oldefoxx wrote:i want to reduce the "man" aspect, and have the machine do more on a cyclic bases.
Sounds more like batch processing. Application software, on the other hand, are usually more flexible, performing a broader spectrum of tasks based on variable user-input.
While user-friendliness is clearly an important issue, the GUI still allays the dangers and apprehension of using batch scripts that run automatically and invisibly in the background. Unless you're very familiar with the functionalities of such a script, it would be unwise to run it.
This doesn't discount the power or usefulness of batch automation, which are usually purpose-built for very specific sets of tasks. But GUI-based applications are designed to be more flexible, to give users greater choice and control, and keep them informed with real-time progress and updates. Consequently, they tend to be less daunting.
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer: the first home computer with a 16bit processor, crammed into an 8bit architecture. Great hardware - Poor design - Wonderful BASIC engine. And it could talk too!Please visit my YouTube Channel
I'm familiar with batch processing. That's like the routine you go through every morning as you wake up, do your daily routine, and go off to work. Not quite the same thing. My idea is more like the automatic coffee maker that begins heating a heating element at a specific time so that coffee gets brewed. It doesn't have to know how to make coffee or why it is heating up. It's kindred to the timer that starts heating the water in the hot water system 20 minutes before the alarm clock goes off, or automatic thermostat control that warms your house before you rise.
These chores have commonalities, so even though they are different, you focus on the basic design, which in this case involved:
(1) Keep track of time.
(2) At a specific point in time (adjustable), close a circuit.
(3) After a specific interval, or as directed otherwise, open the circuit.
(4) Repeat.
The same basic idea applies to other applications, like turning lights on and off, automatic water sprinkler systems, alarm clocks.
A browsers basic functionality involves connecting, using TCP/IP underlay and HTTP on top, an exchange between host and client, display of web pages, detecting events, including user inputs, and performing specific tasks as directed, usually by the user (but also by the host, as it has certain requirements that have to be met by the client for everything to work).
Scripting is a way to control the browser, and can act in place of some, if not all, user input. Some browsers let you download all files associated with links found in a specific html document (Slimjet for one). Some browsers will automatically go to the link specified after a paste to the address box (Slimjet again. It has a setting for this). Some will let you decide if a new links should open in the current tab or start a new tab (another Slimjet setting). Some let you specify if a new tab opens to the immediate right or at the end of a line of opened tabs (Opera). Some browsers let you decide if you go right to the last link opened or remain where you are (Opera).
The point is, for a specific task, can you script out the user completely? Technically yes, but it depends on either the scripting language itself or what tools can work within it. And "tools" in this case refers to code in other forms.
A big gap in my understanding is, what can you really do with scripts? Which scripting language seems best suited to the purpose? There are strong arguments put forth that it all (meaning anything and everything) can be done with PureBasic. That is undoubtedly true, but what does it take to do it with the internal code and external libraries currently available? Remember, I'm not looking for a Windows solution here, but a Linux-specific solution, so DLLs are out.
I keep looking, and I find tantalizing clues. I keep asking, and that brings even more to the surface, It's like a huge table-top puzzle with 1,000 small pieces to it. You only have three things going for you at the start:
(1) You know all the pieces fit, and you have a picture to guide you in the picture reconstruction.
(2) You can separate out groups by color, and you can place the groups in the areas where their color matches what is shown in the picture.
(3) You can identify border and corner pieces by the fact that they have one or two joining straight edges. All puzzle solutions begin with putting corner and side sections together first, and then working towards the middle.
In this case, the jigsaw puzzle has to involve finding:
(1) The overall picture, and what pieces need to be used together to make it so.
(2) The colors involved. Or what does what when the pieces are combined.
(3) The edge and corner pieces. What works, what doesn't. Then the infrastructure required in putting all the pieces together. Then the code itself.
Complex puzzles always take a lot of time, In the old days, before TV to watch and cars to go places, there were many empty hours to fill, so they were popular. As our lives improved, there was less time that we wanted to devote to empty tasks. I mean that If you completed a puzzle, then what? Start over? Varnish it or glue it so that you could nail it to a wall as a reminder? People did that sort of thing, just to get something back. And then they got a bigger puzzle with more pieces and started with that one, just to feel some sense of accomplishment.
Now we have computers and code so that we can repeat the process, and hopefully derive some sense if accomplishment from it. Sometimes the only accomplishment achieved is helping others by answering a question or two, or showing an example of our own efforts. Who knows, that effort may become one of the key pieces in my own attempt at a solution to a problem that keeps vexing me as I struggle for time to do it all.
The words I keep wanting to hear are: "It's all been done before. Here is where you find it". I/m not hearing those words. Nor do searches lead me to the solution. Am I so different that I am the only one in this whole world that has encountered this situation? That would be so odd, to be the only one out of billions, to find my time wasted by the sheer drudgery of hourly, daily or weekly tasks on the computer. All just to be up with any changes around me that might effect me in one way or another. Like email, answered posts, local, national, and international events, and what's the latest science and technology news. In some of these areas, I want the computer to "go forth and search for me at these given locations, and report back if there has been any change since your last visit there".
Go.
Look.
Record.
Compare to stored record.
Notify me of any change, and if change, then update history as to latest status (save record).
Drop connection after a designated interval (in case I want to intervene and keep the connection).
Repeat cycle as scheduled.
has-been wanna-be (You may not agree with what I say, but it will make you think).
oldefoxx wrote:...Like email, answered posts, local, national, and international events, and what's the latest science and technology news. In some of these areas, I want the computer to "go forth and search for me at these given locations, and report back if there has been any change since your last visit there".
While PureBasic offers a host of possible approaches to deal with such tasks, obtaining the content would invariably pose the biggest hurdle. Such crawlers would have to contend with and overcome various obstacles such as security credentials, external content, cookies, blockers, and so on.
Not a trivial task that could warrant a "here is where you find it" answer.
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer: the first home computer with a 16bit processor, crammed into an 8bit architecture. Great hardware - Poor design - Wonderful BASIC engine. And it could talk too!Please visit my YouTube Channel
What are you trying to achieve, specifically? I see a lot of writing, but not many focussed points. Are you trying to scrape pages for content? Are you trying to write your own browser? If so, why?
The WebGadget used in webbrowser.pb uses IE on windows, its a fully featured IE browser that is available on the computer without using PB, PB just allows you to "control" it.
The WebGadget uses the WebKitGtk library on Linux, so it should cope with everything that is thrown at it.
oldefoxx wrote:Am I so different that I am the only one in this whole world that has encountered this situation? That would be so odd, to be the only one out of billions, to find my time wasted by the sheer drudgery of hourly, daily or weekly tasks on the computer. All just to be up with any changes around me that might effect me in one way or another. Like email, answered posts, local, national, and international events, and what's the latest science and technology news. In some of these areas, I want the computer to "go forth and search for me at these given locations, and report back if there has been any change since your last visit there".
RSS readers / aggregators are a pretty standard way of keeping notified of new content on specific websites. Email notifications from forums, ie, direct messages, thread replies etc., automatically end up in the "Forums" tab of my Gmail inbox - presumably other mail services/clients have similar filtering capabilities? It's not a thing that I specifically set up - it's just a feature that exists.
All of this type stuff is easily consolidated in a browser or desktop notification panel or on a phone, so I'm not sure there's a need for a standalone app for that.
It did it to me again! I went to post, and was told I had to login first. I tried to go back to copy my post to clipboard first, and it took me back to the thread, but not to my post! So I lost it. And it had a really great idea that I had suddenly worked out in my head involving arrays and methods of sorting them. Something that would outshine other Basics if it were implemented in PureBasic. I mean, most of them have Sort, but none of them do it the way I just dreamed up.
Well, another time. I've got to get away from this for awhile. This is frustrating.
has-been wanna-be (You may not agree with what I say, but it will make you think).
Might be a problem with "Slimjet" as I notice you make reference to it a lot. I'm using Chrome and I never get logged out, even if I leave the browser open for a day.
Make sure you go here for the forums: http://www.purebasic.fr/english/ I've often been redirected to a different version of the forums when someone posts a link to an old article and it logs me out or doesnt log me in (I don't remember which). Keep an eye on that.
If you let us know what you're trying to do, we might be able to help.
I think it is a matter of timing out while writing the post. I work one one for awhile, then go off in a browser to check something out. then come bask. I have trouble with the keyboard (keys are widely spaced) and touchpad (very sensative to being touched as my hands pass over it), which results in typos and jerks the screen about. So I spend time editing it as well/ But the worse person to edit something is the writer, because what's being said is still fresh in the mind. You have to put it aside for a bit and return to it to see some of the errors made. So timeout occur. And in a light timeout period, I just have to resubmit the post. If too long, I get logged out.
has-been wanna-be (You may not agree with what I say, but it will make you think).
Oh, I'm not debating or asking about alternate methods of composing posts. That's all well understood. The problem is, I start off thinking I am just going to make a quick reply, but one thing leads tp another, and it gets longer and longer. Like I said, this is when my mind begins to really mesh, working my way through what I know to something unthought of yet. It builds up, I finally wind down, and it's time to close the post. That is when I realize I may have put myself in a bad position. Not before then. I will work on it.
has-been wanna-be (You may not agree with what I say, but it will make you think).
