Hi Again Doug,
A final note on the menu options. Most of the items are just a single
check choice, such as the Announce Menu, where only one of the items is
checked at any given time.
but, to be as flexible and easy to use, I listed them all and you just
check, click on, which item you wished to use.
The other menu's such as the edit one, there are only 2 choices, but
many selections to choose from for editing. Either edit a sound file or edit
a time setting. In either case of course you are only editing one item.
Besides the help and test mode in both menu's.
Then the clocks menu has a list of many checks and each is alone except
the hourly chime of 3 choices. So, this is what I felt was the best way to
list all choices instead of some long list box of checks and such, which I
find more confusing unless I split that up like I did the menus.
So, it was my first app, after changing the original which hacked up the
original Hourly chime which Chip pointed out as just too confusing...
Maybe I will use the new development tool for .XML files in the future,
but I may not to get a better feel of what is going on.
Thanks again for your appraisal. Looking forward for my next idea and
still have to get use to monitoring events in windows and such that Chip is
going over in his class. My Cookie Clock is very easy compared to that, but
I have not done any event monitoring yet for window events and can't make
any judgment calls on it yet.
One reason why is when looking down the object list, it is hard to get a
complete understanding of what to use when; like the comment you made about
cursor stuff and discovered an event missing. It is a matter of running and
seeing results then figuring out when to use the object. The reason for a
some what better explanation or note placed inside the object description
besides just the object it is used in; for that just puts you into a loop of
yes this does this and go to this to see why, then that tells you the same
thing, so each get you to each and nothing between them explaining real
usage...
A novice can easily get twisted on that type of documentation. As noted
in this last round with the cursor and such, even the professionals get
confused... (Smile)
So, on to the next project; after capping the peak of my roof with one
flap and one bath in tar...
Bruce
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
Hi Doug,
thanks, I changed that "a" to "c" but the Alt-C works anyway, so go
figure on that.
Now the display inside the dialog, yes, there is one line I replace with
a myStrings down inside the .xml id/titled dialog =_info.
I noticed that display issue but wanted to get the thing uploaded and
worry about the display of it at a later date.
the entire several lines gets said when the dialog gets focus, so I did
not worry about the problem at the moment. For some people may not want all
the chatter and may have to get rid of the extra lines anyway.
I had also left a blank group in that section just in case I think about
adding more there, such as the copy file routine that may come in handy for
transferring files without editing any sound files.
Yes, the many menu items I have was to give the user the easiest way to
make selections. The reason for adding the help option for each menu to give
some assistance in understanding what is going on for each pull down.
In the future the sleep mode will have a timer for the sleep turn on, a
timer for the wakeup, which would be just like the alarm timer. The only
flag being observed would then be the sleep flag besides the sleep enable
flag which shuts off or turns on that option.
The very last routine does not even get used inside the .vbs file
because it includes stuff in the menu so I will delete that routine for I
found a better way around the copy file issues; had too many message boxes
that served no useful purpose.
My writing did not use any of the tools yet but may use it in the future
if my .xml's get to complex.
So will have to wait and see if any more errors crop up. then let the
app go on its own...
Bruce
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
Hello Bruce,
I just now took a quick look at your app. The first thing I noticed is
the dialog isn't big enough to display all of your text. Meaning when I
press control-insert-e I only see the first line of text visually. The
reason for this is in your dialog definition you only have one line of
text for the static window that you setup. So I'm guessing you later
programatically update that text but the dialog doesn't resize itself
after the fact. So the dialog comes up sized perfectly for the one line
but than you make it several lines of text. So only the first gets
displayed visually. I suggest you just default the static text instead
of changing it on the fly. Or at least give the default the maximum
text that you ever would give it so it is guaranteed to be visible.
I also noticed that your first menu option of "clocks" doesn't have a
shortcut. In your XML you give it a shortcut of "a" <smile>.
Boy, you do have a lot of menu options...so I'm understanding your
question about should I use menus or dialogs.
Great job.
Doug
On 6/14/2011 11:36 PM, BT wrote:
> OK!
>
> The latest version is now there and I am sure everyone will get the
> alert on the update.
> Hopefully all is well and the menu works better. I do have the hotkey
> that goes directly to each menu and was there all along unless there was
> something going wrong before and fixed it unknowingly.
>
> anyway, it is uploaded and ready to go. The copy file routine should
> work now with no funny stuff and will allow you to copy any files you want
> into your client default directory.
> It is located in the editing of any sound files and may in the future
> take it outside of that and be a button in the dialog box as well.
>
> Bruce
>
>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:10 PM
> Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>
>
>
> Hi Vic,
>
> Yes, for there is no focus for menu items inside the we apps.
> but, there is a way around this and did not think of it today when
> making all my changes and corrections. I can test my way around it before
> uploading to see if it works.
>
> In the menu and you do hit the alt key, just hit the e key for edit
> menu, or v key for view menu, instead of arrowing around. This will fix it
> a
> little for you.
> Like in my edit menu I have to A options for the alarm, so you hit
> alt
> key, then e key then a key once or twice, this will bring up first the
> time
> setting then the second time the sound file for the alarm editing...
>
> I discovered that you can not adjust the count chime because I never
> changed it from the default sound, thus no adjustment will be seen, saved
> yes, but never used. That is now fixed.
>
> I still worry about the sleep mode, but in the future I am changing
> the
> entire idea on how to do it. Just using existing at the moment and may
> still
> have hitches. Let me know if it has problems.
>
> So I will check my hotkey idea and see what it does.
>
> Bruce
>
>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 7:16 PM
> Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>
>
> Bruce,
>
> What I am talking about is the fact that you can't press Alt-E to pull
> downh
> the Edit menu. You have to press the alt key by itself to activate the
> menu
> bar first and then arrow around.. I have not seen this in any WE-created
> dialogs before. It is happening that way onh 2 machines, both running
> Windows 7 64-bit. Is this happening for you?
>
> Vic
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Geoffray
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 11:14 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>
> Bruce,
>
> I can't speak for Vic but, well, I'll try<smile>. I'm sure he wasn't
> talking about a hotkey to take you to the specific pulldown menu. I'm
> guessing he was just talking about a hotkey that would do the same thing
> without having to go into the menus. I've never seen any application
> that gave a hotkey to go to some pulldown off the main menu bar. I'm
> not talking alt-f for file, I'm talking about some option off the file
> menu that opens a pulldown. That just doesn't make sense to me. But it
> is very common to have shortcuts or hotkeys to do the same thing a menu
> option offers.
>
> Doug
>
> On 6/13/2011 3:35 PM, BT wrote:
>> Hi Doug,
>>
>> Vic had asked why I did not add hotkeys to get to menus so I
>> responded
>> with the lack of a focus to a menuItem in the menu methods.
>>
>> I was assuming that he may of wanted a hotkey to get to either the
>> clocks menu or announce menu or something like that. You know, like the
>> alt
>> F key combination to get to the file menu or other menu items in a
>> standard
>> menu.
>>
>> For the menu list is limited to checked and things like that, but
>> no
>> focus method.
>>
>> Not a major deal for me, just others thoughts.
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>> Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 10:57 AM
>> Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>>
>>
>> Bruce,
>>
>> You said: "...since Doug and them said they did not want to expose
>> menu's items I am limited on using hotkeys for it, since there is no
>> focus option."
>>
>> Can you explain what you mean by this? I don't understand why in your
>> own menu you need menu items and without them you are forced to hotkeys.
>>
>> Doug
>>
>>
>> On 6/12/2011 4:08 PM, BT wrote:
>>> Hi Vic,
>>>
>>> There is only one chime on the hour if you select chime only and
>>> in
>>> the
>>> edit menu it states top of the hour. I guess poor wording on my part.
>>>
>>> Another issue, since Doug and them said they did not want to
>>> expose
>>> menu's items I am limited on using hotkeys for it, since there is no
>>> focus
>>> option. but, I have added the Escape and F4 options to get out of the
>>> menu,
>>> since there is a dialog close command easy to get to.
>>>
>>> Now, I can also change the ChimeOnly to say Top Of the Hour Chime
>>> Only
>>> to make it read easier. After all that is what I did in the edit menu.
>>>
>>> I think to get around most issues is to eventually get out of
>>> using
>>> a
>>> menu and having a list. For there is very few options to use in a menu.
>>> For
>>> it would be nice to be able to jumped to a given menu item from a hotkey
>>> instead of using a minimum of 2 keystrokes. In other words have at least
>>> a
>>> focus property.
>>>
>>> So maybe I will have something to upload today unless there more
>>> of
>>> those pesky Active X errors that crop up when the menu does not like
>>> what
>>> I
>>> did...
>>>
>>> Bruce
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2011 3:20 PM
>>> Subject: RE: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>>>
>>>
>>> Bruce,
>>>
>>> Yes. Changing the path got my sounds working. I am not clear on what the
>>> chime and chime only settings are supposed to do. When I set it to chime
>>> only, I hear just one chime. I thought this was supposed to chime the
>>> number
>>> of times for the hour. When I set it to chime and count, I hear the
>>> number
>>> of chimes for the hour, but not any indication of the count. Is that
>>> what
>>> is
>>> supposed to be happening?
>>>
>>> BTW: It is triggering correctly. My earlier complaint about not
>>> triggering
>>> was not correct after I re-installed.
>>>
>>> Great job!!!!! I look forward to the update.
>>>
>>> Vic
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: BT [mailto:[email protected]]
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2011 8:18 AM
>>> To: [email protected]
>>> Subject: Re: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>>>
>>> Hi Again Vic,
>>>
>>> The problem with the .wav files is the path to find them is my
>>> path
>>> and
>>> yours I am sure is different.
>>>
>>> I think the easiest fix is for you to go into each sound edit and
>>> the
>>> default will come up for your sound file. It is using the path of my
>>> computer in the .ini file and probably my mistake not thinking it would
>>> be
>>> a
>>>
>>> problem.
>>> For I should have not had any sounds and let it find the defaults
>>> when
>>> first looking at the InitCuckooClock procedure, then all of this would
>>> have
>>> been no issue.
>>>
>>> So, now when packaging up my fixes and your suggestions today, I
>>> will
>>> get rid of all my settings in the .ini file and let the init section do
>>> it.
>>>
>>> Sorry about the hassle and my rush to get it out. but, that is
>>> the
>>> way
>>> to find out the obvious mistakes a programmer works around when
>>> programming.
>>>
>>> I was going to change the files for voice and the 45 may be a
>>> merge
>>> instead of other files to even get off beat times instead of just
>>> quarter/half hour voices. Something I was going to add later but may do
>>> it
>>> now.
>>>
>>> My issue last night instead of coming up a fatal error finally
>>> came
>>> up
>>> with the line number. I had fallen asleep and changed just one variable
>>> name
>>>
>>> by adding a t at the beginning. But, kept coming up with nasty fatal
>>> Active
>>> X error that got or went no where beyond the error itself. so just a few
>>> minutes ago when powering up it did tell me the line and sure enough it
>>> was
>>> inside the sleep procedure I was playing with and had settings that
>>> would
>>> have triggered it then last night and that is where it fell apart...
>>> Thank god for the Option Explicit command...
>>>
>>> So, vic try the editing of all the sound files and letting it do
>>> the
>>> defaults inside the brows command and save them and I think that will
>>> fix
>>> the sound problems except the 45 one. When making it I had all 60 voices
>>> and
>>>
>>> got conservative in how large I wanted the wav files and that one got
>>> shrunk...
>>> Time to get ready for Sunday School adult class...
>>> Bruce
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 8:05 PM
>>> Subject: RE: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>>>
>>>
>>> Bruce,
>>>
>>> I think this app has great potential, but needs a few rough edges worked
>>> out
>>> yet. It is not working very well for me here on Windows 7 SP1 X64. Here
>>> are
>>> the problems I am having.
>>>
>>> When I first installed the app, I disabled the following menu items:
>>> Alarm
>>> Enable, Date/Time Enhancement, and Rooster Wakeup Enable. I left the
>>> clock
>>> set to Quarter Hour chime. On the edit menu I set the Sleep Time to
>>> 11:00
>>> PM
>>> and the Wakeup Time to 8:00 AM. On the Announcement menu, I left it set
>>> for
>>> Chime and Female.
>>>
>>> When it does announce the time, which it does not seem to do regularly,
>>> I
>>> only hear the female voice, not the chimes. If I choose Test
>>> Announcement,
>>> I
>>> again only hear the female voice, not the chimes. I did not change any
>>> of
>>> the default sounds.
>>>
>>> If I set it to Chime Only and do a test, I hear nothing.
>>>
>>> If I set it to Chime and Count and do a test, I hear only the chimes.
>>>
>>> If I set it to Chime and Male or Chime and Female and test, I hear only
>>> the
>>> specified voice, not the chimes.
>>>
>>> The male 45 sound is not the same as the rest of the sounds.
>>>
>>> If I set it to Male Only or Female Only and test, it seems to work
>>> correctly.
>>>
>>> There are also several issues with the dialog that I don't understand:
>>>
>>> You can't press Alt-C to bring up the Clock menu even though C is
>>> announced
>>> as the hot key. The other menu hot keys do not work as well.
>>>
>>> When you have the dialog up and alt-tab to it, the Alt key does not
>>> bring
>>> up
>>> the menu the first time you press it. You have to press it at least
>>> twice
>>> to
>>> bring up the menus.
>>>
>>> You can't just press Escape to exit the dialog. Alt-F4 does not work
>>> either.
>>> The only way I have found to close the dialog is to open the Clock menu
>>> and
>>> choose the Exit choice. This is a nuisance, especially since it is so
>>> hard
>>> to get into the menus in the first place.
>>>
>>> For some reason, it seems to take longer than usual to bring up the
>>> dialog.
>>>
>>> I just re-installed and all these issues still exist, but it seems as
>>> though
>>> the announcement is firing better.
>>>
>>> This is purely based on my experience with the app and I hope you will
>>> take
>>> this as constructive criticism as it is meant, not putting down your
>>> app.
>>> Let me know if you can duplicate any or all of these issues.
>>>
>>> Thanks for all your effort in putting out this full-featured app.
>>>
>>> Vic
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: BT [mailto:[email protected]]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 12:49 PM
>>> To: [email protected]
>>> Subject: Cuckoo Clock Ready for Upload
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> My cuckoo Clock version 1.0 is ready for upload now.
>>>
>>> In this app you will have a menu consisting of:
>>> Clocks Settings to turn on/off all options for sleep, alarm and even
>>> noon
>>> whistle.
>>> In that menu is a chime option for once an hour, every half hour
>>> and
>>> every quarter hour.
>>>
>>> The app starts with the Rooster Crowing, it indicates it is running but
>>> that
>>>
>>> alert can be shut off in the clocks menu.
>>>
>>> It has some of the features of the old Hourly Chime program and
>>> many
>>> new
>>>
>>> aspects.
>>>
>>> In the edit menu you can change the files you wish to use for
>>> your
>>> alerts to make sounds, such as the Cuckoo clock itself.
>>>
>>> Those sound files require a certain number of seconds to run and
>>> that
>>> also must be entered.
>>> So for editing sound files you will have a path, file name, and
>>> duration
>>>
>>> of play time in tenths of a second to enter; (seconds is a combo box
>>> choice
>>> and requiring no entry.)
>>> There is also the edit option for setting the sleep time, wakeup
>>> time,
>>> and a alarm that runs separate from the others to give you an alert for
>>> a
>>> specific time of day. All those entries are a combo box selection as
>>> well.
>>>
>>> The sleep mode will turn on and shut off the chiming of the
>>> program.
>>> When wakeup happens the Rooster crows, or a sound of your choosing.
>>> That Rooster also can be shut off if you just want it to wakeup
>>> and
>>> say
>>> nothing as I had mentioned earlier.
>>>
>>> There is a format menu which is only for the 12 verses the 24
>>> hour
>>> format, which ever you wish; default is 12 hour.
>>>
>>> So, next is to get it uploaded and for everyone to find all the
>>> bugs
>>> in
>>> it...
>>>
>>> Sincerely
>>> Bruce
>>>
