Request for ideas for html view mode size memory

[mouser]

With the new html view (and also somewhat with the richedit memo view), we have a slight dilemma with regard to the FARR window size; for normal FARR usage you typically want a pretty small window; for html view you usually need a bigger window.

I've added a few features to make working in html/memo mode a little easier:
First, FARR now remembers independently the size of the window in each different mode.  This goes a long way to making FARR usable in these different modes since you can have a large html view and a small results window.
Second, I've added a command that aliases and plugins can call to force the FARR window to be a specific size.

However, I'm thinking this may not be sufficient.  Are there going to be some html windows you want one size and others you need another size?  I'm trying to think what the best solution would be to this?  Is the ability to set window size from aliases good enought?

Or do we need some system for letting the user specify the desired window size on a per-plugin basis? or on a per-website url basis?  Other ideas?

[Armando]

With the new html view (and also somewhat with the richedit memo view), we have a slight dilemma with regard to the FARR window size; for normal FARR usage you typically want a pretty small window; for html view you usually need a bigger window.

I've added a few features to make working in html/memo mode a little easier:
First, FARR now remembers independently the size of the window in each different mode.  This goes a long way to making FARR usable in these different modes since you can have a large html view and a small results window.
Second, I've added a command that aliases and plugins can call to force the FARR window to be a specific size.

However, I'm thinking this may not be sufficient.  Are there going to be some html windows you want one size and others you need another size?  I'm trying to think what the best solution would be to this?  Is the ability to set window size from aliases good enought?

Or do we need some system for letting the user specify the desired window size on a per-plugin basis? or on a per-website url basis?  Other ideas?

-mouser (July 05, 2008, 06:23 PM)

These are great idea. I'd say that letting the user specify the desired window size on a per-plugin basis would probably be useful : some work on laptops with little screens, other on huge ones.

PS : In my case -- and from what you're saying it seems that I might be a bit of unique case -- my farr window is always set to full screen with slight transparency. Probably because I have a 15 inch screen... I love it this way. So HTML fits well in there, and file/program launching works great too.

[mouser]

my farr window is always set to full screen with slight transparency

very interesting. i'll have to try that to see what it's like.

[Armando]

Here's how it looks like on my desktop. It allows me to see a bit what's behind, and I have plenty of space in farr to work.

[Armando]

Some more screenshots.

[mouser]

i wonder if this means is should really have a maxmize button on the farr titlebar, and perhaps a hotkey to toggle in and out of maximized mode.. others might find it useful to switch to fullscreen mode..

[Armando]

That could be useful. (Right now I use GridMove andd my own ahk script to move farr around whenever I need to).
I find that farr in full screen looks really good. Especially the html stuff... and, oh well, files too : I love to have spacious display of all items.

[Nod5]

Mouser, can you give an example alias using the "setsize" special launch string? I can't get my aliases to both set a window size and display a html file.

I think three size modes would make sense:
1. a default mode that FARR reverts to at reload and restart and at each search if not overridden by 2 or 3.
2. a temporary resized mode when a alias/plugin uses "setsize", reverting back to default once the next search/alias/plugin runs
3. another temporary resized mode when the user drag resizes the FARR window, staying until the user reloads farr or an alias/plugin uses setsize. Differs from 2 in that it doesn't revert to default size at the next regular search.

A slick way to set the default size would be CTRL+drag resize. Regular drag resize could then still be used for 3.

Finally some unabashed praise: all the many recent FARR updates are REALLY GREAT! So many new cool features to try! 

[mouser]

Mouser, can you give an example alias using the "setsize" special launch string?

setsize and other examples here: https://www.donation....msg119752#msg119752
(note how its used with ;;; to compound launch strings in an alias)

[Nod5]

got it working, thanks!

Setsize sets the size of the entire FARR window, right? Wouldn't it be more useful to set the size of the match list area (i.e. the html page when in html view mode)? Because then a distributed alias/plugin that uses setsize would get more similar looking output for different users regardless of what FARR skin they use (the minimalistic skin slenderFARR differs from other skins in horizontal border size for example). The output could still differ due to other user system factors like scroll bar size, font size and so on, but at least one source of different output would be removed.

[s.newave]

Not sure how detailed you want to get but here is my suggestion from an earlier thread:

I vote that the alias/plugin should have the ability to set the size of the window although just as the with all other plugins the user should be able to overide this setting. As you suggested earlier the ability to set the sizing for a specific url would be even better.

If going down this path i would suggest some type of html options page where the user could save a specific regex url mask with the following options:

-window size & position
-keyboard focus
-pre-processing file (file/script to send html to which would in turn return html that would be displayed. greasemonkey style)
-post processing file (file/script to run after launching url)

More options could be added/removed as needed along with a set of default standards.