Author Topic: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands (Read 186609 times)

nudone · « **Reply #25 on:** March 08, 2011, 04:22 PM »

Sounds very promising. And horrible that there are problems detecting programs. Nothing ever is simple.

I think it will soon be time to order the touchscreen.

Ath · « **Reply #26 on:** March 08, 2011, 04:36 PM »

It's actually that the colors for buttons no longer show

(but background color still does...

), now that I've switched to GUIOnEventMode (that was a message-loop that only fires if a message for 'me' is available).
The detection of the currently active app, and switching the set of buttons, is already working quite fine

cranioscopical · « **Reply #27 on:** March 08, 2011, 04:58 PM »

Just an update,
I'm a bit later then I promised with my next release, but I'll get to that in a minute...
I'm still testing with the buttonarrangement settings and ironing out the last minor bugs. Placement has to be just right when combining several kinds of smaller buttons in place of 1 big button.
What I got so far for this: (smaller buttons)
2 buttons horizontal or vertical
3 buttons horizontal or vertical
4 buttons equally divided
6 buttons arranged 3x2 or 2x3
9 buttons equally divided
And a big button spanning 2 standard buttons
And the smasher that is taking some more time:
A set of buttons depending on the active application...

I'm fighting with the colors (disappearing) now, as it's obviously in beta, but I'll report back soon.
-Ath (March 08, 2011, 03:59 PM)

Boy, this sounds really promising.
I went off to buy one of the iMo Monster 10" touch screens but they're temporarily sold out.

Ath · « **Reply #28 on:** March 08, 2011, 05:39 PM »

There is color (back) in the darkness already

, but now I gotta find another itsy bitsy of information on where to fetch the current active font-size used. It's there somewhere, but I'm out of time for today

Ath · « **Reply #29 on:** March 11, 2011, 03:58 PM »

Ok guys & gals, here it is, WinButtons is updated to 2.0.0

A quick rundown of the new features:

Button arrangement, giving double-sized buttons, 1/2, 1/3rd, 1/4th, 1/6th and 1/9th sized buttons
Application-focus button-context switching
Configurable font-size, global with per button override

All changes (quite a lot...) are in the source change-history, download and an extra screenshot in the original release-post

Any bug reports

or feature-requests can be posted here.

nudone · « **Reply #30 on:** March 12, 2011, 03:17 AM »

Marvellous. Going to download and give this a try - and daydream of getting a touchscreen...

Ath · « **Reply #31 on:** March 13, 2011, 03:47 PM »

A minor WinButtons update to 2.0.1

I've removed the restrictions of top and left being confined to the width/height of the main monitor. Any position checking should be done by the user, most of them are old enough

Updated download in the original release post

Ath · « **Reply #32 on:** April 08, 2011, 04:40 PM »

An update for WinButtons is available, it's now version 2.6.0

I've added variable replacement, with optional parameter handling (like functions), to most configuration items, and messagebox functions so a user can Yes/No or OK/Cancel confirm before a command is executed.

The downloadlink in the original release post has been moved to the DcMembers server I've been granted access

delwoode · « **Reply #33 on:** April 10, 2011, 12:31 PM »

tried downloading it form the DcMembers server but both times it was corrupt.

tomos · « **Reply #34 on:** April 10, 2011, 01:32 PM »

tried downloading it form the DcMembers server but both times it was corrupt.
-delwoode (April 10, 2011, 12:31 PM)

it could be that there's a corrupt version in your cache - you could try reloadingthe page &/or clearing the cache

[edit] then again it could be wonky - I cant even get it to download here, it says (around) 40KB/sec but it's not actually downloading the last third [/edit]

Ath · « **Reply #35 on:** April 10, 2011, 02:18 PM »

tried downloading it form the DcMembers server but both times it was corrupt.
-delwoode (April 10, 2011, 12:31 PM)

- I cant even get it to download here,
-tomos (April 10, 2011, 01:32 PM)

Hm, this must be an extend of the server trouble there was a couple of weeks ago, that still has ill effects on stuff. I also had some errors with 1 other upload I put there. I'll also attach it to the release-post in a few minutes. (v 2.6.0.1)

Thanks for reporting guys!

edit: Only one file upload failed because it has a dll in it, and passwording the file 'fixed' that

Ath · « **Reply #36 on:** April 10, 2011, 02:24 PM »

Tried the download from the dcmembers server myself, but all went just fine, though a bit slow, IMHO.

I'll notify mouser about this, to see if there is something I could/should have done different

tomos · « **Reply #37 on:** April 10, 2011, 03:13 PM »

Tried the download from the dcmembers server myself, but all went just fine, though a bit slow, IMHO.

I'll notify mouser about this, to see if there is something I could/should have done different
-Ath (April 10, 2011, 02:24 PM)

Testing:
I just downloaded an app elsewhere no problem,
but still have problems with this, and one of Skwire's apps that I tried (Anuran, also dcmembers) - both unsuccessful.

[edit] $:-\$ cant reach XYPlorer site at all, and downforeveryoneorjustme says it's just me... so maybe the problem is not "over there" [/edit]

delwoode · « **Reply #38 on:** April 10, 2011, 03:32 PM »

Yes it works for me now, this evening. It was in the afternoon when I tried before 3 or 4 times. The download was slower and got slower and s l o w e r util it was 3kb/s and just didn't manage the last part at all.
Anyway downloading fine now, got it.

however I would suggest a mirror link,dare I suggest megaupload or the like?

Ath · « **Reply #39 on:** April 10, 2011, 04:25 PM »

however I would suggest a mirror link
-delwoode (April 10, 2011, 03:32 PM)

I've already attached it also to the release-download, over here, I hope that's enough redundancy until the dcmembers server is working as usual/expected

delwoode · « **Reply #40 on:** April 11, 2011, 05:10 AM »

Hmm, the screenshots look good but unfortunately I am far too dumb to configure it

could a simple example be put in the read me of - say configuring button top left to open notepad? or something simple

Ath · « **Reply #41 on:** April 11, 2011, 05:55 AM »

There are several samples included in the zipfile

You could create a WinButtons.ini with just this in it:

[Select]

[Buttons]
button1=Notepad
command1=notepad c:\users\[insert-user-name]\Desktop\notes.txt

(Assuming Windows Vista or 7, replace the obvious with an actual username...)
You might want to add "-hide" (without the quotes) between = and notepad to hide the button while Notepad is open, as WinButtons has always on top set by default.
If you want it to go in the left top of the (main) monitor, add these lines:

[Select]

[Settings]
left=0
top=0

HTH

delwoode · « **Reply #42 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:18 AM »

Thanks, i think it would make more sense for me to start from scratch with my own simple winbutton.ini and add more to it as I figure it out - as the one that comes with it is too confusing for me to figure out.
Edit, getting a long much better starting from scratch. I am able to set up buttons and call variables.
I just found the amount of files a bit confusing and in the Readme/settings section where it said "This is a sample [Settings] section of the.ini file" I wondered which .ini file as there are a few.

Ath · « **Reply #43 on:** April 12, 2011, 02:21 AM »

Had to do some bugfixes so now we have WinButtons 2.6.1

What's new:

Supports expansion of environment variables (%varname% syntax) on Captions and Commands
Bugfixes for if no Variables section was defined

Because I have no ftp access from my current location I couldn't update the dcmembers download, so I attached it to the original release-post. Will fix asap.

Ath · « **Reply #44 on:** April 12, 2011, 05:56 PM »

Again a few minor updates (I should include DcUpdater/DcuHelper as a feature soon, I guess) and now WinButtons 2.6.1.2 is available.

What's new:

Environment variable support added for messages and questions (-msg and -ask/-asc)
:var<VarName>?<x>: parameter count may now be > 9, should that be needed
Download re-pointed to DcMembers server (server seems fine, and I have ftp access from home, ofcourse )

cranioscopical · « **Reply #45 on:** April 12, 2011, 06:33 PM »

Ath,

This is impressive stuff. I really haven't made the time to work with it yet.

There must be some quirk with my video (though it seems okay with other stuff).
On the first run out of the box I get the top menu. If I jump to the copy menu, which displays perfectly, and then close that I get the bottom menu (it's transparent with some odd button/colour changes).
This isn't a result of the later version changes, it's been constant as you've been working away at improvements.

Ath · « **Reply #46 on:** April 13, 2011, 01:46 AM »

Hm, tried to have that also happening over here, but I couldn't. There are some issues with hiding and re-showing the chain of windows, though, that I have to work on, but that's not cosmetically, but functionally.
What Windows version and Theme and Shell (Explorer or an alternative?) are you running? as I've only tested with Glass on standard Win7 x64 with Explorer.

[tech mode]
I'm using a call of SetWindowPos with (AutoIt3) flags BitOR($SWP_HIDEWINDOW, $SWP_NOACTIVATE, $SWP_NOMOVE, $SWP_NOZORDER, $SWP_NOSIZE) to hide, and $SWP_SHOWWINDOW in the appropriate place to restore the window. That shouldn't touch the background color though.
The standard function WinSetState() was pretty slow, so I searched and found an alternative. I can supply a test-release if you like, using the 'trusted' WinSetState calls?
[/tech mode]

Oh, and the "Push 1ce" and "shme 2" buttons are shown when you press the red "nger ca" button...

The implicit feature request of shadowing the caption as a tooltip is already scheduled for the next release

Ath · « **Reply #47 on:** April 13, 2011, 03:10 AM »

@cranioscopical, please test the attached pre-release of WinButtons 2.6.2, that has the new althide setting (add althide=1 to the [Settings] section of WinButtons.ini) and -ah/-ah- command-line parameters to use an alternative Window Hide method (WinSetState instead of SetWindowPos), to see if the background coloring issues go away.

TIA

Edit: Now that WinButtons 2.6.2.1 is officially released, with althide option available as a feature, this interim release has been removed.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #48 on:** April 13, 2011, 09:03 AM »

@cranioscopical, please test the attached pre-release of WinButtons 2.6.2, that has the new althide setting (add althide=1 to the [Settings] section of WinButtons.ini) and -ah/-ah- command-line parameters to use an alternative Window Hide method (WinSetState instead of SetWindowPos), to see if the background coloring issues go away.

-Ath (April 13, 2011, 03:10 AM)

Will do, soon, thanks. It was not my intention to complain!

Sometimes, when WinButtons returns to topmost, the transparent areas are filled with parts of the window beneath which it had been.
Occasionally, WinButtons shows only one button (top left, the flower). Moving the mouse over the areas where other buttons should be causes them to appear. Personally, I rather like this hypnotic gesturing interface. I think you could be on to the next big leap in O/S design

Hitting 'Submenu 4' launches another instance and I have to resort to killing off both of them.

I'm on XP SP3, Windows XP theme (with some basic changes to colours and fonts).

I'll get back to you, thanks for responding!

Ath · « **Reply #49 on:** April 13, 2011, 09:15 AM »

Any chance this is related to a video driver, perhaps?, as this is rather basic AutoIt3 script, nothing fancy on the UI side. Lets first wait and see if the althide option makes a difference.

Hitting 'Submenu 4' launches another instance and I have to resort to killing off both of them.
-cranioscopical (April 13, 2011, 09:03 AM)

Usually (sub-)instances of WinButtons can be closed by pressing <Esc>... (unless that's disabled by setting exitonesc=0) or <Alt-F4> (that can't be disabled)