Explorer Details in RM (part 2)

The speed has been increased quite a bit in the current Public Beta. Normal file tags are still about several times faster and can reach a thousand per second on my system. They are still the preferred method for extracting data, but RM does not include support for all the data that can be found in Explorer Details.

The program has been optimized when only using a few Explorer Details meta-variables. Previously, it would load all variables available. While it would only take 20-40 MS a file, this would slow down scanning from hundreds of files a second to only about 25 or 50 files a second. Now, it pre-scans the Renaming Script for ?ed_? tags and will only query the system for tags that are explicitly used.

The second change for Explorer Details is using a threaded cache method for queued reads of Explorer Details. This is overly complicated, but it runs a bit faster and smoother. It is only used for Explorer Details tags, because it may have complicated issues.

With both changes, reading Explorer Details is about 5-10x faster than before, but is still 3-4x slower than normal file tags.

Lastly, the Status Bar indicator has been tweaks some more for smoother updating. It records the timing and averages the files per second processed using a exponential smoothing average. This makes the system a bit more responsive and doesn't completely freeze the interface while performing a Preview. While the file count may only be updated about once per second, the progress bar will show more updates.

Explorer Details

Explorer Details has been added to the current Public Beta of Rename Master. These should only be used when RM cannot directly detect the file tags, since they tend to be 10-40x slower to retrieve that other file tag data. This is the same data shown in Explorer under the [Properties>Details] tab.

Since they tend to be slower, the Preview process has been updated to detect slowdowns. Progress is tuned to update about once per second on the Status Bar, instead of every X files processed. This makes the program more responsive and there's a Cancel button that will show when slowdowns are detected.

I've tried several tests to speed up the process, but none have worked. I've one last thing to try that might improve things, but this will require a partial rewrite.

The Current Beta Roadmap (Part 2)

RM has been officially released first. I've already created support for extracting data Explorer's Details Tab in a test program. This is a feature I wish was available long ago. This way, I wouldn't have to support multiple file types and metadata formats.

The next Public Beta of RM (v4.02) will integrate the File Details meta-variables support. The variables will be in a "?FD_PropertyName?" format. Examples: ?FD_Image_Dimensions?, ?FD_Music_Artist, FD_Photo_CameraManufacturer?, ?FD_DateAccessed?, ?FD_DateImported?, etc. I may update the meta-variable format to include an identifier for dates, floats, and signed/unsigned integers. All values will be strings, but this would when using formatting options.

This will require updates to several parts of the program. The View Tags window will need to add the new variables. The Renaming Steps textboxes will need to be able to identify, convert, and format the new meta-variables. The Advanced Insert window will also need to be able to show the new variables.

This will be an OS version dependent feature. It is available for Vista and above, which should be over 95% of my userbase.

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After about a week, I'll release AC as an official version and begin work on the RM 4.02 update. I'm not expecting any issues from the release, but this give me plenty of time to create hotfixes.

The Current Beta Roadmap and Possible New Program

The current Public Beta versions of ArsClip and Rename Master are in feature freeze. I'm only fixing issues and will be releasing them as official versions in the near future.

There is one feature that was not ready to begin working on for Rename Master. It's going to take more research. The idea is simple. I want RM to be able to use all the meta-data that Explorer shows on the Details tab of the Properties window. I found out that Windows makes this list available to other programs, so I can just request this list. So, instead of trying to read all the meta-data myself - Windows can do all the hard work.

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I've been working on a personal project for a few months that may or may not be released. It's a program that's only function is to move a window to another monitor - with just mouse clicks. It specifically solves the program when the monitors use different resolutions/scaling and the Window gets made larger/small when moved (using Win+Shift+Left/Right). This program, code named JMoveIt [Just-Move-It], will keep the same proportional size.
The other use for this manual move feature is when I have one of the monitors turned off an need to move a program to the current monitor.

Also, this program will detect when a Display Port monitor changes power state and automatically move the programs back to their previous positions. Depending on drivers, some monitors (especially Display Port connected) are treated as plug-and-play and remove themselves before changing power states. This causes all open programs to be stacked onto a single monitor.

The moving feature should work on any system. The Monitor Watcher feature to restore positions, however, may only work on systems similar to mine. I've no idea how the system events will trigger on other systems. On my system, I can receive a "disconnect" message right before a monitor wakes from sleep or is turned on. This might not be the behavior and the drivers might determine when and how the messages get sent. If there is a different scaling/resolution between the monitors, the program can also detect a resolution change as a backup method.

I may just post JMoveIt as only a Public Beta and make a RFC (Request for Comments) post on the main page of this website. If there is enough interest and it works on other systems, I can make this an official release. I'm currently trying to make the program as rock-solid first, because I'm expecting a lot of hardware issues that need to be tracked. The program has a verbose debug log built in to help with figuring out what the program can see.

ArsClip Next Beta (Update 2)

In the current Public Beta upload, the Pinned mode has replaced Form Mode. The Popup can now toggle transparency, via a Title Bar button. There's also a new toggle button in Pinned mode for sending keystrokes. The only thing left to do is fix some of the in-program documentation to remove references to "Form Mode".

For now, these are the last changes scheduled for v5.44 of ArsClip.

ArsClip Next Beta (Update)

The Paste Selected Text window was forgotten about. It was deprecated (only bugs fixed) a while ago, but the functionality was never purely replicated in the Popup. The "Paste and Stay Open" keystroke + click mechanic replicated most of the features. This feature, however, takes a while to discover.

The new Paste Selected mode in the current Public Beta is much more intuitive and easier to discover. It's a quick way to combine a group of clips into a single clip to paste. It's also very compatible with just about every program that accepts text. The same mechanic could be created using a (Clip Menu/Permanent Clip) macro, but this also takes a while to discover and understand.

While testing the new mode, I discovered the Pinned to Desktop Mode was very unstable. The Pinned Mode was also designed to be an accessible way to replicate the Paste and Stay open mechanic. It worked fine while the same target program was in the foreground. Once focus was changed to another program or the target program was closed, Pinned Mode would break. This mode was rewritten in the current Public Beta to account for all the edge cases. It's now much more stable and reliable.

Pinned Mode also makes Form Mode mostly redundant and it is more flexible. In Pinned Mode, it's trivial to paste into several different textboxes and/or different programs. You can use your normal mouse/keyboard methods to select where to paste. ArsClip also supports dragging clips onto external programs to paste, and this works well with Pinned Mode. With a few tweaks, Pinned Mode could completely replace Form Mode.

ArsClip Next Beta

The "Paste Selected Text" and the "Search and Paste" windows have been deprecated for while. Bugs will be fixed, but no new features are added. Search/Filter was added to the Popup a while ago when the Menu Bar was implemented. So, the Search and Paste window is now redundant.

In the next Public Beta, the "Paste Selected" window will be replaced with a Paste Selected Mode. The Popup will be used to select several clips (text only) to be pasted as a single clip. A button will appear on the Menu Bar to toggle this feature on and off. The Popup Clips will look and behave similar, but will have checkboxes that toggle when clicked instead of pasting the clip. I've also implemented a Shift+Click mechanic for checking a group of clips to paste when in this mode. The "Reverse Order" option is also available, so you don't have to copy clips items from last to first order.

Paste Selected Mode differs quite a bit from Form Mode. Form Mode is designed to paste clips into multiple text boxes, so it offers ways to navigate controls and has customizable macros to perform tasks in between pasted clips. Paste Selected Mode is used to create one large clip by combining text clips separated by newlines.

There's a good bit of room on the Menu Bar of the Popup, so there's rooms for more features.

Latest Rename Master Updates (Part 2)

The latest round of changes are a result of issues reported long ago.

When dealing with a long list of files, you can highlight files, but there was no way to navigate them. There's now a menu (and Alt+H shortcut) that will move to the next highlighted file.

The Breadcrumb style Filepath now supports keyboard navigation. I try to design my programs to be keyboard friendly, but this feature had no keyboard support. Now, it can receive Tab focus and supports left/right arrow key navigation and Space/Enter activation of buttons.

A lot of code has changed behind the scenes to clean up mistakes made over a decade ago. When reviewing the code, I've discovered issues that were reported years ago. These were mistakenly misdiagnosed. For example, one of the Windows routines I use for converting file timestamps fails if the years is less than 1980. Windows itself has no problems showing this in Explorer.

I've emptied the TODO list in on the Plans and Ideas page. There are only 2 Future ideas left that may or may not be added in this version.