Author Topic: NANY 2015 Release - Splat (Simple Program Launching and Termination) (Read 257,897 times)

ScreenManiac · « **Reply #100 on:** April 20, 2015, 05:26 PM »

Thank you for the speedy reply. Yes, I had read about Kill, but felt reluctant to use it - the warnings and caveats - so I decided to ask first, I might have missed something... Will try it out with caution.
Thanks.

BTW, any chance for making the command line profile call relative/ portable? Not meaning to be obnoxious or pushy, just wondering if it might get implemented in some future version. I'd rather wait than start tinkering with work-arounds.

skwire · « **Reply #101 on:** April 20, 2015, 06:31 PM »

Quote from: ScreenManiac on April 20, 2015, 05:26 PM

BTW, any chance for making the command line profile call relative/ portable? Not meaning to be obnoxious or pushy, just wondering if it might get implemented in some future version. I'd rather wait than start tinkering with work-arounds.

Relative paths should work and they should be relative to the Splat.exe location. Did you try and have it not work?

ScreenManiac · « **Reply #102 on:** April 21, 2015, 05:56 AM »

Turns out I had a backslash up front that's not needed.

Influenced negatively by other apps, I tried

Quote

.\data\

and other crazy variations.
All fine now.
Thank you.

IainB · « **Reply #103 on:** May 05, 2015, 01:20 AM »

I installed SPLAT today, out of curiosity. Initial response: Thankyou! A rather nice piece of work!

Still playing with it, but I think I might end up keeping it and using it instead of or in conjunction with ProcessTamer.

Just some observations/comments in initially setting up the Hotkeys:

I noticed that, for SHIFT there is no option for Left Shift or Right Shift. (Both of which I use in Hotkeys.)
Ditto for CTRL.
There is no option for the GRAVE key. (A key which I only recently started to use in Hotkeys.)
I wondered whether having the user press the actual Hotkey combo required, and SPLAT reading them, wouldn't be less tedious and less error-prone than setting them up with all those tickboxes.

skwire · « **Reply #104 on:** May 05, 2015, 04:17 AM »

The reason for the hotkey checkbox GUI is that the standard Windows hotkey control is very limited in what it can recognise. For example, it cannot recognise the Windows key nor can it recognise mouse buttons.

IainB · « **Reply #105 on:** May 06, 2015, 12:51 PM »

Ah, stuck with it. Thanks for explaining.

rjbull · « **Reply #106 on:** June 19, 2015, 09:38 PM »

In case you didn't see it, a recommendation for Splat in the UK magazine ComputerActive, issue 451, 10-23 June 2015. Can't seem to send an attachment by PM, so attached here. I didn't see the earlier article they reference. I wish they'd added that though Splat's free, you accept donations...

skwire · « **Reply #107 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:27 PM »

Thanks for the PDF, rjbull. I wonder if any DC members could find the original issue that Splat was featured in.

ewemoa · « **Reply #108 on:** June 20, 2015, 11:22 PM »

FWIW, the posted article says the original mention is in issue 449.

rjbull · « **Reply #109 on:** June 22, 2015, 10:05 PM »

There's no content on their web site, so can't get to article 449 directly. They appear to publish a CD of all issues on an annual basis, but there will obviously be a wait for 2015.

skwire · « **Reply #110 on:** June 22, 2015, 11:10 PM »

I was able to procure a PDF of issue 449 and it also features mouser's Launchbar Commander.

dantheman · « **Reply #111 on:** July 19, 2015, 01:11 AM »

Is it possible to configure things like "eject media", "increase/decrease sound volume", "mute", "shutdown"?
Reason i'm asking, have been using Hotkeyz for these things and it isn't being upgraded and won't work well with Windows 10.

skwire · « **Reply #112 on:** July 19, 2015, 09:54 PM »

Quote from: dantheman on July 19, 2015, 01:11 AM

Is it possible to configure things like "eject media", "increase/decrease sound volume", "mute", "shutdown"?

"Shutdown" is already in there and I could add handling for your other three requests.

Quote from: dantheman on July 19, 2015, 01:11 AM

Reason i'm asking, have been using Hotkeyz for these things and it isn't being upgraded and won't work well with Windows 10.

Splat is developed and tested on Windows 7 only so I can't promise that anything will work on W10. That said, has Splat been working well for you under W10?

dantheman · « **Reply #113 on:** July 20, 2015, 12:41 AM »

Sounds good skwire!

Just re-installed Windows Preview 10162 (update to 10240 or later probably tomorrow or so) and configured Splat to start up on reboot and it did just fine. It came out maximized so i'll check up to see if it remembers last window size.

The "shutdown" option is working just fine thank you!

It would be nice to see the other options (and more) 'cause there's really no easy alternative to Hotkeyz.

update: just to confirm that user defined resize of app window came back at reboot.

rjbull · « **Reply #114 on:** July 20, 2015, 10:25 PM »

Quote from: dantheman on July 20, 2015, 12:41 AM

there's really no easy alternative to Hotkeyz.

I was sorry to see that HotKeyz's web site had disappeared... Does HotkeyP, which is probably the closest freeware, work on Win10? With or without NirCmd to add extra features? Otherwise, you might want to look at something like Comfort Keys or Key Manager, which, being paywares, might have some hope of keeping up with Windows versions.

dantheman · « **Reply #115 on:** July 21, 2015, 01:37 AM »

@rjbull,
Do appreciate your findings and shall keep them in mind.
Think i'll be content with Hotkeyz for now, for i've decided to renounce to the Windows 10 Preview as well as the upcoming upgrade on July 29.

@skwire,
I'm still interested in your work!

Thank you all for lending a helping hand.

dantheman · « **Reply #116 on:** August 09, 2015, 12:29 PM »

For the record... have upgraded to Windows 10 official version and HotkeyP is doing just fine.

Thanks a bunch guys for the tip!

p.s. just wish "ublock origin" wouldn't be so picky about downloading from Source Forge.

AtmanActive · « **Reply #117 on:** August 10, 2015, 05:46 PM »

Bug report:

Splat v1.1.7:

- Reordering of profiles in the profile window via context-menu does not work. When I right click on a profile and select 'Move profile up' or 'Move profile down' options, nothing happens. But when I use the keyboard shortcuts mentioned in that menu (CTRL+UP or CTRL+DOWN), then it works.

AtmanActive · « **Reply #118 on:** August 10, 2015, 05:54 PM »

Critical feature missing:

Splat v1.1.7:

- There is no way to auto-run a profile with Splat when Splat is set to 'Start with windows'.
I like Splat so much that I would like to try to use it as my one and only launcher program.
It has it's own 'Start with windows' option to make it auto-run with each boot. Fine.
But, among all my profiles, there is one I would also like to run on each boot. No way.

My suggestion is to add one more input box (or drop down select box) on the general options page, right next to the above mentioned 'Start with windows' where user could type in (or drop-down select) one, and only one of his/hers profiles which would then be started automatically whenever Splat itself is started.
Then Splat could really take a role of one and only launcher on a windows machine.

Thanks.

Cheers!

skwire · « **Reply #119 on:** August 10, 2015, 10:53 PM »

Quote from: AtmanActive on August 10, 2015, 05:46 PM

- Reordering of profiles in the profile window via context-menu does not work.

Fixed, thank you.

Quote from: AtmanActive on August 10, 2015, 05:54 PM

There is no way to auto-run a profile with Splat when Splat is set to 'Start with windows'.
I like Splat so much that I would like to try to use it as my one and only launcher program.
It has it's own 'Start with windows' option to make it auto-run with each boot. Fine.
But, among all my profiles, there is one I would also like to run on each boot. No way.

It's not quite what you described but I think it'll be enough for your purposes.

Website | Download v1.1.8 - 2015-08-10 + Ability to create a profile shortcut in your startup folder. Right-click a profile and choose the option from the menu. (Thanks, AtmanActive) ! Context menu did not work for reordering profiles. (Thanks, AtmanActive)

You can add multiple shortcuts to your startup folder. However, they will all get launched concurrently. If you want to control that timing, create a new "startup master" profile that runs your desired profiles in the order you want and then shortcut that "startup master" profile. Makes sense?

AtmanActive · « **Reply #120 on:** August 11, 2015, 07:29 AM »

Yes, that's one way to do it.

Thank you very much for your speedy support.

But, there is a case where this approach would let down Splat's user: when roaming on a USB stick.
If I do create a shortcut to a profile on my machine, and then take my Portable Software setup to my brother's computer, run Splat there to help me launch what I need, that profile wouldn't launch automatically as he doesn't have that shortcut in his windows.

So, although this solution does a job in most scenarios (and I suspected that Splat has a command line option to run a profile), still I would vote for Splat's internal function to do that, as in that case it makes it completely portable.

Thanks.

Cheers!

ScreenManiac · « **Reply #121 on:** August 19, 2015, 07:03 AM »

Run process only if its not running does not work in a bunch of cases
- for some programs running silently in the background, such as http://www.listary.com/text-editor-anywhere
- for chm or pdf files; if already open, it will attempt to open them again in the same default application, which - depending on the application, results in yet another read-only copy, or in an error message

skwire · « **Reply #122 on:** August 19, 2015, 11:23 AM »

Quote from: ScreenManiac on August 19, 2015, 07:03 AM

Run process only if its not running does not work in a bunch of cases
- for some programs running silently in the background, such as http://www.listary.com/text-editor-anywhere

Hmmm...seems to work here.

Quote from: ScreenManiac on August 19, 2015, 07:03 AM

- for chm or pdf files; if already open, it will attempt to open them again in the same default application, which - depending on the application, results in yet another read-only copy, or in an error message

Correct. I should add a disclaimer to the help file that the "Run if not running" command only relates to the actual executable process itself. That is, there is not a reliable way to tell if a given file or URL is already open in an application. Yes, sometimes that information is within the titlebar text but not nearly always.

ScreenManiac · « **Reply #123 on:** August 19, 2015, 04:22 PM »

Thanks for the quick reply, skwire,

hm, don't know what to say, maybe because I run the portable version?

No big deal, I can click away the pop-ups.

When I don't specify a specific chm-file, but just fire up the kchmviewer, it tries to launch another instance and I also get an error. But again, no showstopper. Just wanted to let you know.

skwire · « **Reply #124 on:** August 19, 2015, 04:52 PM »

Quote from: ScreenManiac on August 19, 2015, 04:22 PM

hm, don't know what to say, maybe because I run the portable version?

I tested with the portable version as well.

Quote from: ScreenManiac on August 19, 2015, 04:22 PM

When I don't specify a specific chm-file, but just fire up the kchmviewer, it tries to launch another instance and I also get an error. But again, no showstopper.

Hmmm, this program works for me as well. It might be important to note that I run my account as administrator with UAC disabled. Maybe that makes a difference?