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So, what's next after v18.3?
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Author:  winstep [ Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

vectornut wrote:
Jorge, what obvious item am I missing this time that is not allowing me to find this media player?


It's a new internal command, you just add it to a dock, the Shelf, a menu, or the NextSTART taskbar: Right click -> Insert/Add New Item -> Internal Command -> Media -> Media Player.

Author:  DanDaBear [ Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

Hi Jorge. I clicked 'New', added some files, then I clicked 'Save As', Typed a name, clicked OK and an error message pops up with:"Error saving file."
:? :shock: :oops:

Author:  winstep [ Sat Apr 14, 2018 4:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

DanDaBear wrote:
Hi Jorge. I clicked 'New', added some files, then I clicked 'Save As', Typed a name, clicked OK and an error message pops up with:"Error saving file."
:? :shock: :oops:


Sigh, I *HATE* the old playlist manager lol. See what happens when you guys don't give me any feedback during the beta phase?

Check to see if you're not using any 'weird' characters for the name of the playlist, since that is what it will be used as the filename for the file in the disk.

Author:  DanDaBear [ Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

Quote:
Check to see if you're not using any 'weird' characters for the name of the playlist


Nope, just plain old ascii letters.

Found the culprit. Our old friend Bitdefender

Turning off all protection allowed me to save the playlist!

Time for a different Anti-Virus!

Author:  winstep [ Sat Apr 14, 2018 6:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

DanDaBear wrote:
Found the culprit. Our old friend Bitdefender


Sigh. Figures.

BitDefender would be PERFECT if it went a step further in its current reasoning and simply prevented ANY and ALL programs from running. That would sure make for a secure system! :)

Author:  winstep [ Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

winstep wrote:
There's one thing I've been meaning to do for a long time: unify the Effects panel so the Mouseover, Launch and Attention effects can all be specified without exiting the panel.


So, and here is the (almost final) result of what I have been working on:

Image


This is the new Effects tab in Preferences. As you can see, we now have a visual representation of the currently selected effects, which I think is much better than simply showing mostly meaningless names.

You can press the arrows to browse/select the different effects one by one, like in the video above, or you can click the icon to open the Effects Panel.

I finally had enough room to add an explanation of what the three different effect events do. Mouseover and Launch are self-explanatory, but I had the opportunity to see people making Youtube videos about Nexus coming up blank when it was time to explain what the Attention effect was for. They had no idea - hopefully the short explanation fixes this.

As for the Effects Panel, you can (finally!) select all three effects without having to leave the panel:

Image


In the right click context menus the three entries (Mouseover Effect, Launch Effect and Attention Effect) still remain, for simplicity and to avoid confusion, but all they do is take you to the respective 'tab' in the Effects panel. From there you can select the three different effects in one go regardless of which option you initially chose.

I understand that all this is not a 'new feature' per se, but rather polishing what is already there, but that is also important IMO.

So, what do you guys think?

Author:  nexter [ Sat Apr 14, 2018 4:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

winstep wrote:
Sigh. Figures.

BitDefender would be PERFECT if it went a step further in its current reasoning and simply prevented ANY and ALL programs from running. That would sure make for a secure system! :)


D-) Almost. But why stop there when it could be really perfect by preventing not only all connections also, but furthermore preventing the OS from loading in the first place! :P

Author:  winstep [ Sat Apr 14, 2018 4:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

nexter wrote:
D-) Almost. But why stop there when it could be really perfect by preventing not only all connections also, but furthermore preventing the OS from loading in the first place! :P


Genius!!! Prevent the system from booting; no more viruses! Amazing! Why didn't they think of that yet? Let me patent that idea before anyone else does, we'll be rich! :)

Author:  DanDaBear [ Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

Quote:
Genius!!! Prevent the system from booting; no more viruses! Amazing! Why didn't they think of that yet? Let me patent that idea before anyone else does, we'll be rich!


Too late Jorge, McAfee already did it with XP by deleting critical system files, saying they were a Trojan!
It happened where I work and none of our computers would boot up!

:D :o :) :x :( :cry:

Author:  nexter [ Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

DanDaBear wrote:
Quote:
Genius!!! Prevent the system from booting; no more viruses! Amazing! Why didn't they think of that yet? Let me patent that idea before anyone else does, we'll be rich!


Too late Jorge, McAfee already did it with XP by deleting critical system files, saying they were a Trojan!
It happened where I work and none of our computers would boot up!

:D :o :) :x :( :cry:

Dang! There go Jorge and my dreams of becoming filthy rich - filthy, perhaps, rich, no.... :P
Never trusted/liked the likes of McAfee and so avoided having XP trashed. Most of the time been using freebie AV, and freebie FW etc. and never really had any problems with virii, trojans or what have you. ATM on a new Win10 laptop using Eset (came with sys with free 400 day sub), it seems to work fine (and even lets me scan my network drives) but is a pain in the ar....senal with its constant huge updates and esp. its constant nagging that it can't get online. I don't go online every day dammit, and I don't stay online any longer than strictly necessary so pull the plug or switch off the router when I'm done. Also helps keep things safe. :)

Author:  winstep [ Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

One thing that never fails to break my little furry heart is when I get an email from a user saying 'I was looking for a way to do <x> but I couldn't find that option anywhere' and I know that feature already exists.

It means *I* failed.

There are two things I tremendously dislike having to do: writing documentation (writing the News section on the Winstep web site every time there is a new release is a real pain for me) and organizing/making the UI of the application.

The latter is mostly due to the lack of space to add more options to existing panels, and how difficult it actually is to organize hundreds of different settings so they are where you expect them to be.

Users take a look at the simplicity of RocketDock's UI and then raise their arms in despair when they open Nexus Preferences. Some simply give up right then and there because they think the whole thing is too complicated.

They do have a point, but the reason is that despite RocketDock being a GREAT dock, it doesn't do 1/50 of the things Nexus can do. The reason some users don't realize this is because they have ZERO interest in features <x,y,z> (for instance, the recently added dock keyboard support) while that same feature is already of critical interest to Home Theater users, who in turn couldn't care less about that feature <w> that is so beloved by the first group of users...

We are all different. We all want and like different things, and Nexus being so granular in the choices it offers is precisely what allows you to express yourself, to customize the application so it works just how YOU want it to.

This comes with a price: UI clutter and complexity. The more options you have, the more difficult it becomes to organize them properly.

I try my best to bury the least used options in secondary dialogs, but this also means those options are harder to find (and even know they exist!) when you need them. And sometimes, mostly because of a lack of space (RocketDock's UI is very compact with a small font size, meaning you can cram more in, while the Nexus UI has a much larger font size) they won't be where they actually should be.

With UI space being at a premium, adding a new feature normally also implies having to re-arrange the layout of the WHOLE dialog/panel just to make room for it. No wonder I hate doing that so much.

But sometimes it is also for the best, as this is also an opportunity to reevaluate and reorganize what is already there. I'm constantly polishing the application, which includes trying to make the UI more logical and easier to use. This sometimes feels like an ungrateful job as it will mostly benefit potential new users (existing users already know where everything is) and, of course, does not generate much excitement in the latter group.

Case in point, the new visual representation of effects in the Effects tab of Preferences. I know (think?) this will have a great positive impact on new users, but mentioning it in a post above (with pictures and all) didn't generate a single comment from existing users.

Remember Sandra Bullock's in Gravity? 'Houston, Houston in the blind'? That's how I feel sometimes... 'is anybody out there?' lol :)

Anyway, the user I mentioned in the beginning of this post wanted to know if there was any way to disable the balloon tooltips (there is, but it is buried in the 'More Options' dialog of the General tab in Preferences).

He said he looked for that option but couldn't find it - and he's right, he couldn't find it because it isn't where he expected it to be, indeed where it *should* be (the Behavior tab of the Dock Properties panel). Since this is an infrequently used option, I added/copied the settings to the 'More Options' dialog of the Behavior tab.

This prompted a flurry of changes to the UI: I removed the 'Blur Settings' button from the Effects tab (it's not really an effect, is it?) and moved it to the Appearance tab, which is where it should have been all along.

I also added the 'Disable dock scaling on hight DPI settings' and 'Disable menu scaling on high DPI settings' options to the Appearance tab, since these are, without doubt, appearance related settings (and since they are no longer buried, users will now know these options exist more easily).

In the Behavior tab I moved the 'Edge Bump Settings' and 'Edge Slide Settings' buttons to INSIDE the Activation Settings dialog.

Since how fast a dock activates is influenced by two things (delay to activate when the mouse pointer bumps the screen edge *and* speed of the slide animation) I moved the Animation Speed slider to the Activation dialog as well (removing it from the Auto-Hide settings dialog). This makes sense and is important because users sometimes think Nexus is slow due to the artificially imposed delays (which are there to help prevent accidental edge bumps).

I also added a new 'Grab focus when activated' setting (enabled by default) to this dialog to finally answer the request of some users for the dock NOT to grab the focus when activated.

Since it has to do with activations, I also moved the new 'Full Screen Exclusion List' button to the Activation Settings dialog. This also makes it easier for Home Theater users to know that this very important option (to them) actually exists.

Needless to say the Activation Settings dialog is now HUGE, but despite this it still was a pain organizing all the settings and explanations in a way that would fit in the available space, while still making sense. On the other hand, I believe it now contains all the options related to the activation of docks.

Attachment:
ActivationSettings.jpg
ActivationSettings.jpg [ 76.86 KiB | Viewed 14874 times ]


Something else I am currently adding has to do with the 'Minimize to dock' function. Not being an Apple user (unlike the creators of RocketDock) I never understood the importance of this feature.

In the Mac, only minimized applications are added to the right side of the dock. The Windows taskbar, on the other hand, holds both active and minimized applications.

I never noticed that RocketDock did more than just add an icon to the dock when you minimized an application so I thought that the option to 'Minimize to dock' was purely cosmetic, but the fact is that it also does another very important thing (if you're into this method of organizing your running applications): it also removes the button of the minimized application from the Windows taskbar!

If you're using the dock together with the Windows taskbar (as you have to with RocketDock since, unlike Nexus, it does not have support for systray icons) this allows you to make a clear distinction between minimized and active applications.

It was only when this was explained to me that I finally understood the usefulness of that feature (of course, you could accomplish the same by splitting running applications in the dock into two distinctive groups, minimized and active, but ah well, there are always several ways to skin a cat) which is why I decided to add a 'Show Minimized Applications Only' setting to the dock, which also removes the button from the taskbar when you minimize an application.

Unfortunately, due to how things work internally, this setting will have to be global, i.e.; apply to all the docks.

Author:  nexter [ Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

Can well empathise with your sentiments there Jorge. And indeed, there's more than one way to skin a cat.... or even a rabbit? :P

Lots of great stuff there btw. As for the UI of Winstep, please, no radical changes like smaller fonts - would make it unusable for severely visually impaired folk like me - or 'dumbing down' a la Windowblinds or Windows 10. Yes, if at all possible the UI should always be as logical and easy to use as possible, but with an complex application like Winstep Xtreme or the dock alone even, it is unavoidable that there will also be quite a lot of complexity in the UI. It's a bit like life - things don't always go according to plan; or like a personal file system, where you organise it one way because you think that seems like the logical thing to do, only to find at some point, sooner or later, that you got it dreadfully wrong and have to move things around yet again.
No point beating yourself up over this sort of thing Jorge.

BTW, pity in a way the old Next interface is gone, but OTOH, most users probably would find it completely baffling even though it was so much more convenient to use - e.g., esp. the scroll bars and their buttons, etc.

As an aside, quick question related to that. I'm about to install my old NS/WS 3.4x on the XP32 system, but ISTR that we used to have to copy the NeXTcontrols.ocx manually first and also install VB runtimes 5 and 6 first. Now for the life of me I can't find those files in my archives - probably buried very deeply somewhere, but been spending several hours searching over the last week and no luck so far. Any suggestions?

While we're on the subject of not finding a setting when you there must be one of the kind you're looking for, I've got a prob that I'm sure there is a setting for somewhere, but I don't have a clue where or even what it would be. I'm using a tiled dock and tiled tasklist, and although the gfx files for the tiles are the same (at 64 pixels square), those in the dock appear smaller than those in the tasklist (or, vice versa, the those in the tasklist are larger than those in the dock). The tasklist one are probably correct I think. Oh, and I use what used to be the old 'Large Fonts' in Windows (now 125%). I'm sure it's all the result of my missing a lot of new stuff during my long hiatus from Winstep and computers.

Author:  winstep [ Sat Apr 21, 2018 10:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

nexter wrote:
BTW, pity in a way the old Next interface is gone, but OTOH, most users probably would find it completely baffling even though it was so much more convenient to use - e.g., esp. the scroll bars and their buttons, etc.


That really had to go, for a LOT of reasons. :)

nexter wrote:
As an aside, quick question related to that. I'm about to install my old NS/WS 3.4x on the XP32 system, but ISTR that we used to have to copy the NeXTcontrols.ocx manually first and also install VB runtimes 5 and 6 first. Now for the life of me I can't find those files in my archives - probably buried very deeply somewhere, but been spending several hours searching over the last week and no luck so far. Any suggestions?


Oh boy. I can't remember anymore lol. Don't you have the setup file? It should install the VB5 runtime as well as properly register nextcontrols.ocx.

nexter wrote:
I'm using a tiled dock and tiled tasklist, and although the gfx files for the tiles are the same (at 64 pixels square), those in the dock appear smaller than those in the tasklist (or, vice versa, the those in the tasklist are larger than those in the dock). The tasklist one are probably correct I think. Oh, and I use what used to be the old 'Large Fonts' in Windows (now 125%). I'm sure it's all the result of my missing a lot of new stuff during my long hiatus from Winstep and computers.


Open WorkShelf Preferences -> General tab -> More Options button.

Check out if the high DPI settings are disabled, especially the one for the dock.

Author:  winstep [ Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

Ok, I think that huge 'More Options' dialog in the General tab of Preferences is going to get a HUGE haircut.

'Force Power Off' and 'Force Shutdown' settings haven't been needed since the Win9x days, and a lot of the rest is now simply a repetition of settings that are already in other (more proper) places.

Author:  Windy [ Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: So, what's next after v18.3?

Hi Jorge. I read your post about finding features. I just thought about something.

How about listing ALL of the options/features (preferably in its own thread) of Winstep Xtreme and I will go through all of them and see if I can find them/settings.

Heck, I've had it for years and I'm sure I don't know every option there is because it's so robust with features. Of course, this is what makes Xtreme a great product. As you stated, we're all different and like different things. I know it will take quite some time, but it will be helpful in the long run.

I will let you know which ones are easy to find, ones that aren't and anything in between.

Maybe an even better idea would be to appeal to all users (instead of just me) to go through the list which should help to get a faster result.

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