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NANY 2016 Pledge - Popup Contactlist (withdrawn)

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Ath:
--__-- This pledge has been canceled on December 18th, 2015 --__--
I'm early (first?) this year with a pledge for NANY 2016, as a request by questorfla caught my attention: One Key Popup for an Office phone directory
It's something I've been using ever since the MS-DOS days, but because of the back-end required it was a command-line tool that peeked in the company's contacts database, where all kind of names and numbers where stored. (That company has gone defunct long ago :huh:)

I think I know what to do, based on the quote below, some previous knowledge and some requirements/wishes of my own. 8)

A simple text document "Phone Book-like listing I can use for people in the Office (or I can see many good Personal Uses too now that Phone Directories are a thing of the past).  Back in he days of Windows 95 (I think) i used to have a fantastic one that ran as a "TSR:" app  back then but it has long since died as it would not run on X64 at all.  I don't even remember the name but i have missed it mightily!  The program would have to be one that loads in memory as I have to refer to it while doing all kinds of other things.  The Old program used to work like a charm if only i knew the name, Maybe someone picked up the pieces and brought it forward to the Windows 10 world.

Something where I can hit ALT+P or similar and have a simple text listing in alphabet order of names and phone numbers that another ALT+P would close.

In my case I only have to deal with maybe 50 names but each has a Home/Office/Cell/Fax/Ofc Extension# etc and it is tiring to have to look them all up on their email signatures or deal with the MS Office Contact program just to get a phone number every time it is needed.
The "paper sheet" hard-copy version tends to "migrate south". (ie: the Round File Area) or.. maybe migrates to other desks!
I would not complain if there was room for an email address on each person as well.
-questorfla (October 09, 2015, 05:09 PM)
--- End quote ---

I expect to start it this coming week, and a first proto a 'couple of days' later. (I expect questorfla to be the guinea pig for testing ;D)

I'll most likely build it using VS2015/C# (targeted for .NET 4.0 so it'll still run on Windows XP), because of my desire to (optionally) integrate with a locally installed Outlook address-book, and VS/.NET makes that reasonable easy.

TaoPhoenix:
"targeted for .NET 4.0 so it'll still run on Windows XP"

I think this is important, just by how the computing world shook out.

I think MS is getting a little aggressive on how they are versioning stuff, So I don't know how to say things with the proper mood, but XP was where all of Windows Computing sat for like six years until people decided they didn't like Vista, Win 7 was okay, Win 8's were a mess, Microsoft decided they didn't like the number 9 while donating milliions to schools... So making tools XP compatible helps those of us who know it's the endgame but don't have migration plans yet.

Nod5:
Worth mentioning that there is already http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/outlook_address_book_view.html

But if some users want a super fast hotkey access for a phone list I bet many of them would also like to filter down what contacts to display by default so that is a niche your app can fill.

questorfla:
OutlookAddressBookView v1.98
Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 Nir Sofer
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yes, i agree, it (the above by NirSoft)  does sort of fit the bill but theirs is more oriented toward email than telephone.  It is also not as user friendly as I would like requireing rtoo muych scrolling but in a pinch it does work i agree.
The one I used to have was maybe 5 lines per entry.  The data file was on the local drive but the program to access it loaded into memory on boot.  Ctrl+P or some similar opened the program at the first alphabetic entry as in "A" or other symbols could get it ahead of "A".
But it was like:
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Alt Phone:
Email:
Notes:

Notes as well as the other lines only showed about 40 characters or so but allowed entry up ti the max for DOS at the time.  You had to scroll to get past the first 40 or so.
The Square Display Box was pretty much centered on the screen.  And clicking the proper line activated the proper item to use it.

Back then, Modems were connected to phone-lines ad clicking the phone number activate the dial-out feature on the modem
you could hear through the computer speaker and use a microphone or just pick up the phone to access the line that the call was made on.

Clicking the email opened the default ail program (usually Outlook Express back then)  and filled that name in the to: box

The street address did nothing.  On accessing any record you were automatically in edit mode if you wanted to change anything and pressing Ctrl+A or some such would allow adding a new3 entry to the data file.

It saved automatically when exited. 
That is about all I can remember about it other than after Windows XP it would no longer run.  It was more oriented toward a wat to quickly find someones phone number (which back then mattered :)

But is also allowed you to add in notes such things as Birthday, and other things of import to that entry.

I used to store all kinds of things in it because it was TSR and easy to SEARCH.  I guess the equivalent today would be something like Sticky Notes which I am not sure are even still used in windows 10.

I hope some of this helps if you decide to continue with the Quest

Ath:
Very useful info, thanks.

I'll continue the quest, but it involves some (more) research, so I'm a bit slower in response than I originally estimated :-[

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