracksloth's opinion on it since i know he had his heart set on multiple config files and i'm curious as to his take on whether this will do what he wanted or be insufficient.

the ability to combine config groups seems like a really nice benefit to me, plus the ability to specify config groups all from the keyboard has to be seen as a strength for a keyboard-maniac tool.

36360

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 12:45 PM »

sounds like a good idea to me.

36361

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature Request ...

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 12:45 PM »

you can actually rename clips now, just change the title in the edit box above the clip, but yeah its going to be really easy to organize clips in the new version, once i get it all working.  and much easier to see your clips at a glance.

36362

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 12:17 PM »

interesting...
so you mean like hit a key or push a button to see a quick list of your config groups and what they mean.


like it would show:

system:
C:\Windows\ | +1000

music:
C:\MyDocs\Music | +500
*.mp3 | +500


like that?

36363

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature Request ...

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 12:11 PM »

i'm working on the clipboard program as we speak, totally reworking the interface.

my inclination is to do i think as you suggested.
first, capture not in plaintext but in native format, ie rtf if available, images if available (user will be able to say only capture plaintext).

then you wil be able to use those clips (export/save/copy/paste) as rtf, html, plaintext.

im open to more specific ideas about how the user interface should facilitate this, but bottom line is the program will capture in those formats not just plaintext as it does now, so those will be things we can do.

36364

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature Request ...

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 11:55 AM »

this will absolutely 100% be implemented..
we've been thinking about adding functions to make it easy to keep notes in the program, and one of the key features is going to be the ability to export and import to and from text files.  and also the ability to move clips around between groups and into their own groups, etc.

36365

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 11:33 AM »

yeah, basically i was saying that if we allow any characters in config group names, then if a user wanted to use a special delimiter they could, or they could just make sure to only use config group names that they wont want to search for.

F&R would first check if any keyword is a config group, and if so, use if for that and NOT search for it.

you can already do filetype searches, just do
*.xls to search for files with xls extensions.

i say we keep this (or make it like .xls)

so for your example, you could have a config group called :personal

then you could type
:personal *.xls

to find all files ending in .xls, search the folders and scoring patterns as configured in your :personal group.

OR

and here is the nice part
you could set up a pattern group called "myxls" for example
and add a +1000 score to *.xls and set up the folders with your data files in them

then you could just type
myxls finance

and it would find all *.xls files in the directories where you keep your documents


as far as list of options:
yes this is what i was saying about having a checklist box, or set of checkboxes automatically showing all available config groups that you have set up.  they would be auto discovered by F&R and shown.

that way you would
1) see at a glance which config groups you have set up
2) could use the checkboxes to choose them instead of typing them, if you prefer

36366

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 10:52 AM »

i formalize my suggestion that we autodetect config names; it will be responsibility of user not to use config names that they might ever want to search for.  if user wants, they can include a special character, like

C:\MyDocs\Music | +500 | @mydocs,@music,*
C:\Windows\ | +1000 | @system

so that they would type:
@system blondie

36367

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 10:46 AM »

a real attraction of this approach for me is the desire to avoid multiple configuration files, for the reasons i have described previously (things like hotkeys and aliases seem like they should be shared between config groups).

so i think this might be a way to have our cake and eat it too..
the search tab and pattern scoring tabs seem like the main (only?) things that one would want to configure differently,
and this lets us do that in a very flexible way that lets you use it when you want, or ignore it when you dont care (simply dont type in a config group in your search and it will search all).

maybe instead of using all if no config group is specified we should explicitly let user specify * as a config group
ie:

C:\MyDocs\Music | +500 | mydocs,music,*
C:\Windows\ | +1000 | system

now if you just type
blondie

it will only search in C:\MyDocs\Music

but if you type
system blondie

then it will search in
C:\Windows\

i think we might be onto something..

36368

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 10:41 AM »

as for special deliminator, doesn't matter to me, we could even have F&R detect when keywords are config group names automatically.

so my basic idea was that the the Pattern Scoring tab and the Search Folder tab,
each item would have a new field called Config Groups.

so in search folder tab you might have

C:\MyDocs\Music | +500 | mydocs,music
C:\Windows\ | +1000 | system

and then in patterns tab you might have

*.mp3 | +1000 | music

-------------

so now when you search, if you typed
music blondie

then it would only search
C:\MyDocs\Music

and it would use the *.mp3 score bonus

but if you typed
system *.scr

then it would only search
C:\Windows\
and would not apply the *.mp3 scoring bonus


so all other configuration options would be shared, only those two tabs would enable you to customize their entries for different config groups.

a benefit is as you say, you could COMBINE config groups, so
music system blondie

would search both
C:\Windows\  and C:\MyDocs\Music
for files named blondie

and if you dont specify a config group, all will be searched

another nice benefit would be we could display a checklist of config groups that you could manually check or uncheck just as a visual reminder of available groups.

36369

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 30, 2005, 10:35 AM »

here i've been waiting for a reply to my long post... only to find it not here... maybe i forgot to click send 
let me retype it.

36370

Find And Run Robot / Re: Love it, but ..

« Last post by mouser on July 29, 2005, 11:12 PM »

never heard of this, BUT
it would be very interesting to hear if this behavior was still in the most recent version that has configurable hotkey.

also, would be very interesting to know if it happened regardless of whether you were using either mode of running the program (fast main application mode or less memory mode; see start menu).

email me ([email protected]) for a download link to the very latest members-only version of the program.

36371

Living Room / downloadsquad.com - software news and views

« Last post by mouser on July 29, 2005, 07:00 PM »

http://www.downloadsquad.com/

nice screenshot-centric software news site.

36372

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: Report Folder Info Including Max Path Depth

« Last post by mouser on July 29, 2005, 06:34 PM »

fhoyos i was actually referring to quixos request that it be added to the explorer context menu when i mentioned the new app coming out from donationcoder.com.  it will be a kind of souped-up context menu customizer with some really cool features.  i'll post more details soon, but it's not going to be too long before this app is made available on the site, and i think you guys are really going to like it.

36373

Find And Run Robot / Re: an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 29, 2005, 05:35 PM »

i didn't think of the fact that this would let you combine configurations, but this is actually a nice benefit..

the other nice thing is that we could offer two different ways to select the config "modes" to use.

so for example you might type

+mp3 +mydocs artist

which would search for files with the word artist in them, using the mp3 and mydocs configurations.
(where a configuration specifies paths to search and file pattern scores).

AND

there might be a checklist line displayed somewhere on the screen with checkboxes for all the configurations, so instead of typing +mp3 +mydocs you could also just tick the checkboxes for mp3 and mydocs; would be useful as an alternate method and a handy reminder of which configurations are going to be searched.

--

i would also like to suggest that the 'configurations' would not be full separate configuration files, but rather that when you specify file paths for searching, and file pattern scorings, you can also specify the list of configuration groups it matches.

for example instead of in pattern tab of dialog
*.mp3 | score=+400
*.ogg | score=+500

you would have
*.mp3 | score=+400 | mp3,music
*.ogg | score=+500 | music

36374

Find And Run Robot / an idea about an alternative to multiple configuration files

« Last post by mouser on July 29, 2005, 12:06 PM »

i was thinking, what if, instead of alternate config files, you could specify for any of the search folders or pattern matching rules, a set of keywords that it was governed by.

for example you could say that certain folders only should be searched when the keyword mp3 was used.

then you could use these keywords when typing, to restrict to certain config options..

just an idea

36375

General Software Discussion / jmemorize - helps you to memorize information (open source)

« Last post by mouser on July 29, 2005, 11:29 AM »

The issue of programs to help you memorize info on flashcards has come up before on this site.  this could be just the app for the task:

http://www.riad.de/jmemorize/

"jMemorize is a Java application that manages your flashcards by the famous Leitner system and makes memorizing facts not only more efficient but also more fun. It manages your whole learning progress and features categories, statistics and a visually appealing and intuitive interface. "

found on NewsForge