DonationCoder.com Software > N.A.N.Y. 2012
NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo
kyrathaba:
Great work, tranglos. Those screenshots are awesome!
kyrathaba:
What flavor of database does your program use, just out of curiosity?
tranglos:
Great work, tranglos. Those screenshots are awesome!
-kyrathaba (September 06, 2011, 07:59 AM)
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Thanks! I was also going to create a how-to video, but it's tricky to show the workings of a program that sits in the tray and does nothing visible most of the time :) I'll probably add a video on configuring views and choosing clipboard formats, because these aspects may deserve some explanation.
What flavor of database does your program use, just out of curiosity?
-kyrathaba (September 06, 2011, 07:59 AM)
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The database is SQLite - very fast and does not require a server. (Ditto and Firefox use it as well.) The specific implementation is DISQLite3, a commercial Delphi component. The benefit is that the database is built right into the application, so no DLLs and much faster execution.
tranglos:
No bug reports yet - this could be either good or bad, depending :)
This is where I could use some ideas. The basic design of Echo was quite firmly set, but there are a few areas where I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted:
1. The clip list context menu: too small? Too large? Any important commands missing? Or could the order of commands be improved? (For example, I tried to keep the Delete command away from other most commonly used commands such as Sticky and Edit, to avoid situations where you might accidentally delete a clip by a slip of the mouse. Any comments are welcome.)
2. The "Navigate" section in the main menu doesn't seem to be pulling its weight. Perhaps the menu could be done away with entirely, and the commands distributed under other sections of the menu?
3. The editor (Shift+F2): apart from spell-check, which is coming, is there anything else that could be useful? This isn't meant to be a fully-featured editor, but I can do a few things there. Is the context menu enough, or would anyone prefer a toolbar?
4. Do you think it's a good idea to suspend capturing clips while the editor is active? Any scenario under which you would want to capture text copied from the Shift+F2 editor?
Also, please let me know if you find that Echo (a) isn't capturing something it should, or (b) has trouble pasting into a certain application. I have tested with plenty of apps, but now that it's out in the open, new issues may appear.
Any suggestions and ideas are very welcome. Now is a good time! :)
superboyac:
1. The clip list context menu: too small? Too large? Any important commands missing? Or could the order of commands be improved? (For example, I tried to keep the Delete command away from other most commonly used commands such as Sticky and Edit, to avoid situations where you might accidentally delete a clip by a slip of the mouse. Any comments are welcome.)
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I strongly feel that the navigation commands should be buttons on the toolbar. However, I feel these navigation commands are largely trivial. Between using the mouse and keyboard and the simplicity of this app, anything more is pretty small in importance.
2. The "Navigate" section in the main menu doesn't seem to be pulling its weight. Perhaps the menu could be done away with entirely, and the commands distributed under other sections of the menu?
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Sure, the simpler the better, especially when you lose nothing in the process.
3. The editor (Shift+F2): apart from spell-check, which is coming, is there anything else that could be useful? This isn't meant to be a fully-featured editor, but I can do a few things there. Is the context menu enough, or would anyone prefer a toolbar?
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I would prefer a toolbar where I can customize it. This is a very simple application, and having access to a few buttons is better and easier than right-click stuff. one-click vs two-clicks. A very cool feature to add to the editor is the ability to highlight search terms. It's already awesome how the non-matches disappear (like evernote), but to make it perfect, the search terms would be highlighted individually. And if there are multiple search terms, they would have different colors (just like evernote). This, by the way, would turn this into one of my favorite applications ever.
4. Do you think it's a good idea to suspend capturing clips while the editor is active? Any scenario under which you would want to capture text copied from the Shift+F2 editor?
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I can see of one use: trying to copy a portion of a clip already in the program. In the regular view, you can't highlight a portion of the note without opening the external editor. In fact, if you made the stuff in the regular view selectable, you wouldn't even need an external editor. But then how would you edit a clip? Well, two ways: either have a small button next to each clip which, when clicked, would allow you to edit it (like Surfulator) or you can add an option about what to do with mouse clicks. I might set it up so that double-clicking allows me to edit a note. So you can have customizable options for mouse clicks (like KMPlayer). But I'd really like to be able to select and copy a portion of a clip without having to double-click on it first, or open up an editor, or any extra steps. And when I copy that subclip, I'd like the option in the preferences to record or ignore copied subclips. i would set it to record everything including subclips.
Another feature I'd love to have (as in CHS and Arsclip) is a quickpaste menu for pasting stuff. So with CHS and ARSclip, with a hotkey, you can have a quickpaste menu appear right under your mouse pointer which is awesome.
Also, how about an option to show the entire note in the normal view, regardless of the length. I know we can set it to a big value, but how about just a "always show entire note" setting?
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