EmpegFace 1.7 Available
Posted by: tfabris
EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 14/12/2003 01:05
Unless there are any show-stopping bugs, this will probably be the last release for a while. I initially thought I was just going to quickly add Winsock to the current version and leave it alone, but I kept finding stuff to fix and fiddle with, and then there were more new bugs to fix, and well I just ended up doing more to it than I'd intended to do. So it gets a rest for a while after this.
Anyway, the readme file included with this version says Monday the 15th, but I'm releasing it two days earlier than I expected since I got the work done on it this weekend. You can download it from the Downloads section of
www.riocar.org or from my home page.
Release Notes:
- True multiple monitor support. Snaps to edge of all screens when multiple monitors are used.
- Snap to screen edge now honors the taskbar if the taskbar has been set to "Always on Top" mode. It no longer snaps to the edge of the *screen* per se, it snaps to the edge of the *work area*, which is defined as the part of the screen that would be taken up by a maximized window. This means that the taskbar *must* be set to Always on Top mode if you want to snap to it. Note that other programs such as WinAmp and Trillian have the exact same behavior, probably for the same reason.
- Program now has a different mode for offscreen rescues. If the center point of the face or the remote is off screen, then it centers the window on the primary display the next time that window gets the focus.
- Side effect of multiple monitor support: Windows 95 and Windows NT 4 are no longer supported for snaps. Those operating systems do not have the capability for multiple monitors. The functions I'm calling to support multiple monitors don't exist on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4. You might get a snap to the left/top edge of the screen but that's about it.
- Removed the "Dual Monitor Support" checkbox. No longer needed with the new mode for offscreen rescues and the program's new awareness of multiple monitors.
- Forms no longer blink on screen when starting minimized.
- Fixed newly-induced bug where the skin for the remote would not get loaded at startup.
Enjoy!
Posted by: Skunk
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 14/12/2003 16:39
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 12:06
I take it that, since I've seen no complaints in this thread, it means the program is either performing flawlessly or that people got so sick of the frequent releases that they stopped grabbing new versions.
Posted by: RobotCaleb
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 12:10
yep
Posted by: JBjorgen
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 12:27
Works great for me!
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 12:30
"Yep" to what? Getting sick of the releases, or that the program is working well?
Posted by: RobotCaleb
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 12:42
well, just yep
pretty much to make you paranoid
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 12:53
Heh, thanks.
Well, the meatball man likes it, so I guess we're cool.
Posted by: Skunk
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 13:27
Hats off to the FAQ's man!
Edit: "FAQ Master".............shame on me.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 13:36
Thanks, glad you like it, and glad it's working for you.
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 15:41
Tony,
I tried 1.7 today (with no empeg attached) and the windows did not snap to the sides, save for the top and left edge of my primary (left) monitor. I'm running Windowblinds/Objectbar as my task bar, so I don't expect anything to snap to that. I'll try with an empeg connection another day. I figure it'll work as it has for others. Not a biggie as far as I'm concerned, but I thought I'd report it.
-Zeke
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 15:49
windows did not snap to the sides, save for the top and left edge of my primary (left) monitor
This is a symptom that the Windows API functions
MonitorFromPoint and/or
GetMonitorInfo are failing. This would definitely happen if you were running Windows 95 or Windows NT 4, as described here in the release notes:
- Side effect of multiple monitor support: Windows 95 and Windows NT 4 are no longer supported for snaps. Those operating systems do not have the capability for multiple monitors. The functions I'm calling to support multiple monitors don't exist on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4. You might get a snap to the left/top edge of the screen but that's about it.
If you are running 98, 2000, or XP, and it still happens with Windowblinds/Objectbar disabled and the system rebooted (in that order), then let me know.
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 15:52
If you are running 98, 2000, or XP, and it still happens with Windowblinds/Objectbar disabled and the system rebooted (in that order), then let me know.
Will check that (it's W2k Pro SP2) when I have a moment.
-Zeke
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 16:10
It also sounded like you're running multiple monitors. Is that feature added by some special third-party software trick, or is it with the normal Windows 2000 support for multiple monitors?
In other words, when you get the display properties, do you see two monitors, labeled 1 and 2, in the regular Windows display properties screen? Or do you need to run a third-party utility to adjust your dual monitor settings?
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 16:25
Yeah, I run Matrox G400 Max with two monitors via Windows standard controls.
Monitor 1: 1600x1200 24 bit, Studioworks 995E 19"
Monitor 2: 1152x864 16 bit, ViewSonic EF70 17"
They're staggered vertically, FWIW.
I've turned of Object Bar, no change. I haven't rebooted yet (although I did this AM).
-Zeke
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 16:55
Do other products, such as Trillian or WinAmp, correctly snap to the edges of the screen and the taskbar on your system?
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 17:05
Winamp 2.9 does the Right Thing on all 8 edges.
-Z
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 17:21
Makes no sense at all.
Lemme know what
this does on your system. And also let me know if things work after a reboot.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 18:55
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 19:11
All right, 1.8 is up. Wash, rinse, repeat. *SIGH*...
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 19:19
Sorry man. Hated to do it to you. I'll take a looksee at 1.8 tomorrow. I'm in 1-screen land now.
-Zeke
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 15/12/2003 19:23
Hey, it's cool. I'm the one who messed up the code, not you.
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 08:17
Kaching! 1.8 snaps to all 8 edges including the ObjectBar task bar (and the regular one as well). Killer. Thanks.
-Zeke
I was just waiting for the Pull Down Skin Menus!
Seriously though, you've done a great job on this and I use it every day. Thank you!
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 11:34
Hey, cool, glad you like it. And I'm glad it's working for you now, Ezekiel.
Yeah, I need to get pull down skin menus in there, but that'll have to wait until some other day.
Posted by: JBjorgen
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 11:54
Isn't it funny how the features like snapping that take a bunch of tricky coding somehow make it in, but a combo box that would take 15 min. to add gets shoved on the back burner.
That happens a lot in the stuff I write too. The reason why it usually takes so long to get that stuff in? It hasn't annoyed me enough to overcome my complacency
So, if those of you who are adept at skinning will quickly produce a few hundred skins, I'm sure he'd get annoyed with looking through his folder structure to find the right one pretty soon.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 12:05
The difference between the snapping and the combo box is:
When I started the snapping project, I didn't think it would take any tricky coding. I thought it would be very quick. The combo box is not as simple as it sounds because I need to go into each folder and enumerate the files within to verify that there's a valid skin in the folder before I display it in the combobox list. I know that the combobox will take a reasonable chunk of time to code so that it works right. I didn't know that the snapping thing would be such a pain.
Also, the snapping thing provided a learning experience for me, I'd never done it before and wanted to see how it's done.
Posted by: tonyc
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 13:49
So am I never going to get my wish of having a taskbar/switchbar entry for EmpegFace?
Posted by: JBjorgen
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 14:38
I whipped this code up for the combo box in just a couple minutes...am I being naive or would this work?
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 15:18
So am I never going to get my wish of having a taskbar/switchbar entry for EmpegFace?
Not
never, just not today.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 17:10
So am I never going to get my wish of having a taskbar/switchbar entry for EmpegFace?
Not never, just not today.
I take that back, it's "never".
I just researched it. There are several problems with doing this.
1. The particular window style (borderless with no window caption) can't be set to "ShowInTaskbar=True".
2. The "Remote" window and the "Face" window are not children or parents of each other. And since one or the other can be visible at any given time, I would have to dynamically choose which of the two windows was the "taskbar visible" one that got selected when you pressed the taskbar button. However, the "ShowInTaskbar=True" property is
read-only at run time so I can't change it on the fly.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 17:20
I whipped this code up for the combo box in just a couple minutes...am I being naive or would this work?
There is some stuff in there that's access-specific and doesn't apply to VB. But, yeah, that's a part of it.
It's the basic bit of determining the list of directories (I already knew how to do that), and that much drops in pretty straightforward (with a few changes). There was an additional couple hours of fiddling and futzing to get it to integrate with my existing code, save its state, preselect the correct list item when it's first opened, properly handle situations where the curren skin is invalid, and to all-around work right in all cases. For instance, when the code is called a second time (the configuration screen can be opened more than once per program run), I have to clear the lists and start over from scratch.
Thanks, though, for giving me a reason to open the code and mess with it YET AGAIN...
Posted by: RobotCaleb
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 17:24
im going to have to disagree and say that it is doable. maybe not easily though
but.. borderless windows will show in taskbar. its just that when you set the border style to none it sets ShowInTaskbar = False automatically. you can change it at design time. i havent looked into changing taskbar status during run time though.
Posted by: RobotCaleb
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 17:41
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 18:07
Thanks! I'm trying to make it work, and it only works sometimes. I can actually debug the line of code where it's making the setwindowlong call, and I can see it execute the line, and nothing happens. Yet if that line gets called a second time, then it works. Gotta figure out why...
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 18:20
Ah, never mind. The taskbar slug only appears:
- If the SetWindowLong function is called,
- And Then the window gets a .Setfocus afterwards.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 16/12/2003 19:04
Interesting. I can't make the taskbar slug go away even if the window gets a setfocus event after the API call. Ah well, the checkbox now says "Requires Restart" so Ynot can exit the program once after making that configuration change.
Also, since my app has no system menu, none appears when the taskbar slug is right-clicked. I don't get a callback function like I do when the systray is right clicked, so I don't think this is fixable.
Anyway, I'm attaching the EXE to this message, so if you wanna mess with it you can. I'm reluctant to release it officially yet since these changes have the potential to do things like cause infinite loops in window-activation routines and such. Pound on this version for a while and let me know if it's stable in terms of all the ways you can make windows appear and disappear and focus and unfocus and such.
Posted by: JBjorgen
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 17/12/2003 08:15
Thanks, though, for giving me a reason to open the code and mess with it YET AGAIN...
My pleasure! I'm glad it wasn't a completely useless exercise in futility.
Posted by: CHiP
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 17/12/2003 19:41
nice job!
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 17/12/2003 19:56
Hey, thanks! Glad you like it!
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 19/12/2003 13:33
Since I got no complaints about the 1.9 preview here in this thread, it's now released officially at my homepage and
www.riocar.org in the downloads section.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 19/12/2003 17:50
No prob.
Posted by: JBjorgen
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 22/12/2003 10:59
Thanks. I use it daily at work, where my docking station is just out of convenient reach.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 22/12/2003 11:58
Hey, cool, thanks. Glad it's working well for you!
Posted by: jbauer
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 22/12/2003 12:17
Tony, again - thank you!
So when will someone be putting a collection of "empegface skins" up ala RioCar bootlogos? :-)
- Jon
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 22/12/2003 12:36
Tony, again - thank you!
Quite welcome.
So when will someone be putting a collection of "empegface skins" up ala RioCar bootlogos?
Right now, just do a search in the Programming section for "skin" and I think you'll get all of the available ones.
By the way, I changed the way skins work in one of the recent versions, so skins that haven't been re-cropped will snap funny. They'll still work, they just won't snap exactly to the edge of the screen.
Posted by: Skunk
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 22/12/2003 13:36
Sorry guys.
I've been meaning to post a site with all of the ones I created that are posted here plus others, but have not got the chance to and since no one has made a comment, until now, I've been putting it off.
I'll create a new thread to announce the site when finished.
Posted by: jbauer
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 22/12/2003 15:39
Cool! Thanks skunknumber1!
- Jon
Posted by: skibum
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 29/12/2003 16:54
Tony, just a thought for the 'next' version. How about an option to download new hijack kernels to it? I know there are other ways to do this, but as I only use rsync to load songs and now empegface, it would be nice if it had this feature.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 29/12/2003 18:34
Hm. I'll have to think about that a while.
Posted by: _hardcore_
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 30/12/2003 03:39
Hmmn, seems that i keep getting an connection error on my XP system. Tried with IP and a host name. No go. Any ideas ? (The empeg IS contactable via IP
)
\\Kaare
Posted by: skibum
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 30/12/2003 04:09
Thanks. It doesn't need to download the latest version or anything (mainly cos I use the ext3 version). Just need to provide a browse dialog to so it can be found.
Posted by: _hardcore_
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 30/12/2003 04:50
Erm, forget my mail. Solved the problem.
\\Kaare
Posted by: tman
Re: EmpegFace 1.7 Available - 30/12/2003 04:50
Dunno. FTP kernel upload is pretty easy to do and most systems have it
Doing it empegface however shouldn't be that bad... (famous last words) FTP is one of the simpler protocols out there.
