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Qatapult
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 :
--- ---<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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
--- End quote ---
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! :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
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 ?
--- End quote ---
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:
--- End quote ---
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.org/2011/09/synapse-launcher-028-released-with-new.html
http://lifehacker.com/5704221/synapse-is-a-super+fast-tightly-integrated-application-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.
--- End quote ---
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".
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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.
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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):
--- ---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.
--- End quote ---
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. :D
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
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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)
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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.
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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!
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