Qatapult

[ecaradec]

I've added a few things we've been talking about :

- The biggest thing from a user point of view is that the format of the settings file changes to an xml format. It will make the structure easier to maintain instead of putting indices everywhere. Your old settings.ini file won't load anymore, you'll have to replace it with the settings.xml provided.
- Very simple plugins can be created. Actually it's just what could be done within the settings.ini file but qatapult will now load  plugin.xml files from the plugin folder. That will make rules easier to share as we'll be able to distribute them as a single zip file. You can add executables and icons you need in the same folder. I've included the ewemoa largetype plugin as an example.
- A reload command can now reload all the config file without quiting and restarting qatapult
- You can now add new line in text by pressing shift+enter
- You can now add multiples items when you're using lbl+ico items. You can differentiate between the one that are selected with the $x.text variable
- There is now a WINDOW source that list the currently active windows that can be queried for $x.title and $x.hwnd. I haven't made any rule with those, but there is probably a ton of uses

I've changed the internal structure of the command, as this can impact a lot of things there might be a few bugs in this version. These kinds of changes are hard to test, I'll be happy if you can report about that too

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the update

- A reload command can now reload all the config file without quiting and restarting qatapult

-ecaradec (February 12, 2012, 02:21 PM)

Hurray!  It's working nicely.

- You can now add new line in text by pressing shift+enter

This works here too

I noticed that the cursor position advances to the right by one after Shift+Enter instead of to the next line.  Does that happen there too?

- There is now a WINDOW source that list the currently active windows that can be queried for $x.title and $x.hwnd. I haven't made any rule with those, but there is probably a ton of uses

I have a use in mind but haven't figured out how to use this appropriately yet.  To test this out, what should I try to populate the first pane with?


I'd like to be able to clear the content of the current pane -- is there a recommended way of doing so without using multiple presses of Backspace or Delete?


I converted Calculate to the new format.  I also made a not-directly-usable "plugin" to collect the shared AutoHotkey pieces.  It's a folder inside the plugins directory named AHK and it contains:

• Lib\
• AutoHotkey.dll
• AutoHotkey.exe <- actually from HotkeyIt's AutoHotkey

The contents are referenced by local versions of Calculate and LargeType.  Below is what LargeType's plugin.xml file looks like here.

Code: Text [Select]

1. <settings>
2.     <rules>
3.         <rule>
4.             <arg>TEXT</arg>
5.             <arg>
6.                 <item>
7.                     <lbl>Large Type</lbl>
8.                     <ico>plugins\LargeType\LargeType.png</ico>
9.                 </item>
10.             </arg>
11.             <cmd>plugins\AHK\AutoHotkey.exe</cmd>
12.             <args>plugins\LargeType\LargeType.ahk "$0.text"</args>
13.         </rule>
14.     </rules>
15. </settings>

time to...

search DC forums for some convenient XML editors may be

[pigeonlips]

Quote from: ecaradec on Today at 02:21:20 PM
- A reload command can now reload all the config file without quiting and restarting qatapult

Not working for me. It disapears but in the task manager its remains and the PID doesnt change. It then seems to Hang. (or i can not summon it again).

Also the quit feature doenst work for me ether now where it did before. I have to stop it via the task manager now. On win XP. Might be something about my machine. Not sure.

This works here too

I noticed that the cursor position advances to the right by one after Shift+Enter instead of to the next line.  Does that happen there too?

Also advances to the right by one char. But as soon as i type its dropped to the next line. The extra space remains.

[pigeonlips]

- The biggest thing from a user point of view is that the format of the settings file changes to an xml format. It will make the structure easier to maintain instead of putting indices everywhere. Your old settings.ini file won't load anymore, you'll have to replace it with the settings.xml provided.

Very nice. Much easyer to use. Although i think this could be better in terms of the name's of keys: the word "arg" sounds a little indiscriminate and without the playing around in the old settings ini i would have found this hard to work out at first. Also i'm not sure how to accomplished this :

2_arg=TEXT

But all in all much better. Thanks!  

- Very simple plugins can be created. Actually it's just what could be done within the settings.ini file but qatapult will now load  plugin.xml files from the plugin folder. That will make rules easier to share as we'll be able to distribute them as a single zip file. You can add executables and icons you need in the same folder. I've included the ewemoa largetype plugin as an example.

Sweet - makes packaging em up nice and easy. Thanks. I like this alot.

- You can now add multiples items when you're using lbl+ico items. You can differentiate between the one that are selected with the $x.text variable

Sweet! works nice. Here's an example!

extract to plugins folder

volume.zip - 239.2 KB

if you just want to see how to add em click here:

Spoiler

[Select]

<settings>
    <rules>
        <rule>
            <arg>TEXT</arg>
            <arg>
                <item>
                    <lbl>Volume</lbl>
                    <ico>plugins\volume\volume.png</ico>
                </item>
            </arg>  
            <arg>
                <item>
                    <lbl>MASTER</lbl>
                    <ico>plugins\volume\volume.png</ico>
                </item>
<item>
                    <lbl>MICROPHONE</lbl>
                    <ico>plugins\volume\volume.png</ico>
                </item>
<item>
                    <lbl>WAVE</lbl>
                    <ico>plugins\volume\volume.png</ico>
                </item>
            </arg>
            <cmd>plugins\volume\volume.exe</cmd>
            <args>$0.text $2.text</args>
        </rule>
    </rules>
</settings>

Also here's the ahk if you prefer to an uncomplied version (and or) modify to suit your needs!

Spoiler

[Select]

; AutoHotkey Version: 1.0.47.6
; Language:       English
; Platform:       Win9x/NT
; Author:         Ian
;
; Script Function:
; standalone exe to control the system volume.
;   intended to be used with autohotkey
; Use:
; SetSound.exe [NewSetting] [ComponentType] [ControlType] [DeviceNumber]
; Options
; NewSetting [REQUERED]
;     Percentage number between -100 and 100 inclusive (it can be a floating point number or expression).
; If the number begins with a plus or minus sign, the current setting will be adjusted up or down by the indicated amount.
;
; ComponentType [OPTIONAL]
; If omitted or blank, it defaults to the word MASTER. Otherwise, it can be one of the following words:
; MASTER (synonymous with SPEAKERS),
; DIGITAL,
; LINE,
; MICROPHONE,
; SYNTH,
; CD,
; TELEPHONE,
; PCSPEAKER,
; WAVE,
; AUX,
; ANALOG,
; HEADPHONES,
;
; ControlType [OPTIONAL]
; If omitted or blank, it defaults to VOLUME. Otherwise, it can be one of the following words:
; VOLUME (or VOL),
; ONOFF,
; MUTE,
; MONO,
; LOUDNESS,
; STEREOENH,
; BASSBOOST,
; PAN,
; QSOUNDPAN,
; BASS,
; TREBLE,
; EQUALIZER,
;
; DeviceNumber [OPTIONAL]
; If this parameter is omitted, it defaults to 1 (the first sound device), which is usually the system's default device for recording and playback.
; Specify a number higher than 1 to operate upon a different sound device.


#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SoundSet, %1%, %2%, %3%, %4%
if ErrorLevel
    MsgBox, %ErrorLevel%

There is now a WINDOW source that list the currently active windows that can be queried for $x.title and $x.hwnd. I haven't made any rule with those, but there is probably a ton of uses

going to start trying this out in a few minutes. Looking forward to this!

[ewemoa]

Quote from: ecaradec on Today at 02:21:20 PM
- A reload command can now reload all the config file without quiting and restarting qatapult

Not working for me. It disapears but in the task manager its remains and the PID doesnt change. It then seems to Hang. (or i can not summon it again).

-pigeonlips (February 12, 2012, 05:59 PM)

I think the intention is for settings and plugins to be re-read without the running process exiting and a new one starting.  FWIW, the PID doesn't appear to change here after executing "Reload".

Also the quit feature doenst work for me ether now where it did before. I have to stop it via the task manager now. On win XP. Might be something about my machine. Not sure.

It seems to work here -- though this is with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

[ewemoa]

Here's an example!

extract to plugins folder

volume.zip - 239.2 KB

if you just want to see how to add em click here:

Also here's the ahk if you prefer to an uncomplied version (and or) modify to suit your needs!

-pigeonlips (February 12, 2012, 06:26 PM)

Thanks for the uncompiled version.  I tried to adapt things to work here.

I may have run into a snag though.  Executing:

0'
Volume
MASTER

I get a dialog box with the text:

Mixer Doesn't Support This Component Type

May be it has something to do with the environment here being Windows 7.   Don't know if it's relevant but came across the following from the SoundSet docs:

On Windows Vista or later, SoundSet and SoundGet affect only the script itself (this may be resolved in a future version). There are at least two ways to work around this:

1) In the properties dialog for the file "AutoHotkey.exe" (or a compiled script), change the compatibility setting to "Windows XP".

2) Have the script send volume-control keystrokes to change the master volume for the entire system. For example:

Send {Volume_Up}  ; Raise the master volume by 1 interval (typically 5%).
Send {Volume_Down 3}  ; Lower the master volume by 3 intervals.
Send {Volume_Mute}  ; Mute/unmute the master volume.

[pigeonlips]

May be it has something to do with the environment here being Windows 7.   Don't know if it's relevant but came across the following from the SoundSet docs:

bummer -
"In the properties dialog for the file "AutoHotkey.exe" (or a compiled script), change the compatibility setting to "Windows XP"."
You could try that.  Also i was quite surprised with the output of the soundcard analysis script. It explained why one or two where not working for me (on another mixer).

I might try writing a one off install script that uses the data from this to create the plugin.xml.

lol - i need to get off this outdated copy of XP.

[ewemoa]

"In the properties dialog for the file "AutoHotkey.exe" (or a compiled script), change the compatibility setting to "Windows XP"."
You could try that.

-pigeonlips (February 12, 2012, 09:26 PM)

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm hoping to try that when I re-establish access to an appropriate Windows environment.

lol - i need to get off this outdated copy of XP.

FWIW, although I started using Windows 7 recently, at the moment, I still prefer XP for many things.

[pigeonlips]

Windows working sweet too! But that said,

A) search is not that great i have one match for  Qatapult - DonationCoder.com - Chromium, but can only find it if i type an uppercase Q. No other combo works (qata, chrom, don, Don, etc)

B) the list seems really long. I won't mind this if i could filter the results with good search , but i have a million entry's for M ? no idea! Also stuff like Default IME.



I know your not to blame for the choice of window title someone chooses but i would be nice to have a config global option to only return windows with a (not sure the terminanolgy but) style/state that is an active intractable state. Ie not a background app or service. etc.

I know its early stages. I'm not moaning, in fact i'm well impressed how quick you got this working!

And @ewemoa, as i'm sure he'll want to play with this too:

here is an example:

[Select]

<settings>
    <rules>
        <rule>
            <arg>TEXT</arg>
            <arg>
                <item>
                    <lbl>WINTEST</lbl>
                    <ico>plugins\wintest\.png</ico>
                </item>
            </arg> 
            <arg>WINDOW</arg>
            <cmd>cmd.exe</cmd>
            <args>/K "echo $2.hwnd $2.title"</args>
        </rule>
    </rules>
</settings>

filling in the first pane is irrelevant (so long as its text)

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the example pigeonlips!

A) search is not that great i have one match for  Qatapult - DonationCoder.com - Chromium, but can only find it if i type an uppercase Q. No other combo works (qata, chrom, don, Don, etc)

-pigeonlips (February 12, 2012, 10:35 PM)

I think this is the problem I was having -- only pigeonlips figured things out in much more detail!  I confirm this is what happens here under Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Knowing this I got my earlier attempt at a plugin to work -- it just sends some window to the bottom of the stack using AHK's WinSet w/ Bottom argument.

Here's what I have:

plugins\SendToBack\SendToBack.ahk

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. ; icon adapted from:
2. ;   http://rrze-icon-set.berlios.de/index.html
3.  
4. NArgs = %0%
5.  
6. Hwnd = %1%
7.  
8. ; XXX
9. OutputDebug, % "Number of arguments passed in: " . NArgs
10. OutputDebug, % "  Hwnd: " . Hwnd
11.  
12. WinSet, Bottom, , % "ahk_id " . Hwnd

plugins\SendToBack\plugin.xml

Code: Text [Select]

1. <settings>
2.     <rules>
3.         <rule>
4.             <arg>WINDOW</arg>
5.             <arg>
6.                 <item>
7.                     <lbl>Send To Back</lbl>
8.                     <ico>plugins\SendToBack\SendToBack.png</ico>
9.                 </item>
10.             </arg>
11.             <cmd>plugins\AHK\AutoHotkey.exe</cmd>
12.             <args>plugins\SendToBack\SendToBack.ahk "$0.hwnd"</args>
13.         </rule>
14.     </rules>
15. </settings>

plugins\SendToBack\SendToBack.png should be attached

[ecaradec]

Hum, hum, I think that I went a bit too fast with the window thing. I really should not display the hidden windows AND check against upper case characters AND make search fuzzy. That's what happens when you develop without thinking. On the positive side, adding source is really simple now if the data are easy to get.

The other thing that is starting to annoy me is that all the types tends to land into the first pane. Do you know how QS used to solve that ? I was considering allowing only selected sources to show up in the first pane by default, then add either prefixes to enable them or alt+left/right to force select a single source. What would be the best for you ?

I noticed too that the reload and quit seems to be slightly unreliable, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I'm stopping the indexing thread to reload and quit now. I suppose that something is preventing the thread to stop here. You're correct when you supose that I don't restart the whole process, I just reload the rules and reread the settings files.

For the sound thing, I think you might use the nircmd thing. It seems to handle the win7/vista sound system properly.

I agree that the xml format is less readable than the .ini thing. That was one of my grip with xml. I might remove the item thing if you have a single verb to make the thing more readable :

[Select]

<rule>
    <arg>TEXT</arg>
    <arg>
        <lbl>test</lbl>
        <ico>test.ico</lbl>
    </arg>
</rule>

But multi-elements pretty much require it, I'm not sure that this is a good idea.

I've the extra character when adding a return char. I suppose that it is measured as a printable character. I'll change that.

I've a bit of an issue with the left key for completion. It's not very nice with standard keyboard. I was thinking about something like ctrl+. or ctrl+! or some other easy combination. Or may be I should just start working on creating a dialog for editing shortcuts. No keys are probably going to be usable for everyone.

[ewemoa]

The other thing that is starting to annoy me is that all the types tends to land into the first pane. Do you know how QS used to solve that ?

-ecaradec (February 13, 2012, 05:42 AM)

What I recall at the moment is:

Encourage people not to add too much to the Catalog -- by limiting the number of sources and how many items each source contained.  For example, if there were a source for a folder, scan depth was one of the configurable properties (see pages 120-121 and 27-30 in the manual).

Another item was to apply "right-arrowing" into certain objects:

Page 30:

If Advanced features are enabled, in the Quicksilver set there is a source called Quicksilver Catalog Entries. If enabled, an item is added to the catalog for each source configured. These items have names that end with “(Catalog)”. You can select one of these items in the first pane and then type → to navigate through just that source. If you want to do this often, create a trigger. E.g., the trigger Applications (Catalog) (Show Contents) lets you search through just the applications in your catalog (well those that are found via this catalog source). While you can often do this just by typing → into an object, if you have custom sources configured (say for files of a particular project) this can be very handy.

and

Page 65:

Activate Quicksilver and select iTunes in the first pane; iTunes does not have to be running. Typing → will show a new results list of several ways to browse the iTunes library:

Recent Tracks
Show Playing Track
Browse Genres
Browse Artists
Browse Composers
Browse Albums
Browse Tracks
Music Library
all the playlists and smart playlists

If the iTunes Playlists catalog source is enabled, all of these items are also in the global catalog, i.e., available in the first pane after activating Quicksilver. However, specific songs, albums, artists are never in the global catalog, only these grouping objects are. This keeps the catalog at a reasonable size. Quicksilver startup might be slow if there’s a large iTunes library. If this is the case, consider disabling the iTunes Playlists catalog source.

From the second quote one can see that there was a way to make things available in QS without them coming up directly in the first pane.  Typically one could get at such things by first getting a kind of grouping/containing object to show up in the first pane and then "right-arrowing" into it see a list of "contained" items.

IIRC, users did express a desire for some kind of filtering-by-type while interacting with specific panes but I don't recall such a thing being implemented while I was a user.

On pages 13-14 there is:

You might not have realized this but Quicksilver shows what matches what you typed in two different ways. When first activated, Quicksilver will filter the whole catalog down to just the things that match what you typed. To be clear, the things that don’t match what you typed, are removed from the results list. However if at some point you type → or / to “go into” an object, if you type you’ll find that Quicksilver moves to (snaps to) the first item that matches what you typed alphabetically. The non-matching items are not removed. This is most apparent when browsing the file system or your iTunes library. It’s also evident when browsing a contact’s information, if you type to find their work phone number, the other information is still displayed in the results list (which is convenient). Sometimes these behaviors are known as selection as opposed to narrowing. In a results list there’s a gear menu in the top right of the window, from there you can choose these behaviors via the Search Modes sub-menu:

 Filter Results - Filters the current results list.
 Filter Catalog - Filters, but also includes the entire contents of the top-level catalog. Lasts until you type esc or activate Quicksilver again (⌃-space).
 Snap to Best - scrolls the results list to the best match but doesn’t remove non-matching
items.

May be the gear menu idea mentioned could be adapted / modified for some kind of filtering-by-type...

Qatapult

I noticed too that the reload and quit seems to be slightly unreliable, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I'm stopping the indexing thread to reload and quit now. I suppose that something is preventing the thread to stop here.

I confirmed that "Reload" and "Quit" were much slower on an XP machine.  They did eventually work, but at the speed I was experiencing, I think I'd end up opting to terminate the process and start it manually.  I have been lucky under Windows 7 so far and haven't noticed any problems with speed for "Reload" / "Quit".

Or may be I should just start working on creating a dialog for editing shortcuts. No keys are probably going to be usable for everyone.

If it's not too much work, this feature might let us try out various possibilities and perhaps the results of our experiments might be useful for deciding on some defaults  Personally, I think I'm fine to try to change things via the settings file as long as figuring out what the codes are for various keys can be made practical...

[pigeonlips]

Hum, hum, I think that I went a bit too fast with the window thing. I really should not display the hidden windows AND check against upper case characters AND make search fuzzy. That's what happens when you develop without thinking. On the positive side, adding source is really simple now if the data are easy to get.

I love how quick its moving. A half baked feature is great because i get to play with it and see where your going with it safe in the knowledge that its early days and before long the half baked feature is working great!       

Thanks for letting us play along!

Quote from: ecaradec on Today at 05:42:26 AM
The other thing that is starting to annoy me is that all the types tends to land into the first pane. Do you know how QS used to solve that ?

What I recall at the moment is:

Encourage people not to add too much to the Catalog -- by limiting the number of sources and how many items each source contained.  For example, if there were a source for a folder, scan depth was one of the configurable properties (see pages 120-121 and 27-30 in the manual).

Another item was to apply "right-arrowing" into certain objects:

Not sure if i follow. Do you mean limit the results in the first pane by context? I use Linux at home and there's an app called synapse thats my default lanucher of choice. This has a clever way of filtering the results by using the arrows to move between object types (see the link. Left and Right move the results to the "Actions, Audio, Applications, all, places, documents, images, web"

http://www.webupd8.o...leased-with-new.html
http://lifehacker.co...n-launcher-for-linux

I always thought this was nice. I especially liked how the ui handled this. Also prior to qatapult, i also liked FARR's way of using prefix +pics for example. In FARR you have to set these up yourself which i like for the power, and in synapse the defaults are good and you can use straight out the box. Its simple too which is great for new users.

If it where up to me (which its not) I would go for both of the above! Long term: provide a good set of defaults and make them very configurable. Also retain the prefix thing (say +audio) then the user doesn't have to hit left 4 or 5 times to get the result set they want. Make the settings GUI include a "pin to gui" for you 5 favorite contexts all the prefix to be user editable IE

Filter rule                         Filter name             Filter prefix         Pin to GUI
---------------------        -----------------    --------------    -------------------
[*.mp3,*.ogg, *.wav]        audio                     +audio              true
[http://*,www.*]              web                      +web                true

This all said, I get the impression (and think i read somewhere) that your trying to keep this as close to quicksilver as possible. If this is the plan, don't feel bad for ignoring my suggestions. I have never used QS so i really can not comment and if this is the way your going then its good that there's a clear vision. Also everyone i know thats ever used a Mac loves QS so it cannot be a bad thing!

I noticed too that the reload and quit seems to be slightly unreliable, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I'm stopping the indexing thread to reload and quit now. I suppose that something is preventing the thread to stop here.

I confirmed that "Reload" and "Quit" were much slower on an XP machine.  They did eventually work, but at the speed I was experiencing, I think I'd end up opting to terminate the process and start it manually.  I have been lucky under Windows 7 so far and haven't noticed any problems with speed for "Reload" / "Quit".

I have access to a very large number of networked drives. Its forever indexing. I like this feature though so this is not a gripe. It does makes perfect sense in terms of the restart. Also i have the patience of a ant so if something doesn't happen sub second i usually move to the task manager. 

For the sound thing, I think you might use the nircmd thing. It seems to handle the win7/vista sound system properly.

there's a ton of ways to skin that cat. nircmd is great idea. there's a ton of things you can do with this. I say keep working on the core qatapult and allow users to create plugins for this stuff. I haven't tried to hard with the plugins just yet as i was mostly concerned with porting over all the nice features i used from other apps. I personally am more than happy for you to bundle/reuse/modify anything i get working.

incase its handy (from NIRCMD):

[Select]

setvolume [device] [left-volume] [right-volume]
Set the volume level of your sound device. The [device] parameter represents the device identifier. In most cases, you should use '0' value for this parameter. Under Windows Vista, you should specify 0 for default playback device or 1 for default recording device.
The [left-volume] and [right-volume] parameters should contain a value between 0 (silence) and 65535 (full volume) that represents the volume level for left and right channels.
Examples:
setvolume 0 0 0
setvolume 0 32768 32768
setvolume 0 0xffff 0

 

I agree that the xml format is less readable than the .ini thing. That was one of my grip with xml. I might remove the item thing if you have a single verb to make the thing more readable :
....
But multi-elements pretty much require it, I'm not sure that this is a good idea.

I think your right. Leave it. One day i'm sure you'll have a nice GUI and therefore it wont matter so much. I just got confused with the args tag all over the place. Once i understand it - i dont mind what its called. 
Maybe just change the name of the args to <object> <verb> ..... or whatever terminological your using.

Ps i like you can get more than 3 panes. I know you might not want this, but i'm sure it will come in handy for me so time in the future.






Much Love.

[pigeonlips]

@ewemoa

Here's what I have:
plugins\SendToBack\SendToBack.ahk

Hope you dont mind but i took this one step further. the script is ready for the WINDOW datatype and will except HWND id or window title.

For now as the result set is too large for me to get $0.hwnd or $1.title working i have set it to use title based search using the TEXT type. Its nice as its using reg expressions to find the title. The draw back with this is that you need to know that the window is open. Currently it:

> Switchs to an open window
> Sends it to the back of the stack (hide)
> min
> max
> close.

Whoot - no more alt-tab for me!



winpult.zip - 257.8 KB

With the sound one, i think the mixer needs setting to 2. Run that soundcard analysis script you sent me the link for. Using the info in that i was alble to tweek mine to be perfect. Just needed to change the mixer for some.

[ewemoa]

Not sure if i follow. Do you mean limit the results in the first pane by context?

-pigeonlips (February 13, 2012, 03:50 PM)

Not every object in QS could be gotten at directly by typing a string that would match that object's name -- at least not starting from a blank first (or third) pane.  Some objects one would get at via an intermediate containing / grouping object.  The containing object might be accessible by typing its name to get it into the first pane, and then one could "enter" it sort of by typing right-arrow.  One would then see a list of results that was "contained" in a sense -- and in that list of results there'd be these objects.

Imagine only being able to get at folders (but not files) in FARR or Qatapult by typing strings matching their names right after bringing up their main windows.  Files might be accessed by bringing up a containing folder and then pressing the right-arrow to start the process of navigating to a target file.

As an example in QS, the following describes a bit of what could be done with the iTunes plugin:

• Bring up "Recent Tracks" in the first pane
• Press the right arrow key to see a list of results (tracks)
• Choose a result (track)

In this example, it may have been that the tracks that showed up in the results list could not be gotten at directly by typing their names when the applicable pane was blank to begin with.  It may have also been that "Recent Tracks" itself couldn't be gotten to without bring up the iTunes (app) object in the first pane.  Once the iTunes object was brought up, one could right-arrow into it, and one of the results was "Recent Tracks".

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details for the iTunes plugin as I didn't use iTunes much

Does this make more sense?

I use Linux at home and there's an app called synapse thats my default lanucher of choice.

Hadn't heard of this one -- thanks for mentioning it.  I currently use kupfer which is pretty close to QS.  I just tried building synapse but it seems to have some dependencies which may take some time to get straight.  Hope to get some direct experience soon though

Ah, there appear to be some relevant videos on youtube -- may be some might be worth taking a look at.


Too tired to continue at the moment.  May be I will be up to processing the rest later.


P.S. Hope to check out your further Window-related work.  Sounds good so far!

[pigeonlips]

Does this make more sense?

i think so - thanks. Without using QS its hard to imagine from a text description alone.  So an example might be (1st pane)

Window > arrow left > List of WINDOW objects in the first pane. then right arrow to get back out to search all again?

i'm youtubing some videos to have a look now.

PS i didn't know you could skin it. This "Showcase" looks gorgeous - if the idea behind qatapult is to port QS - port that. Dam!

http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

[pigeonlips]

I just couldnt help myself :  



skin.zip - 30.7 KB

and with the nice reflection. Guess i need a new icon set 

[ewemoa]

Does this make more sense?

[ ... ]  So an example might be (1st pane)

Window > arrow left > List of WINDOW objects in the first pane. then right arrow to get back out to search all again?

-pigeonlips (February 13, 2012, 08:36 PM)

Nearly -- if you switch left and right, I think that's closer -- as in, right arrow to get a list and left arrow to get back out.


Regarding skins / interfaces:

Not sure if there is much more than what you've found, but in the manual posted before starting on page 23 in the Interfaces section, there is some info along with some screenshots.  What's show in the manual includes:

• Primer
• Window
• Mini
• Bezel
• Flashlight
• Menu
• Cube

[ewemoa]

...i took this one step further. the script is ready for the WINDOW datatype and will except HWND id or window title.

-pigeonlips (February 13, 2012, 07:17 PM)

Works nicely here for the most part  

Attached is what I've adapted for local use (includes: toggleontop and restore with some icon and code mods).

MD5: 2ce1a2470397d3a49dd5bd43d6b08e41

[ewemoa]

Ps i like you can get more than 3 panes. I know you might not want this, but i'm sure it will come in handy for me so time in the future.

-pigeonlips (February 13, 2012, 03:50 PM)

There is also the idea of the "action" living in the first pane for an alternative UI idea

[ewemoa]

I updated winpult-mod with some name and icon suggestions.

[ewemoa]

skin.zip - 30.7 KB

-pigeonlips (February 13, 2012, 09:15 PM)

Worked nicely here 

May be ecaradec will make skins more like plugins...

[pigeonlips]

I updated winpult-mod with some name and icon suggestions.

Thanks, I like it.  

Toggle on top ? never knew you could do that so easily, A very nice addition.
Icons = look so much better and tons more descriptive. Thanks.

with some name and icon suggestions.

bummer. I was hopping that you meant the name for the plugin. winpult is lame......

The names for the action are much clearer now, show hide was not very descriptive of what it did. Plus hide and min sound like the same idea from a users perspective. Much better choice of words. Fancy giving it a better name. At first i thought it was fun idea to end all my plugins with 'pult' (like launchys plugins foxy, calcy etc) but now i see it again, its not as funny as i thought!

May be ecaradec will make skins more like plugins...

a quick win for skining maybe is to define a directory to look for the background.png, background3.png, focus.png etc in the settings.xml and have a folder called skins?


Also i'd love a ini/xml file that includes the height, width, x, y for the controls. This way i'd get much closer to the full showcase skin. That sounds like a lot of extra work though and i'm not sure how ecaradec feels about people mucking around with the GUI.

Also don't get me wrong, i think the default skin is very nice. Also probably best to get it feature rich before something as trivial as skinning. but that showcase skin, sigh, that's nice. I wonder how much a mac is....... lol
 

[ecaradec]

Thanks ewemoa, I hadn't really understood what the catalogs where. It's much clearer now.

I think I can make the configuration keys easier to configure with readable name instead of keycode without too much work.

I didn't know about synapse, it looks really nice. There is a tons of apps that makes me jealous of being on Windows now... It never happened before, the world is changing.

you're trying to keep this as close to quicksilver as possible

Clearly no : we can totally differ if things can be made better. I've never used QS anyway, so most of the time, I'm just guessing
what the quicksilver choice would be. And I don't want to attract a bunch of super fans that will get upset if anything is different.
Really there can be differences.

Also i have the patience of a ant so if something doesn't happen sub second i usually move to the task manager

So I'm am

I have access to a very large number of networked drives. Its forever indexing.

Do you mean the indexing of drives takes forever OR the indexing of files on drives. I have a tons of drives at work and the indexing of drives is quite fast...

Ps i like you can get more than 3 panes

I completly assume that, there is not reason to limit that : the display is not able to handle it for the moment but all the background code works on rules of any length.

May be ecaradec will make skins more like plugins...

Sure !

[ecaradec]

Adding skin support is probably very simple. I'll try to solve this catalog thing first because this is an usuability thing, then I'll go for the candies