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4476

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 07:10 AM »

I just found out that the regex example i posted above doesn't work as i thought it would. I hope that you understand what i mean. *sorry*

4477

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 06:19 AM »

I was thinking abou this, and i got to the conclusion that we might be over-complicating this problem.
The thing is that having farr parse a string in a way that makes sense is too dificult. And the 2 boxes- idea, just adds to the problem, as it becomes more and more dificult.

I have an inovative idea
How about instead of having poor farr trying to parse a string based on a lot of criteria, not have those rulles defined in each of the alias itself?
i.e. The alias would have the rules for what could come before or after it.
Right now, it is possible to do this, an alias with this regex:
(.txt) edit(.*)
with this line of execution,
c:\programas\pspad\pspad.exe $$1 $$2 |pspad $$1 $$2
Is close to execute what i'm referring to.

My idea is:
How about if initially, farr displayed every file and alias (the alias has to not need arguments before it) started by the letters you type.
Then, when you find the alias or the file you want, you press enter to launch it, or space to start another search based on your previous selection. Which means that if your first selection was a ".txt" file, "edit" alias could appear in the next option. If it was a .exe file, "edit" wouldn't have any sense, so, it doesn't appear.
What i mean is, have farr select a result on space, and the next results are based on that result.

This solution creates only 2 problems with prior requests:
1) The "f f" request, which would select firefox with the type of "f f", for which i can't find a solution other than typing "f*f".
2) The command line parameters solution, that i think can be fixed by adding a comma.I.E., "mini, capture" would make minicap capture the screen (if capture was the command line parameter that would acomplish that).

 

4478

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 05:09 AM »

Here's the executable.

4479

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 04:56 AM »

Ok, just made a small ahk script.. I don't know if it fits your request, but here goes:

[Select]

; Stability Monitor
Menu, tray, noicon
gosub ShowGui
return

ShowGui:
  Gui, Add, Button,gButtonSubmit vButtonSubmit x0 y0 w20 h20 +default,&X
  Gui,  +AlwaysOnTop +Resize
  ; -SysMenu  +ToolWindow -caption
  Gui, Color, Red
  ChangeColor = red
  SetTimer, Changer, 1000
  Gui, Show, x200 y200 w20 h100,Stability Monitor
return

Changer:
  GoSub %ChangeColor%
return

red:
  Gui, Color, Red
  ChangeColor = green
return

Green:
  Gui, Color, Green
  ChangeColor = Blue
return

Blue:
  Gui, Color, Blue
  ChangeColor = Yellow
return

Yellow:
  Gui, Color, yellow
  ChangeColor = black
return

Black:
  Gui, Color, Black
  changeColor = red
return

ButtonSubmit:
exitapp
return

GuiClose:
exitapp
return

4480

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 04:36 AM »

Sorry, my mistake, i meant launching the first result, but with one other action other than the first.
How about this solution:
The disposition would be the first you proposed, 2 boxes at the top, and the results below.
And it would work the same way for both boxes. If you want a result other than the first, with an action other than the first, you do:
{partially write file} {down arrow}, to select the result from the results list. then, {tab}
{partially write action} {down arrow}, to select the option from the actions list, then {enter}

4481

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 04:28 AM »

Ok, checked your post, and i think there's a small minus in that.
To launch the first result with some action, i'd have to do:
screenshot captor{tab}{tab}launch
Which means one more tab then needed.
I still prefer the ctrl +# option. Or maybe instead of the first tab, you'd have to do {down arrow}, select a result with the arrows, and then hit tab to select the action.

4482

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 04:20 AM »

I'm for the first option, mouser (and i think that nontroppo also is, right? ).
It is the most flexible one, as it allows to keep the interface farr has now, but with much more flexibility.
Only one proposition: When you type an action, it could like you said, copy it to the "then" box, but keep it in the same place that you wrote it, maybe with a different color, or something like that, to prevent you from getting confused. (it's not nice to see your cursor go back, to write another thing IMO).

For me, the first option you presented is just perfect, as i always launch the first option. I think the problem would ony arise when you want to specify an option in a result other then the first one. There would have to be the option to have ctrl + # (or something like that) to go to the actions over the # result.

4483

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 04:10 AM »

interesting idea about nesting aliases.. this is getting a little interesting now, like the idea of treating actions like a decision tree..

-mouser (February 03, 2006, 03:44 AM)

I think you and i are in the same page

and the list of actions shown at startup would never change order, they would be a fixed list that user could control.
they would also include "plugin" commands.

-mouser (February 03, 2006, 03:42 AM)

I don't think that the list of actions would never change order... Why not have it working like the other aliases will work? you can define a start point, and then they get more bonus the more they are used..
So you could define "run" to have like 100000 points, to be sure it will be at the top, but you let farr decide if "edit" sould or shouldn't be before "extract".
I just think this would make the creation of new action aliases much easier.
What do you mean by "plugin" commands?

4484

Find And Run Robot / Re: What's the correct abbreviation?

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 04:03 AM »

Then you need to change the icon so he has wings on his heels 

-rjbull (February 03, 2006, 03:47 AM)

AhAhAhAh  

4485

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 03:59 AM »

I think a ahk script to do that wouldn't be too dificult.
The only think that worries me is the "low resurce" matter. Would 3mb of memory be too much?
I think that's the minimum a ahk script uses..

4486

Skrommel's Software / Re: skrommel got some love today..

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 03:43 AM »

EhEh.. Good to know that, it is a deserved recognition of his good work

4487

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 03:38 AM »

Mouser, i like your last proposition. Specially this:

then you type a verb (or part of it until you get a match) and then hit space key.

-mouser (February 03, 2006, 03:14 AM)

But when it comes to running something, the user could define "run" alias to have a huge bonus, so as it would be always the first option, and so, he could just do :
{space}screen{enter}
to launch screenshot captor, right?
I only have one doubt. In your model, i think there will be the need to define if after that alias comes another alias or not. I say this because ther could be some alias that should have other alias after them.
I don't know if you're thinking about implementing this, but for the mp3 example up in this post, the user would do:
mp3{space}play{space}somemusic.mp3{enter}
to play it, or
mp3{space}enqueue{space}somemusic.mp3{enter}
to enqueue it.
(of course, this is only possible if the user defined play en enqueue, or Farr could somehow know what was the context menu for the file)

4488

Living Room / Re: a grid of cool animal flash games

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 03, 2006, 03:10 AM »

eheh.. Thanks mouser! That site is really entertaining!:D
My favourite is the quirrel jumping between roofs one (number 3). I love the way he jumps, and the music is great
The one that you have to make a pile of pigs also is nice, i like the music (does anyone know the name of that music, btw?), but i still didn't undrestand how to cach the time bonuses.

4489

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 01:50 PM »

Mouser, i think you have found the perfect way! (i speccially like the *mp3 example you mentioned )
I only have one small proposition:
How about if when you type the beggining of one of the "aliases", it would appear below, and you could press enter or tab, for it to complete, and then write your search?
eg:
  *k {enter/tab}
and the rest of the work *kill would appear, and you'd enter:
  screen {enter/tab}
and it would kill screenshot captor (if it was the first result, of course )
Other than this, i think this might be the way to go!

ps: the aliases that act on a result, could have farr's icon instead of the folder icon, i think it'd be less confusing

4490

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 11:29 AM »

That description is just perfect, nice way to organize things

My 2 cents for the problematic questions:

5)
How far are you on ContextMenu Commander? Maybe it would be the solution to this problem.
Something like this: The user selects the actions he wants preformed for each type of file (maybe in the Pattern Scoring dialog) based on it's explorer context menu and Farr actions (add to aliases, add explicit rule, etc..).
And then, when executing Farr, the user presses tab and the actions menu appears on the right half of the results menu (this would make the results menu have to be quite large). The next thing the user writes, is the name of the option from the options menu. Enter, would launch the first result on both windows (ie, the first action on the first result). Alt + # would trigger #result with first action, and ctrl + # would trigger first result with #action. ctrl + alt + # selects the #result, and waits for another keypress with the number of the option to launch.
Another aspect is: after the search, the results window appears, the user presses tab, the actions menu appear, and if the user presses down, it allows to select one result, press enter to select it, then the focus changes to actions menu, and the user selects the action to be performed.
One note on this interface: for this to really make sense, the right keys to be used, should be ctrl + # to launch # result, and alt + # to launch # action, since ctrl is on the left, and alt on the right.
I think this method is quite consistent and doesn't interfere with the first results.

6)
I haven't thought much about this, but maybe you could have aliases defined for actions, and when you write the aliases, the action menu appears, and you press tab to search for the file to do the action on?
(This is not very consistent..)

4491

Find And Run Robot / Re: What's the correct abbreviation?

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 10:47 AM »

plus i think the term "robot" confuses people.
i am warming to the name "mercury runner" as a play off the speed of the god of mercury and the name quicksilver (competing product for the mac) and keeping the name "runner" in it...

-mouser (February 02, 2006, 10:09 AM)

I also think that "Robot" is strange (don't know why, but i doesn't sound right  ). If the name has to change, I'm with you, mercury runner is nice. But, how about Egyptian guy's runner? (joking )

PS. for the history buffs, the original name was:
"super happy find and run robot"

-mouser (February 02, 2006, 10:09 AM)

That explains why the .ini configuration has this:

[Select]

[Information]
File Identification=Super Happy Find and Run Robot

4492

Find And Run Robot / Re: A unified FARR / Launcher Interface Proposal

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 10:24 AM »

Try bblean as an alternative to explorer as it has this function.

-nontroppo (February 02, 2006, 09:24 AM)

That is exactly my problem. I've been using bblean for 2 years, up until last week, when i decided to go back to explorer. (because of a few compatibility issues) But i couldn't find a way of bringing that feature to explorer

Supporting alpha-transparency does not have to make FARR slower at all. The drop in speed will come with the use of skins themselves which FARR already supports (and didn't slow it down...)

-nontroppo (February 02, 2006, 09:24 AM)

OK..I thought that transparencies slowed down the computer, and not the skins themselves.. So, i agree with you, i hope someday Farr will look that good

so adding that technology to Farr seems like a natural thing to do..

-mouser (February 02, 2006, 09:59 AM)

Good to know that, i think it will prove itself very useful!

OK i like it, let's go for it.

-mouser (February 02, 2006, 09:59 AM)

Yippee!!!

-[some text moved]-

4493

Find And Run Robot / Re: A unified FARR / Launcher Interface Proposal

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 06:50 AM »

i really like the idea that the groups be displays as tool menus in that farr menubar - it seems to me that sometimes you want to locate by name, and sometimes you like to browse visually, so it's a nice idea.  not sure exactly how to handle the case of groups where there are regular expressions involved..

-mouser (February 02, 2006, 06:31 AM)

I agree with your statement about "recall vs. recognition" and yesterday, i found that i have my computer full of interesting apps that i never use because i tend to forget them. At the very least, the toolbar could remember me to delete them!
But i didn't get what is the problem you mentioned... Can't the launchbar be integrated with farr? What's the problem with reg-ex?

look at jpaiva's avatar

-mouser (February 02, 2006, 06:31 AM)

I just thought i should be supporting the "Egiptian guy running", so as his great app can get even more attention


[offtopic] PS: i forgot to mention in my earlier post, David Lanham's site has very good artwork, not only good-looking icons, but also well-made backgrounds (and in widescreen, just as i need them! :D) [/offtopic]

I just noticed this post is my 100th post on DonationCoder! I'm one happy, proud member!
(please congratulate me  )

4494

Find And Run Robot / Re: A unified FARR / Launcher Interface Proposal

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 06:20 AM »

Well, one of my wishlist items for V2 is task control, but that is from a keyboard centric perspective (adaptive search through running apps). There is lots of existing code (Litestep, BBLean etc) out there for this sort of thing that mouser could use, though for me it then skirts too close to becoming an explorer replacement for my liking.

-nontroppo (February 02, 2006, 04:49 AM)

I know that this was one of the things to be implemented (i think associated with the quicksilver-like interface, right?), that's one of the reasons i think this would not be hard to add to the toolbar. But as i said, this is only a dream
As for being an explorer replacement... It wouldn't be, the main shell would still be explorer, only without taskbar.
(i just hate not having the possibility of inconizing tasks in the taskbar, the titles take too much space )

Sadly, the current skin engine does not support alpha-transparency and so I cannot make such a skin for FARR yet.

-nontroppo (February 02, 2006, 04:49 AM)

Actually, i don't think that's bad..We don't want farr to be slower, right?
But i like the design proposition you presented for farr v2, very smooth

4495

Living Room / Re: Where's CarolHaynes?

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 03:55 AM »

Maybe it would be time to put her in here

4496

Find And Run Robot / Re: A unified FARR / Launcher Interface Proposal

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 02, 2006, 03:47 AM »

Since nontroppo sugested this in another topic, i thought it was a brilliant idea.

for me i use a launch bar as a kind of "visual memory"

I agree with mouser, seeing the apps right there, sometimes might be better that launching them, since it allows you not to forget what you have in your computer.

Another idea just popped to me:
With this adition, farr will let you not need start menu for anything. So, i was already thinking of a way to remove the button. Then i though: if this bar would have support for taskbar support (like yzdock has, similar to mac osx's dock, i think), farr would allow me to remove the taskbar and use only farr, in a much more intuitive way than the taskbar works!
(i just love this idea, but i know, it's just plain crazy, but still, a nice dream )

ps: nontroppo, that skin is beautifull! 

4497

Living Room / Re: Spell with flickr!

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 01, 2006, 12:20 PM »

That clock is hilarious!
It'd be nice to have a taskbar clock like that

4498

Post New Requests Here / Re: label files to store them by type & find them by label

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 01, 2006, 12:18 PM »

TaskTracker is nice, possibly what eusebius was looking for.
I wanted a slightly different thing, i made a ahk script that i just drag and drop a file to a box, and it gives me the comment i had on it, or creates a new one. So as when i download something, i add it to my program and create a new comment on it. (next version,I'll integrate it with opera's transfers window )
ps: i did it mostly for the fun and exercise, but anyone interested, please post a line

4499

Living Room / Re: Coding Horror blog has become must reading for programmers

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 01, 2006, 10:06 AM »

http://www.thedailywtf.com/ is worth mentioning too, btw.

-f0dder (January 27, 2006, 12:34 AM)

It sure is, I've been reading it everyday since you posted it! thanks

4500

Find And Run Robot / Re: Another similar app (disclaimer: I haven't tried it)

« Last post by jgpaiva on February 01, 2006, 05:45 AM »

sounds good to me, i don't mind having a score based on recency and on frequency.
(...)
i think i better start seriously working on FARR 2 again in the next week while all these ideas are still fresh.

-mouser (February 01, 2006, 05:11 AM)

Good to know that! Thanks! 
**jgpaiva waiting impatiently**