QuickSnap : Released Oct 12, 2006

Character · Post by **Character** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:28 pm

There's already loads of text written in this thread so forgive me if I skipped anything.
Question is: if I want to use the spacebar for a shortkey, the 'current hotkey' stringgadget displays: None.
(same thing for DEL and Backspace key)
Should it be?

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:34 pm

Yes, it's the right behavior. It's not a string gadget, it's a Microsoft Hotkey control, and what it displays is not programmed by me but is the default behavior of the control. If it won't take those keys they aren't valid keys to use for Hotkeys and there wouldn't be any way I could make them so. It's an OS limitation.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:51 pm

*** Working from build 0.976 ***
Suggestions
------------------------
1. Because the menu is getting crowded, maybe the "About" and "Preferences" entries could be combined into a single one, giving us (for instance) the following:
menu entry: "Presenting QuickSnap 0.979 ..."

content: tabbed multi-panel box, as follows:
(a) the current About screen
(b) a Help or Info blurb, in telegraphic style, detailing how QuickSanp works.
(c) the existing preferences screens

------------------------
2. An optional dimensions box showing the size, that would appear as the selection area is being re-dimensioned. Useful, particularly when smal areas are being selected.
------------------------

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:40 pm

Current Hotkey description line is back on the main preferences page due to a contribution from Bonne_den_kule which retrieves keyname text from keyboard scan codes. Description line should now be mostly accurate.

Current build: 0.978

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:28 am

netmaestro wrote:[...]Current build: 0.978

Area resizing with the keyboard controls :

After using the arrow keys a lot to increase and decrease the selection area, I've finally inderstood what annoyed me so much in the process. The finger mapping is unnatural! And I think a modification is required to make the operation more natural:

(Bear with me, here, because at first glance, my suggestion may seem contrary to nature !!!)

At present, to increase the area on the left side, the user presses Shift + Left arrow. Logical, both visually and digitally. But to decrease that same side, he must now press Control + Right arrow ! The logic here is strictly visual: the left side of the box moves in the direction indicated by the arrow. But this handling is totally unnatural. I won't go through the other manu=ipulations; you know them and they follow the same pattern.

I think the following mapping is required in order to obtain a better and much more natural handling:
increase Left: Shift + Left arrow | increase Right: Shift + Right arrow
decrease Left: Ctrl + Left arrow | decrease Right: Ctrl + Right arrow

increase top: Shift + Up arrow | increase Bottom: Shift + Down arrow
decrease top: Ctrl + Up arrow | decrease Bottom: Ctrl + Down arrow

To put it simply, the ONLY finger movement required for a size change should be going, with a single finger, from the Shift key to the Control key. The other keys (and fingers!) would not change.

The visual logic would then become that the arrows no longer indicate the direction of the change, but the side to which this change is to be applied.

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:38 am

Agreed - I think it's better too. Changed and uploaded.

Current build: 0.980

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:41 am

netmaestro wrote:Agreed - I think it's better too. Changed and uploaded.

Current build: 0.980

Darn. You shocked me.

I was rewriting my message.
When I switched back to this screen, you'd already answered !!!

Don't you sleep ?

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:43 am

nope. I code.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:04 am

* * * Build 0.980 * * *

Tested. All's fine.

The finger controls come more naturally. I like that change.

In the absence of an ini file, Quicksnap finds the correct pictures folder (called "Mes images" on my machine) and maps the default logical key to the first letter of its name. Good.

However, BMP becomes ipso facto the default save format. Maybe you ought to make that the PNG format, just to impose outright a better performance format. If a user wants to select the obese BMP as the default, he can always do so. But for those users who go along with whatever choices the software makes for them, let's be nice (even if they'll probably never notice it!) and introduce them to something better.

Otherwise, I can just hear the complaints you'll get:
Fat Lady: "Hey, your program is a hog. It keeps stuffing those huge files in my pictures folder. Can't you come up with a better scheme or something ???"
Service tech: "Sorry Ma'am. Now, all you have to do is..."

So PNG as default ? So the fat lady won't sing

All in all, petty good utility application. I can't crash the thing. That must be good, eh ???

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:11 am

Well, there is a tiny bug in 0.980, it's fixed now. I had used > and < operators in the shrink section, which was resulting in the window refusing to shrink from the left side if the selection was located all the way left. Behavior was the same for all arrows if you were all the way to the side. You had to move the rectangle one px away from the side of the window to get it to shrink.

Current build: 0.981

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:17 am

netmaestro wrote:Well, there is a tiny bug in 0.980, it's fixed now.

What took you so long ?

There I was ordering a new keyboard from Future Shop Online...
Whew. You make me sweat.

mskuma · Post by **mskuma** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:19 am

When in the standard window mode, you can resize using the mouse. When in 'precision mode' there is no mouse control, only cursor keys to resize. Isn't it worthwhile to have the mouse control there too?

As for the new key controls, personally speaking, I'm not sure about it - it will take some getting used to

. I thought it was ok the way it was before.

The disc icon seems to be not centered.

(edit: testing on Build 0.980)

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:30 am

Yes, the save icon was originally 40x40 and later I resized it down to 24x24. The #WM_SIZE message was left unchanged at width/2-20, which was then too far to the left. It's fixed.

The rectangle is not so easy to resize in outlined mode. I'd have to write a fair amount of code to accomplish that as framed mode hitches a ride on the frame of the sizable window, which is gone in outlined mode. It's doable, just a pain and I don't want to go to the trouble. You're welcome to write a proc for it and send it to me, I'll put it in and credit you in the header with the other contributors.

Current build is 0.982

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:39 am

* * * using 0.981 * * *

I won't need to change my keyboard. My arrow keys work again

I agree with mskuma about the handling change. It does take some getting used to it. If you prefer to go back to how it was before, i won't bite you. Maybe ou could make it an option, so difficult people like me (and the Fat Lady, of course) can have their way too.

I haven't found the absence of the mouse resizing capability a handicap in the outline mode, but implementing it would give the app a more "finished" feel.

The disk icon has not been centered since version 0.001. A nice side effect to that is that, when you save a very small selection, the disk flashes just ouside the selection, but the tip of its arrow is smack in the middle. So i like it as it is.

Have you noticed what happens after you've taken a snapshot, and press the spacebar again ? Let's say your selection is the entire screen. Spacebar. The sanpshot gets saved, the highlight disappears, creen goes dim. Spacebar again. A new snapshot gets taken of the dimmed screen.
Bug or feature ?
Let's call this an unexpected feature...

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:43 am

Yes, it's a builtin feature. I don't want to prohibit a second snapshot of the same area, the dimming is just a visual feedback that it shouldn't need done.