ArsClip Design Thoughts

I had an interesting user request to use a different Shortcut Key set for Pinned Clips. Conceptually, Pinned Clips are just Popup Clips that don't moved. The good part of this option would be the Shortcut Keys for the first items of Pinned and Popup Clips would always be the same. So, you can use muscle memory to quickly select clips by position.

The bad part of this option is clutter. It's hard to explain and would at yet another option in the sea of options in the Configuration window. It's also not an option I envision most users finding needed, though I could be wrong.

ArsClip.ini
Symbols=-=[]\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:"<>?`
AlphaNumeric=1234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
StartingPinnedKey=A

Usually, I'll add an INI setting for these options that I think are good ideas, but not many people would use it. Above is a snippet from the INI file with the new StartingPinnedKey setting. This is basically a pointer to the first number/letter to use for Pinned Clips. By default, this points to 1 and will work exactly like previously before. In the above, it will use A for the first Pinned Clip, B for the second, and so on.

If I get enough feedback for a feature, I can always promote it to a normal option. The bad part of this design is that it's hard to discover. I document these features in the Configuration window, but not many will take the time to sift through this information.

Status Update

RM was released as a small maintenance update. There's one existing issue (fixed in the current Public Beta) where a specific JPEG metavariable (the less common SubSecTime) can cause issues for regions that don't use period as a decimal symbol.

I've another future idea for RM, but this will require some thought. There's no way to turn a pattern like "ThisThat" into "This That" without using a Regular Expression or JavaScript. When using a Regular Expression, case matters for matching. All the normal Renaming Script Steps are case insensitive. The idea for a "fix" would be to add a "Case Sensitive" formatting option for fields. This, however, would require reworking every step to support this option. It's not a small task and it's not a very common renaming operation, so it's not an immediately planned changed.

I've still watching JMoveIt. The same issue occurred again, but I've no idea the cause. Restarting the program fixes the issue. From my diagnostics, I can see that Windows is suspending the process. JM uses messaging when run to find an existing instance, send it data, and then exit. From what I'm seeing, the program it appears a process isn't exiting and starting another will stun-lock the program. This is why the program reacted just fine to a Global Hotkey; this doesn't start a second instance and doesn't require GUI message queue to function.

All other programs are "on pause" waiting for user feedback. There's one future idea for ArsClip I'll probably include in the next version, but I won't start until I've more changes/fixes to do.

Status Update

Rename Master will likely release soon as just a small maintenance release. It's been about 3 months since the last release and the only planned future changes are very small.

JMoveIt was affected by the last OS update on my system. It's slow to react to the monitor power state for no reason. It still reacts very quick to react to a hotkey for moving a single window, but showing the main window can get very slow. Around May, Windows changed it's code for messaging when restarting (affecting ArsClip during reboot). So, it's not a surprise that other things have changed. I'm still monitoring the situation to see if I can work around the issue.

ArsClip doesn't have any immediate plans for updates.

JMoveIt Update

JM gets is first v1.01 Public Beta. I've added an option to automatically start minimized to the System Tray. Also, I fixed a visual bug for the tray icon when starting the program.

AC and Windows Shutdown/Reboot

Something in Windows has recently changed and AC is no longer getting proper notifications for a shutdown. If you use the Clipboard Bar, Window may complain that "Clipboard Bar" is preventing Windows from restarting down. If you copy some items right before rebooting, AC is likely to lose those items on the next reboot. By default, AC saves the in-memory Popup Clips to disc every 10 minutes.

AC's code to handle these events hasn't changed in years. So, I'll have to figure out some sort of workaround. Even if Windows fixes the issue, it's going to take quite some time for them to do so.


EDIT: This was an easy fix, but my code was broken for years. Windows, however, changed behavior recently and stopped sending a second event on restart.

Rename Master Issue on Win11(?)

I've been tracking an issue that may only occur on Win11 systems. There are two possible symptoms. The first symptom is that an exception is shown, in red text, on the status bar when starting. The second symptom is that the auto-preview feature will stop functioning when loading a Renaming Script.

When loading a Renaming Script, the auto-preview feature is temporarily disabled and then enabled once the script is fully loaded. Since the script never fully loads, the auto-preview is never re-enabled.

In the latest Public Beta, I've updated the debug logging to help me pinpoint the exact location where the error might occur. To enabled debug logging in RM, create a folder named "debug" in the same folder where RenameMaster.exe resides. When the program exits, it will generate a debuglog.txt file.

If you are having any issues, feel free to send me an email. This is a tedious issue to track down and I need all the help I can get.

EDIT: The current Public Beta test fixes this issue and it wasn't a Win11 problem. A setting for new installs in v4.03 triggered a very old bug that wouldn't interfere with the auto-preview feature.

JMoveIt Delay

I've found a few timing hitches that I'm verifying. JM needs to evaluate the monitors layout for the Monitor Watcher. If triggered to late, the watcher will also refresh the program positions after Windows dumps them all on one monitor. JM will think that nothing needs to be moved at this point.

JM also needs to "fix" the position of the main window when the process is triggered. There's also a timing issue where it may be adjusted while it's being moved by Windows. This causes the location to show up weird.

I've been testing this on my system during different situations, but it's a slow process. Trying to simulate the process doesn't reproduce the exact timings. Using verbose debug logging helps, but is very imprecise.

EDIT: The current Public Beta test addresses the first timing issue, which may also fix the second issue.

EDIT2: Despite being ready, the release will be after April 1st.

The Current Beta Roadmap (Part 5 - Final)

RM v4.02 has been released. The next week will be used to listening to feedback about the new version. Only hotfix changes will be made during this period. There's currently no planned changes.

AC v5.45 is currently in feature freeze. I've one outstanding issue that I'm trying to diagnose with a user. AC will likely be released next week, depending the diagnoses.

JMoveit v1.0 will likely be released at the same time AC is released. This will require creating a dedicated page for the new program.

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I've altered the updating process slightly. First, the "Plans and Ideas" page is updated when I receive user feedback and/or when I'm working on an issue/feature. I'm also emailing links to the Plan and Ideas page to users, so they can track progress. Previously, emails would be tagged, but I'd have to skim the email to find the actual issue/feature request. It was too easy for feedback to get lost this way. The Plans and Ideas page was also updated to show posts sorted by their edit date, instead of creation date. It's much easier to find the latest updated plans.