The Beta Audience and Current Status

There's a strange divide between the Rename Master and the ArsClip beta users. Even though RM is downloaded twice as much as AC, the beta versions of AC are downloaded 3 to 5 times as much as the RM betas. Currently, about 100 users will download new test versions of AC. For feedback, it seems the AC audience are mostly long time users and the RM audience is newer users.

For the most part, RM users only perform a single well-known task. The situation is there's a group of files and they want them renamed for readability or for use in another program or system. While the files and the desired result vary tremendously from person to person, the program either does or does not currently have the ability to perform the task. If it can do the task, there is no reason to update or learn anything else about the program. Only once a bug is discovered or a new uncovered task is desired is there a reason to send feedback or update. For example, the "command line" options in RM broke some time ago, but it wasn't until a few days ago that a new user reported the issue. While it's not a popular feature, I know plenty of users use it. This confirms that they don't upgrade often and there's probably little reason to do so if it "just works" for them.

AC users, however, push the program beyond the limits that I've imagined. Some users exclusively used Permanent Clips for canned responses. Some users create complex Permanent Clip Macros that fill in form data in programs. Unlike RM beta users, it seems AC beta users look at new features to see how they can exploit it (in a good way). For example, the recent performance improvements were designed to make it easier for those that use very large clips (like screenshots). Also, the new [MIMIC] command was designed to make it possible for a Permanent Clip to echo text to a program like the command prompt. Unlike file renaming, AC users seem to look at a new problem as see if AC can help solve that problem.

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Current Status

ArsClip: While there are still some research ideas, I've no plans for new features in the queue right now. I may keep this version small, since so much was changed with the clip format. I'm sure there are some issues that exist that haven't been found or reported. Like last time, I'm planning to leave a few days open after the initial release for immediate hotfixes.

Rename Master: I'm currently only working on reported bug fixes until I'm finished with ArsClip.

ArsClip Clips

The final changes are finished for the in-memory clip for performance in Public Beta Test 4. This required a small redesign, but could effect many parts of the program. This includes Popup, Recently Removed, and Clipboard clips shown on the popup and all the routines using these clips (Tooltips, Clip Menu, etc). This means that a slightly longer testing period is expected overall.

I've been toying with showing scaled thumbnails for pictures on the popup, with limited success. This feature may not make it into this beta, unless I can work around some issues. I'm still testing fast ways for drawing pictures on the popup. For those that want the fastest popup possible, the new option to disable picture thumbnails is always going to be fastest.

Current ArsClip Changes

The Tooltip now uses a small footer area to show clip information. I've updated the clip format to include a timestamp. While this has been in the program for a long time, it has never been used or stored on disk. Only new clips will have this information.

While performance of the popup wasn't an issue for most, large clips weren't handled efficiently - especially pictures. In the last few test versions, I've been making intermediate changes to the in-memory clip format to speed things up. Pictures are no longer converted every time the popup is shown, and the thumbnail is now cached. Unicode clips are also now processed faster overall.

One thing I've learned about ArsClip users is they push the limits of the program. New commands for Permanent Clips have been added to support customization. The latest command, [MIMIC], will use keystroke simulation for the current Permanent Clips. For example, you can now run a command prompt and paste the contents of the clipboard by using a Permanent Clip that mimics typing.

Current Roadmap

Rename Master

RM v3.4 has been released as an official version. This release contains only fixes and some new configuration options. The only planned changed for the new beta is a new Swap Step that will find a phrase and swap everything before and after that phrase.

ArsClip

There were 2 serious issues that required immediate hotfix releases. I've a new Command planned for the new beta that will trim spaces from the clipboard. I've also an idea for using a Permanent Clip for custom pasting, but this will require some more research.

NV Bright

This is a new prototype program. It is a single task, command-line program for changing the gamma on NVidia graphics cards. It works virtually the same as using the NVidia Control Panel to adjust the desktop gamma.

An example usage would be for changing the gamma before running a game with no gamma settings.

Slowdown

I had planned on released v4.6 of ArsClip earlier, but the holiday season got in the way. My current plans is to wait a few days to address any newly discovered issues with the official v4.6 release, then I'm also going to release a the version of Rename Master.

I'm going to have to go over my "todo" notes and my emails, but I think there are currently no new planned changes for either program. It's strange, but it's usually the case that I get feedback and requests all within a week or two and then not much feedback for a few weeks after that.

Side Note: There were two files missing in the source code for ArsClip. These were two shared units that I also use with other programs. I've included a "readme" textfile to explain how to fix the DPR file to work with these external files. I've also updated my pack routine to automatically include the source for these files for future updates. Since these files aren't in subfolders of this project, the paths must be manually fixed.

Another Duh Moment

I'm so used to dealing with the limitations of the old ArsClip popup, that I've missed some simple things. A user reminded me that I needed to research detecting a middle-click for the popup.

In the current Public Beta, I've added a configuration option for defining an action when clicking the middle button on a menu item. The default action for the Middle Click is to paste the current item and keep the popup open. It's a completely arbitrary choice, since the middle button's usual action is so different for every program.

As a reminder, the Keystrokes / Mouse actions include just about anything you can do using the right-click menu.

Finally Found

I finally found what I think is the last "Date Convert" issue with timestamps in Rename Master. For a Windows NTFS file system, it is legal for a file to have no timestamps for the Created and Modified. A workaround was made for this in version 3.0, a few months ago.

With user feedback, I was able to track down a related issue when the timestamp's year was less than 1980. For a missing timestamp, either the Created or Modified date will be used twice to substitute a missing date. In the worst case, today's date is used as a place-holder. This happens if both dates are missing, or if the date will not convert correctly.

Timestamp issues usually happens by using a buggy utility, or when moving a file from a remote or removable device. The second case can usually be worked around by copying the files instead of moving them. This should trigger Windows to generate a Created date that may not exist on the remote file.

Good Feedback

I've been getting some good feedback recently for both ArsClip and Rename Master. The result is shown in the current Public Beta uploads.

For ArsClip, I've added some options to override the default colors for the popup. My default design uses the current system Theme colors to mimic the operating system's look. This works pretty well for most, but visual tastes are always subjective.

I've also added a new Command in Permanent Clips. This new command will delete a specific PopupClip. One usage pattern would be to create a hotkey to delete the newest clip off the popup. Using the new command, this is possible.

For Rename Master, I've added two new configuration options for the Renaming Script. The first option will disable the Auto-Collapse feature. The second option will change the font used for the descriptions of each Step. The current Times New Roman font was specifically chosen because it is thin and allows for showing more text. On some systems and monitors, however, this may be harder to read.