DonationCoder.com Software > N.A.N.Y. 2016
NANY 2016 Pledge/Alpha: Mouser's Media Browser
IainB:
^ Well, that all makes a lot of sense to me.
I did wonder whether you might intend bundling MMB as a standard tool to other programs like CHS.
Should be a handy viewer.
AbteriX:
Feature wish: slideshow with adjustable speed on the fly, like DVD-movie viewer
[Start slideshow]
| Speed of show next image:
| Slow (30 second) -----------(o)----------------------------- Fast (1 second) |
| Fast Backward [ 50] files || Fast Forward [ 10] files |
8)
MikleB:
G'Day mouser,
Unfortunately this is not a happy posting... Where is "Mouser's Media Browser's" own discussion thread? Slap wrist! And after you've spent that time updating the forum's format to boot, which is a very nice improvement I must add. I like!
Now the really bad part.
For about 7 months out of the last 8 I have been without a computer, and since I have had one back again, I have been catching up with some spring (Well, summer...) cleaning and haven't had much time to investigate this program until a few minutes ago. Too busy reading a few threads... NANY releases, updated software, etc.
Then I thought that - This might come in handy as a dedicated image browser, and although it has been installed for about a month I hadn't spent any time checking it out. Now's a good a time as any so I fired her up.
Way to really 'Keep on top of other windows.' Absolutely nothing will come into the foreground... I had this maximized full screen and thought that I would like to see the 'About' screen and see if it had a place to enter a registration key ;) .
The result was - 'Hidden'. OK, try Restoring... No go. Minimizing... Also nothing. Try from the taskbar. Still nothing. In fact the pop up menus (Also those of other programs.) were all obscured!
Try accessing the settings and turning of the 'On Top' option. Still no luck. I thought that maybe it's not liking some other programs I have running alongside it. Being maximized, it would not drag out of the way so that I could close those other programs. Their pop up menus were also obscured. Alright I'll try Process Explorer (My Task Manager replacement - By SysInternals.) and try killing the process. That would also not come to the front, nor would it's menus. In fact, none of the eight or nine instances that I ended up evoking of it would come to the front.
Reboot! Didn't want too but there was no other way.
Turn "Mouser's Media Browser's" on again and have a look at that dialog box. Scale it down though... Just in case... Silly me, I left it in the middle of the screen didn't I :-[ . I'll know better next time. It still wouldn't drag out of the way to be able to see or close the dialog box. I left it a bit too large on the screen and could not even see any part of the dialog. Process Explorer will nail it this time. One instance let me scroll to the entry for "Mouser's Media Browser's" and 'Kill Process' but of course the confirmation box was also in the middle of the screen... so it would not be killed.
Reboot AGAIN. Lesson learned... use only small windows when trying out any new software's options and turn off the 'On Top' option ... especially when opening dialogs that might become obscured and freeze the program.
Other than that, with a few tweaks here and there this will be another fine DonationCoder program that I would find very useful. I have seen enough to know that it has serious potential for a dedicated image browser but I do have a suggestion of two. Those, I will get into a bit at some point when there is a section dedicated to -= "Mouser's Media Browser's" =- Yay!
I wish I could have posted this in it's own forum area as this thread seems to be an introductory area like all your programs have, but seeing that there was no reserved area and these points needed to be made (I have presented all the pertinent details regarding my experience, that cover all the areas of the program's behavior that need looking into, such as every option that could have been used to fix it's behavior that failed and things that should not have occurred {Popups hidden and thus, nonfunctional. I suspect that the multi-evocations of Process Explorer was just me getting a little edgy as I truly didn't want to reboot but it WAS starting to look like I would have to.} Oh, I wasn't running anything esoteric. The first time: Internet Explorer 8 (2 DonationCoder Tabs), Notepad, Total Commander all one instance. And the second time just "Mouser's Media Browser's", 1st program after a reboot. My OS is Windows XP SP3.) I trust these issues will be easily fixed.
After all that, thank you immensely for my non-expiring registration key. I very much appreciate it as I am still unemployed and all my DonationCoder programs are registered, and they like that too! (They told me so! :Thmbsup: )
[PS: I know it _Is Difficult_, but I really wish ALL programs, not just... well, none that I know of, would cease their 'Keep on top of other windows' behavior when you start up Task Manager (Or it's replacement program.). I mean; If you are bringing out the big guns, then they should cower and tremble in fear and trepidation lest you beat them mightily within an inch of their proverbials. Ok, I've calmed down a bit now that I've had my say. This has happened to me before, though a long long time ago and I had forgotten how annoying it is or what I should have done in the first place. No damage done though.]
Cheers,
MikleB
NB: I should add that there were 3,742 images in a folder that I was wondering about sorting out loaded when the program froze, but I had been scrolling through a few and it loaded fairly fast and there were no problems in that regard, they weren't large files either all only about 140x120 pixels.
-= An Extra Note (Added after rereading this post on the 22nd April 2016) =-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the happenings that I described above occurred, I did check the notification tray icon to see if it would either provide some function to fix the frozen state or restore functionality to the main window but it had it's pop up menu obscured, and though I could see a sliver of the bottom entry in it and that the selection of items was occurring, I could not get any of them to actually function (I was hoping that I could use this means to exit, I knew it was the bottom entry.).
MikleB:
G'day again mouser,
I'm still looking for that dedicated area for "Mouser's Media Browser" threads.
Bug reports and suggestions are two separate topics and I have things that I wish to say in both areas and would really like to keep them separate (As a person who likes to browse this forum for good reads {I've found many.}, it's nice to be able to read in the area that interests one when I find myself here... I like to sometimes only look at suggestions for features, and some times I wonder what has gone wrong with a piece of software {Often just user inexperience, or trying to get the software to do something beyond it's design, but both are informative if nothing else.}, and personally I do appreciate that software, especially untested by users will contain bugs/anomalies that just weren't expected by the developer.). I'm sure other readers of this forum appreciate these distinctions in thread contents when they are having a browse here.).
I came here today and reread my previous post on "Mouser's Media Browser" and have more results from testing a little further into it's behavior regarding how it hides everything (Not exactly true, but what I posted before is precisely what happened on that occasion.)
I was going to offer a feature suggestion (My primary reason for coming to this thread in the first place.), but on that reread I decided to see if I was mistaken in some manner about the behavior that I previously posted about, and on further testing, I must say that there are some peculiarities as to how this program operates in the stay on top mode.
I have it running as I type this, in 'On Top' mode (Not full screen, though! ;) ) and I do have the 'Options Dialog' open and neither the main window nor the options dialog are in sight at all... ¿ (Using Firefox v45.0.). It WAS on top, and when I clicked on a visible portion of Firefox, it moved behind Firefox... And does so with other programs as well, so it seems... As long as the options dialog is open. If however the 'About Dialog' is open, it does stay on top and definitely on top of the 'About Dialog' as well and in that situation there is no way to dismiss the dialog if it is totally obscured by the main window as all the buttons, menus and resizing options (Via grabbing the edges.) on the main window do not work and NO functionality is available to the main window. The 'On Top' functionality seems to have been totally passed to the 'About Dialog', although it remains hidden by the main window.
I am not a programmer but from my understanding of calls to windows functions, this is not how they are to operate, if that is what you are using to generate the on top behavior and not your own code, in either case though, I suspect that you have omitted some error trapping code that should be placing the 'About Dialog' on top of the main window, so that it's various dismissal buttons are accessible and it can exit cleanly and return function to the main window. Ditto with the 'Options Dialog' as I only was able to exit out of that dialog because I could see part of it, click it and have it come to the front (The main window did still retain it's functionality in this circumstance though.).
On this occasion, though I am happy to say that the pop up menus of other programs that I have running and visible in my taskbar are not obscured as they were on that previous occasion. It must have been a one off conflict of some sort. The same thing with "Mousers Media Browser's" own pop up menus from both the taskbar and the notification tray; These are all visible and fully functional. (NOTE: I had overlooked stating, in my previous post, that I did try to exit via the last menu item from the pop up menu, accessible via the notification tray's icon for "Mouser's Media Browser". I have added a rider to that effect in my previous post at the bottom of it.)
The inconsistency of this particular behavior is the sort of thing that is most annoying to anyone trying out a new, to them, piece of software as it is hard to fathom what should and what should not be occurring and what can be done if, as that which occurred in my previous case, occurs to them and there seems to be no remedy other than a reboot. Was it a real flaw in the new program they are trialing or some conflict with other running software. Hidden windows, when they effect functionality are a _huge_ PITP [Pain-In-The-Posterior]!
I only go on about this at length because I feel that there is something amiss here and I would really like "Mouser's Media Browser" to become a slightly more functional program (With great regard to what it is attempting to be... No need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.), without any flaws and thus be taken up by many visitors to DonationCoder as a very useful tool and thus one that it would be a pleasure for you to provide increased functionality for, as it has a strong user base of happy individuals. To this regard, I suspect that any occurrences like I previously have talked about, needs rectification at the outset so that the code that you build upon is robust and bullet proofed to the maximum. I certainly appreciate programs that display these traits (Consistency and robustness.), way more than programs that have a myriad of features.
I have a few suggestions like I stated earlier as to extra features and I especially anticipate the inclusion of the, as your own listed:- 'Detail's-view Mode' feature; But as an optional extra panel rather than a replacement of either the filmstrip or grid view. I already have it installed as a tool in "Screeenshot Captor", a program that I use a lot and really appreciate for it's feature list (Though I have suggestions in that area also.), and a details view is something I would also very much like to see there as well, but if it only were ever to be available via "Mouser's Media Browser" then that would perhaps suffice. I don't know how reusable code is from one program to the next but if you build it and bullet proof it here first then maybe (Hopefully.), it may see the light of day in "Screeenshot Captor" also at some point. I do also have it installed elsewhere as a secondary, ancillary browseable menu within other graphics programs and generally in other tools, also for the same provided function. I prefer to only have single instances of any program running at a time as to avoid confusion between what I may be doing in one instance as opposed to another and I frequently find that a second means of navigating my directories and files is something that I appreciate, especially if it is a lean, dedicated to one job type of affair that I may employ at those time.
Once more a lengthy post, but hopefully one that will spur you on to great things with this particular program. It is a type of tool that I always look out for in my trawling's of the web, and more specifically, it has the rudiments of a program that I have been looking for for a very long time, (Actually it is the _exact_ program that I have been hunting for, and now that I have it, I have become aware of how much more it could be considering it's own potential capabilities to carry other programs/tools along for the ride as you already provide in many of your other programs and you have made one allowance for already within it. - More needed at this end.), so I hope you will understand my lengthy posting.
All the best and hopefully there will soon be a dedicated "Mouser's Media Browser" section within the DonationCoder forums. At that point my two posts here could be made a separate thread allowing this to be the main link and announcements page, consistant with the remainder of the site.
And actually, I haven't mentioned any of the features that I initially intended too. Next time. {I'll make a list... so I don't forget.}
Cheers,
MikleB
mouser:
I'm sorry I haven't replied to this excellent post yet -- I promise I will in the next few days -- I've been away from home for last week or so.
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