VistaGlance

[Zero3K]

Description from its website:

VistaGlance is a revolutionary program with elements of artificial intelligence that gives you a wonderful ability to get documents you want or run programs you need within several seconds since you firstly think about them. VistaGlance utilizes results of original research in computer human interaction and human perception to increase efficiency of documents-related work up to 30 percents.

Screenshot:



Homepage: http://www.vistaglance.com
Download: http://www.vistaglan....com/VistaGlance.exe
Forums: http://www.vistaglan...com/forums/index.php
License: Freeware (there is also a Pro version that's shareware and includes more features)

[jgpaiva]

This looks like an interesting program.. Has anyone tried it?

[nudone]

i've just installed it. it's now scanning my hard drives to create it's database.

so, it appears to be something similar to google/msn/yahoo/etc/etc desktop search - but without the massive database it seems...

it scanned 3 hard drives in less than 2 minutes (that's about 400 gig of files).

i'm now about to put it to the test, here goes.

[nudone]

well, that's about 15 minutes i've been playing with 'vistaglance'.

mixed feelings so far. i'm not entirely sure if i'm just not using it properly or it doesn't fully work.

the floating toolbar appears to work fine and is a great little tool: just type in the name of the file/folder you want and a list of matches appear - with a handy popout window with buttons for cut/copy/paste amongst other things.

there are also toolbars that integrate with windows explorer and your windows taskbar but i can't get these to do anything like what the floating toolbar does.

i'm still wondering if this is a major improvement over the more common desktop search programs. the potential is certainly there and you can see that a lot of thought has gone into the program - you can even add 'tags' to your files to provide even more ways to search for things (this tagging method appears to break if you move the files from where you first tagged them).

what 'vistaglance' demonstrates more than anything is what 'find and run robot' could be doing in the near future (i know people have requested it). with the addition of a database to store file data and a few tricks, such as tagging, i think we'd all see desktop productivity go into hyperdrive.

(the database appears to be about 25 meg which is a dramatic difference to what you'd expect from the well known desktop searchers.)

i'm going to give 'vistaglance' a try as i've never really got on well with things like google desktop search (etc). and, i'll be keeping my fingers crossed that maybe one day 'find and run robot' will incorporate something similar.

[nudone]

i don't think i'll be using 'vistaglance' for much longer. unless i'm just not trying hard enough, i can't figure out the shortcut keys to move around the floating bar.

seems a bit retarded to type in a search term and then have to resort to the mouse to open up the file/folder within the results. if that is how it has to work then i may as well just click through windows explorer (or whatever file manager) with the mouse without resorting to using the keyboard.

[nudone]

i thought there would have been more interest in 'vistaglance' as it's similar to 'find and run robot' - but only for files... no?

[Konstantin]

Hello! My name is Konstantin Artemev. I am the author of VistaGlance. One of VistaGlance users told me about this topic and I decided to join.

seems a bit retarded to type in a search term and then have to resort to the mouse to open up the file/folder within the results. if that is how it has to work then i may as well just click through windows explorer (or whatever file manager) with the mouse without resorting to using the keyboard.

This is a known bug, I will correct this tommorow. I will post a notice here when the new version is available.

i thought there would have been more interest in 'vistaglance' as it's similar to 'find and run robot' - but only for files... no?

The concept of the software I develop is really close to 'find and run robot', but a bit in other direction. Here is my explanation I recently posted to VistaGlance forum:

Indeed I am developing a system to replace file related functions of your OS.

Imagine such picture.

Perhaps you want OS to perform some action with your files or documents. You simply type what you need to be done with natural language. There are no strict forms of queires. you just type what you think. The systems tries to guess what you have in view and gives you a list of possible interpretations of your words - possible actions. It's like a text quest or interactive fiction where you describe your actions using the power of natural language. Of course, you will be able to use synonyms, words with fuzzy meaning, descriptions, aliases, and os on... For example, the command like

"copy all files from flash to desktop" can mean both "COPY *.* FROM F:\ (if F: is your flash drive) TO C:\Documents and Settings\[user name here]\Desktop"

and

"COPY *files* FROM *flash* TO *DESKTOP*"

where *something* just means any file or folder with contains "something" in its name. So computer gives you the list of possible meanings and you just agree with one of its items. This system should definitely have elements of artificial intelligence, should learn...

I'm developing such system now. VistaGlance is a just a first step to easy file and document access and manipulations.

[nudone]

great to hear from you, Konstantin.

i believe 'vistaglance' certainly has potential even without the artificial intelligence that you are striving for. if you could make it more keyboard friendly then i'd carry on using it. there really needs to be a way of navigating throughout the entire program without using the mouse.

my only other recommendation that i can think of straight away would be the option of turning off the 'skin' that the program uses. 'classic' windows appearance compatibility is always going to win you a lot of favour as it will allow your program to 'merge' with more users desktop environments. providing a skinning feature is nice but there are still a great number of us that prefer just the plain old windows look (with a bit of personal colour changing here and there).

i'll certainly look forward to further developments with 'vistaglance' and i'll start using it again as soon as the keyboard issue is cleared up. expect donations aplenty after you've made a few tweaks to the program. and good luck with the artifical intelligence that does sound like a cool feature.

[jgpaiva]

Hello! My name is Konstantin Artemev. I am the author of VistaGlance. One of VistaGlance users told me about this topic and I decided to join.

-Konstantin (April 09, 2006, 02:57 PM)

Fantastic! Always good earing from developers that decide to comment about their programs here on DC!

I hope we'll hear from you again, VistaGlance looks pretty neat, and the future features you mentioned surelly look atractive!

[Konstantin]

New version with keyboard bugfixes is now available. Please download it here:
http://www.vistaglan...download.php?dfile=0

Feel free to post comments on this new version here or in VistaGlance forums. Your oponion is very important for me!

[nudone]

well, i had started to write quite a lengthy piece but one of the suggestions/complaints i was making - to do with the keyboard shortcuts - has just made me accidentally close the window i was typing in so i've lost everything. i will attempt to write a shorter version now...

thanks for coming back with a new version, Konstantin.

i'd still like to see more keyboard integration so that it's easy to navigate through the float bar and search results. i'd like to be able to move between the results and the search bar with a single key press so that i can quickly amend my searches if they don't provide the results i want - this doesn't appear to happen at the moment, it's just a one way direction from search bar to results - or am i not doing it right?

i'd also like to be able to use the 'win' key instead of 'ctrl' or 'alt' or 'shift' to bring up the float bar. i'm already using programs that have taken up nearly every 'ctrl', 'alt', 'shift' key combination so being able to use the 'win' key is essential for me.

just making more use of the keyboard to get things done with 'vistaglance' is the main thing but i'd still like to see a non skinned version too 

[nudone]

call me mr.dumb because i've just been trying things out with 'find and run robot' with it set to search all my drives (4 drives, loads of gig in files) and i have to say that i'm getting results that make me question why i would use 'vistaglance'.

the search time with 'find and run robot' isn't instantaneous but it's fast enough for me to not really notice much of a delay (we are talking only a second or two for it to match my search term to a file, regardless of how deep the path of the folder). the only thing lacking is that only files are matched and not folders.

i can see why the aim of 'vistaglance' is to use some form of artificial intelligence to provide more functions as it does need to do more than a simple file/folder search - i can use 'find and run robot' to what i want, or i will be able to when the ability for folders to appear in the search results in implemented.

i shall try 'vistaglance' for a little while longer but i'm thinking that 'find and run robot' is going to cater for my needs.

[Konstantin]

i'd still like to see more keyboard integration so that it's easy to navigate through the float bar and search results. i'd like to be able to move between the results and the search bar with a single key press so that i can quickly amend my searches if they don't provide the results i want - this doesn't appear to happen at the moment, it's just a one way direction from search bar to results - or am i not doing it right?

This is added now. Now you can switch between search results and search input box and vise versa with TAB key.

call me mr.dumb because i've just been trying things out with 'find and run robot' with it set to search all my drives (4 drives, loads of gig in files) and i have to say that i'm getting results that make me question why i would use 'vistaglance'.

These are simply different kinds of applications.  'find and run robot' suits for instan execution of programs while VistaGlance has much more powerful search engine. Just the count of results that both programs give you for the equal queries. VistaGlance uses full-text search witihn file names and attribytes (keywords) while 'find and run robot' uses tree search, so it can't find queries that are contained for example in the middle of the file name.

[nudone]

okay, thanks for the update, Konstantin.

i shall re-install 'vistaglance' and test out the tab key switching.

i can see that it might take a while to fully appreciate the benefits of using your program and i really wish someone else would take an interest and give it a test drive. i know there are many 'keyboard' centric users on this forum so i would have thought there would be more interest in using a utility that allowed you to locate and open files/folders just by typing - and without having to specify exact paths to get to the desired file/folder.

in theory, i think the idea behind 'vistaglance' is a very good one (as i said earlier, i know that there have been similar requests for find and run robot to do something similar) but at present i just find elements to the way 'vistaglance' performs are just not quite to me liking.

the win key combination shortcuts are still something i find essential for any modern utility - limiting it to ctrl, alt, shift combinations just doesn't make sense to me anymore. it makes 'vistaglance' feel like a program from years ago - before the windows logo key was introduced and i'm pretty sure my windows 95 system used a keyboard with a win key on it (if not it was definitely windows 98).

has no one else any opinion on 'vistaglance'. how bizarre, it's almost the perfect compliment to 'find and run robot' and no one is displaying any interest. 

[nudone]

well, that was short lived. turns out i need to get a free reg key for 'vistaglance' to work now. just got to wait for it to arrive via email.

[jgpaiva]

has no one else any opinion on 'vistaglance'. how bizarre, it's almost the perfect compliment to 'find and run robot' and no one is displaying any interest. 

-nudone (April 21, 2006, 03:03 PM)

Honestlly, I've tried it. But i found a few things i didn't like very much. I'm not fond of programs with instalation, and i didn't like the integration vistaglance has with windows. (i specially don't like the searchbox on the taksbar, although that can be disabled)
I also don't use explorer as file manager, so it doesn't have much point beyond farr (since farr already searches my documents and source files)

Still, i think it's a great idea (i'm one of those who asked for similar features on farr).I will try it again later