Author Topic: Latest FARR v2.00.140 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - Aug 15, 2007 (Read 633914 times)

pomj · « **Reply #125 on:** January 14, 2007, 06:42 PM »

NICE. That was what I needed.

justice · « **Reply #126 on:** January 15, 2007, 04:07 AM »

If you are still looking for testers, I would be happy to help out test my favourite productivity tool.

Nomadin · « **Reply #127 on:** January 15, 2007, 07:30 AM »

If you still are accepting testers, I would love to help as well.

Thanks!

DocSavage · « **Reply #128 on:** January 15, 2007, 08:13 AM »

Hey, me too!
dk

justice · « **Reply #129 on:** January 15, 2007, 09:53 AM »

Dictate the FARR vision by removing options. There's too many of them. Who will uncheck "remove duplicate links to same target application"? Decide on defaults. It makes the options that remain more meaningful.Every time you provide an option, you're asking the user to make a decision. http://www.joelonsof...s/fog0000000059.html
Searching for results can delay user input in high CPU usage scenarious. Can you make the searching more independent from the user input so it won't get delayed. (Try installing windows in virtual pc and then use FARR)
Support for unc network paths. e.g.find asp files in \\dev\Inetpub\wwwroot\staff intranet\public\docs

Hope these help!

Josh · « **Reply #130 on:** January 15, 2007, 10:03 AM »

I agree, the whole options dialog should get a rework prior to 2.0 going final. I've discussed this with mouser numerous times. Perhaps we could talk him into this.

hornsts · « **Reply #131 on:** January 15, 2007, 04:54 PM »

The enhancements in FARR V2 are great and just what I like to have.
I'm now using FARR in conjunction with TotalCommander to dive into deep folders without explicit navigation thru every folder. Many thanks for that.

I'm currently testing FARR v2.00.29 and found the following bugs:

1. If you use ALT+ArrowRight in result list, then focus returns on edit line and cursor is placed behind last slash as it should. But if you try this with the TAB-Key, then focus is lost and you have to set it on the edit line by yourself (Hit TAB again).

2. Open an scoring entry, do nothing and click OK. On all except alias/group entries (where no period is displayed) a previously set score is lost. In Addition you cannot set a score with a period. (maybe depending on locale?!)

mouser · « **Reply #132 on:** January 15, 2007, 05:05 PM »

thank you for the information about the floating point (fractional) scores getting messed up depending on the locale - that's a huge bug. working on it now.
ps. what locale are you?

hornsts · « **Reply #133 on:** January 15, 2007, 05:27 PM »

I'm using locale german (Germany).
OS:WinXP
Number format: 123.456.789,00

mouser · « **Reply #134 on:** January 15, 2007, 05:32 PM »

hornsts, can you download the latest version (same url) and see if the , vs . problems are solved?

hornsts · « **Reply #135 on:** January 15, 2007, 06:38 PM »

Strange! All works fine...except for the aliases/groups.

There I set the following scores and get the listed results (in edit view/list view):
1000 -> 1000 / 1000.00
1000,10 -> 0 / 0.00
1000.10 -> 1000.09997558594 !!! / 1000.10
1000.25 -> 1000.25 ??? / 1000.25

Seems to be a different handling between alias scoring and the other scoring lists. Wouldn't it be possible to use the same? Is there really a need to use floats? Imho Integers are good enough for fine tuning scores. (And removes the bugs

)

mouser · « **Reply #136 on:** January 15, 2007, 09:15 PM »

try the latest download please - and thank you for the reporting - you're a life saver.

regarding floats: it's actually a new thing for farr to use float scores - i only added it because one feature requested a lot for v2 was that the history list keep some track of how often you launched files so that they could be given higher scores, and i felt that the decay rate for items in the history list really needed to be fractional (though it's possible in retrospect that leaving it integral probably would have been ok). Hopefully it's fixed now though so it won't matter.

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #137 on:** January 15, 2007, 09:46 PM »

I just discovered this so I wanted to add my vote of confidence!

If I find anything inconsistent, I'll let you know. This app could replace the "Start" button!

hornsts · « **Reply #138 on:** January 16, 2007, 03:36 AM »

Ok. I missed this point as you don't use fractional scores yet. (My history score increases 1 by 1 until history auto ceiling value and result list shows only integers). So I agree in using floats for leaving enough room to give additional score on often executed programms while not raising a score to fast. But if I look at the default scores (-100, 25, 75, 100, 1000, etc.) maybe finetuning with fractionals helps not very much. So I have the following suggestions for public discussion:
1. userdefined Bonus for launch history in heuristic scoring to set a higher or lower weight on recent launches.
2. adaptive bonus system where bonus is high/low on first call and decreasing/increasing on following calls.
Examples:
first call 100; second call +50, third call +25, fourth call +12.50,...
or (100), +0.25, +0.50, +1, +2, +4,...
or 100, +1, +2, +3, +4,...
or 100, +50, +49, +48, +47,...
or increasing/decreasing x % of max. history ceiling
Am I going to farr?

. I'm not a long term user of FARR (by now, but will be

in future). So I missed already made suggestions and this is maybe a wish for V3.

Btw. The actual history score is neither shown nor updated in result list. It always stays at 100 or rather history bonus.

Oh. And about the fraction bug... In alias/group score 1000,25 results in 0.

I hope you don't hate long posts, because I wan't to suggest another thing.
The new path completion is great, but I often need a path as a param. (e.g. mount c:\xyz\truecryptcontainer.tc, pack c:\dirtopack). So I use an regex like (^[a-z]:{1}\\+[^?:]*|^[a-z]:{1}|^\\{2}\w[^\?:]*) for my different aliases. The disadvantage is, that this fires always on path completion. For now; I have made only few aliases; this is ok. But on the long run this approach wouldn't be usable and messes up the result list. The other way is to use path completion, add a file name and then jump to the start of the line and insert the alias. Not very handy.
So I would like to have "search concatenation delimiter":
1. enter alias ex. mount
2. enter delimiter e.g. |
3. start new search after delimiter as if the edit line was blank
4. repeat step 2. or execute
FARR may ignore the delimiter by itself or one has to do it in the regex.

And finally add a shortcut (e.g. shift+arrow right) to append a filename.
That would be really great!!!

I think this is enough for now.

I hope this wasn't to much.

mouser · « **Reply #139 on:** January 16, 2007, 03:43 AM »

Btw. The actual history score is neither shown nor updated in result list. It always stays at 100 or rather history bonus.

i think what you are referring to was on request, it's an option:
Screenshot - 1_16_2007 , 3_40_27 AM.png

(note the history score is always used when matching against what you type).

Oh. And about the fraction bug... In alias/group score 1000,25 results in 0.

thx, fixing now.

hornsts · « **Reply #140 on:** January 16, 2007, 03:57 AM »

Ups.

Don't know that this option was meant this way.
Btw. Are there plans about translating FARR?

mouser · « **Reply #141 on:** January 16, 2007, 03:59 AM »

The rest of what you are saying meshes exactly with the discussions we have had in the past about supporting "actions" in a future version of farr. In this case you want to perform an action on a file or path so you want to be able to have farr help you find a file and then maybe help you chose an action to perform on it (or in opposite order).

Although i think a lot more thought has to go into the "perfect" way to do this.. maybe i can sneak in a preliminary implementation of this using the keyword modifiers that recently got added.

The keyword modifiers start with + and let you restrict search directories and scoring patterns.

So that you can type:
dylan +audio
Which tells farr to only find certain types of files and only look in certain places.

Now what if we added the ability to use +ALIAS syntax as well
which would say to ignore the regular expression of the ALIAS, but use the search result as the $$1 paramater in the alias.

So for example, in your case you would make an alias called hexedit
with commandline "C:\program files\hexedit.exe $$1"

Then to use it you would do
+hexedit myfilepattern
and farr would do normal search as you type myfilepattern as normal, as if +hexedit was a search modifier.
except that you would be launching hexedit on the file when you launch.

Now you gave a complex example of using 2 parameters.. That's a lot more convoluted to handle..
Though conceivably it could be done by letting you trigger the first parameter, and then letting you search for second, but that sounds like it could get a bit messy.

mouser · « **Reply #142 on:** January 16, 2007, 04:02 AM »

Are there plans about translating FARR?

I've actually had a good experience translating my URL Snooper program but it does involve a bit of work and maintenance and so it always ends up on the bottom of my todo lists.

hornsts · « **Reply #143 on:** January 16, 2007, 05:18 AM »

Using alias modifier sounds good to me. At least for the most cases.
For complex examples I understand, that this could be messy. Especially with very long paths.
But imagine the launch of programs like winmerge, totalcommander or packing programs, where the file1/file2- or source/target-parameters are used.
What about an additional list with stored parameters?
Just like this faked screenshot?
1. search and save in slot §§# by using a hotkey (incremental adding or until 9 by number)
2. enter alias and insert any of the slotplaceholders §§# and/or additional params in any order as normal
3. execute

Or instead of using a parameterlist these parameters could be treated as special history (always shown) entries with very high scores.
These entries would be deleted by hotkeys.

Or maybe you invent internal commandaliases like ~delsavedparam#. This would also remove the need to open the options by using an internal commandalias like ~setscore <groupname> 1000.

Just some ideas while I'm exploring FARR.

mouser · « **Reply #144 on:** January 16, 2007, 05:23 AM »

this is an interesting idea.. it falls under the rubric of difficult discussions weve had in this section on the best way to deal with actions.. a lot of the ideas for this revolve around a similar scheme of "building up" argument+action chains.. its definitely out of the scope for this version 2 release thoguht, but its something worth thinking about for later release.

mouser · « **Reply #145 on:** January 16, 2007, 06:35 AM »

I have posted a test of the new action system using aliases. It works exactly as i said above.
Create an alias with a result list using $$1 where you want the file replacement to be.
Then use +aliasname in your search and select your result; you should then see the alias replacement with your selected file.

Let me know what you think.

hornsts · « **Reply #146 on:** January 16, 2007, 08:19 AM »

First of all there is a bug (see screenshot).
Option window is topmost. Main window is in background. Edit dialog is between the other ones. Sorry. I didn't noticed this before.

Fraction bug is solved.

I'm playing a little bit with the alias modifier and will give you my feedback.

Josh · « **Reply #147 on:** January 16, 2007, 08:33 AM »

I've noticed and reported this issue to mouser before as well. The Z-ordering needs some fine tuning.

Mouser, any word on a reworked options dialog for 2.0 final? I mean, while you're working on farr and before you move on to your next project?

hornsts · « **Reply #148 on:** January 16, 2007, 08:58 AM »

Here we go.
+alias modifier ist partial great.
If I want to open a file e.g. MP3-Files, which is assigned to a specific App, then this modifier is the right solution to open the file with a different App e.g. editor, tagger, etc.. Perfect.

But what it lacks is the possibility to use additional parameters as it is always $$1 and I assume that it overrides the regex feature. Am I right?. It prevents editing also. Which is not surprising.
Another point is, that only 1 modifier is useable. So all possible candidates have to be in one group.
While this can be a disadvantage, it can also be a solution for adding additional parameters (except for those derived from nice path completion).
The way would be the following:
1. enter +alias and searchpattern
2. select result
3. instead of only switching to alias results, the edit line will be changed from "+alias searchpattern" to "alias <previous selected result($$1)>" with focus on edit line
4. add parameters as you like or select result entry and go

mouser · « **Reply #149 on:** January 16, 2007, 02:34 PM »

i think we should give some more thought to multi-parameter stuff - there are a lot of issues like letting user search for actions among a set and other things that would be worth considering in this line of thought that i'm just not ready to embark on. i think it may call for a more fundamental change of interface as your mock screenshot suggests.