Sequential picture viewing in the scrap window after Search?

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Aug 07, 14:55

Your devious plan is already rendered useless as I'm rather comfortable with my baby pictures and I'm even willing to show off more than a couple of them if it helps some poor user to untie the mysteries of x2's interface between files and other software. But just in case there's that one embarrassing picture of me as a kid, I'll forever stick to my current imaginary wife only to be on the safe side. >:D

Gary M. Mugford · Post by **Gary M. Mugford** » 2011 Aug 08, 06:40

Kilmatead wrote:
Gary M. Mugford wrote:...and yes, I know I've set you up for a naughty metaphor if you reply
...

Addendum:

Gary M. Mugford wrote:...if you reply
Indeed.

I hit the quote button on the reply sans naughty metaphor just to see if it would blow up the editor. Turns out, it didn't.

Enjoyed the reply.

pj · Post by pj » 2011 Aug 09, 02:56

Kilmatead wrote:Repository ... maybe having an "empty" box will inspire others to feel bolder towards jumping in. Of course, it could fail to do so as well... hard to know without even a probationary chance.

Might I continue to hi-jack this thread and suggest a separate forum group called something like X2 Extensions or X2 Add-Ons.

X2 is very extensible, and that is a very strong marketing point. But X2 is not easily extensible!

Some of the process is a royal pain. However, once OTHER people know what we know -- but seem to like to keep secret -- there will be more interest, and hopefully more income.

The core group who follow the forums regularly have seen Kilmatead's scripting and Snakebyte's MENUHACK. We're the wizards who know the incantations necessary to work through the arcane process of defining a working command, and putting a button for it on a toolbar. It's not pretty, but we've seen it so many times, we're used to it.

Not so for the average Joe who stumbled on X2 through a Lifehacker article and downloaded the trial. Now he wants to get some help and pops over to NETEZ, where he finds a very jumbled hodge-podge of forum topics lumped together. Oh, yes! And a search box.

Start by hitting the search button - oops, messed up that attempt at a keyword. Sorry, you can't search again too quickly because you might be an evil bot, come to steal the secrets!

300 page manual - forget it. Great reference (and I'm sure the wiki will be even better, and less of a burden on a single writer), but you almost need to know a lot of the basics of X2 before diving into it, and a beginner just trying out the software won't dedicate the time.

But draw their attention to the pretty candy store -- ahem, extensions -- and you may grab their attention long enough for them to try some other features of X2 until they're as hooked on this program as we are!

Look at some of the popular editors - Notepad ++ and SciTE. Both are pretty plain-Jane editors ... BUT ... look at all the add-ons and packages made possible by the extensibility, and you have some of the most popular packages on the Internet, and thus the world.

Do not be lulled into thinking we're fishing in a little pond, and we may bag our limit of trout. There's a monster of a haul of tuna and grouper and swordfish waiting to be reeled in.

Let X2 go viral get popular attention, then get some CORPORATE attention! Soon there might be rooms full of programmers, support staff and tech writers working for Nikos to handle all the new business.

And little Vanessa will have truck-loads of nappies at her beck and call!

It takes word-of-mouth, and, gents (and ladies?), if we want to continue to have our little toy Nikos has let us play with all these years, then we need to find ways to get words into those mouths.

Give it a chance. I promise it won't hurt!

__________________________________________________________________
PJ in (dang it - I must have caught the running mouth disease like Kilmatead has) FL

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Aug 09, 07:21

pj wrote:Not so for the average Joe who stumbled on X2 through a Lifehacker article and downloaded the trial. Now he wants to get some help and pops over to NETEZ, where he finds a very jumbled hodge-podge of forum topics lumped together. Oh, yes! And a search box.

Point proven by the somewhat insane decision to move this deprecated, jumbled, and wacky topic to the "Especially Useful" forum... I'm pretty good at following imaginative logic, but this one escapes me - I only felt free to (intentionally) de-rail this thread as I assumed it would die quickly. How does perpetuating it qualify as "useful"? "Fun" - yes! (for a few), but Useful? Hmm...

pj wrote:dang it - I must have caught the running mouth disease like Kilmatead has

One could take umbrage at that, if one didn't know it was true.

Right, from now on, all forum posts must be in Haiku, let's see if that makes everything clearer... or not...

As you say, creating extensions in x2 is not easy - and nothing I have created even comes close (I merely create work-around illusions, not real extensions). True extensibility comes via shell-extensions which are not even close to being a user-friendly type of voodoo, and any discussion on the building of them would lead to an even smaller group of participants (if any?). I know what you're saying... I'm just suggesting you might be confusing a thin gruel for decent meat and mead. :shock:

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Aug 09, 07:49

extensions aren't easy one way or another some programming will be required, e.g. the shell extensions that i mentioned many times in the past

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2011 Aug 09, 11:05

[ @ moved this topic -- ... less tired, and maybe a bit saner this morning ...
what was I thinking? ... or not?

... topic returned to original forum.]

pj · Post by pj » 2011 Aug 09, 23:17

Kilmatead wrote:...I merely create work-around illusions, not real extensions). True extensibility comes via shell-extensions

Perhaps I have a broader -- less technical? -- definition of "extension". Adding useful (to the individual user) commands so more work can be performed from inside X2 comes under my umbrella definition of "extension".

Whether it's a batch file, .VBS script, MENUHACK command to emulate keystrokes and press buttons, or a MENU+ addition of a group of commands, these all enhance the usability of X2.

Most of my "extensions" (quoted so to not confuse the discussion with the definition) are simple links to a .CMD file or a MENUHACK definition. It's easier for my aging brain to see a button and push it than to remember which menu that durn command is buried in.

I don't think I'm that different from other users and potential users in that respect. And easier is better!

I never mentioned "shell extension" and believe me I won't! We've seen far too many discussions on broken shell extensions. Luckily, the blame generally goes to the extension and not X2, although a bad taste may still remain that taints X2 by association.

The present methods to extend or add commands to X2 has lots of mileage left.

Kilmatead wrote:... I'm just suggesting you might be confusing a thin gruel for decent meat and mead. :shock:

Not arguing the weigh of the substance, just the fact that substance is there, if only it were known and new users and old were helped to find it and led by the hand until they find it's not THAT difficult to use.

And again I say to the creation of a dedicated forum group ... Try it. It won't hurt a bit!
___________________________________________________________
PJ in (very wet) FL

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Aug 13, 10:37

Code: Select all
> i_view32.exe /filelist=$>

I really enjoyed using this token with IrfanView, but for two days it has stopped working. Completely exiting x2 doesn't help.

The token isn't broken as it works by its own or in conjunction with user commands for other applications... so it must be something IrfanView stopped liking about it.

If I pass to IrfanView the full path to a text file containing strings generated by $>, it works fine- but it just doesn't accept the token (which normally points to the temp text file) anymore.

Anyone experiencing the same issue?

I haven't restarted my computer for 2 weeks, so I'll come back and tell if a restart fixes it (though I can't imagine how...).

Unlikely, but the most logical explanation for this would be that Irfan tries to read the temp text file before it being ready.

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2011 Aug 13, 10:40

Works for me.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Aug 13, 12:40

IneedHelp wrote:...the most logical explanation for this would be that Irfan tries to read the temp text file before it being ready.

Not using Irfan, I can't say much practical, but the only thing I can think of is that if you minimise Irfan and have previously fed it a list a files, it's possible that it continues to have a mental mind-meld with the tmp file - and in the meantime if you used some other utility which passes the $> command, that original file is overwritten. Perhaps Irfan takes that personally. I have no idea if it may lock the file, or indeed what might happen if x2 did try to rewrite the file while it was held in use.

Kilmatead babbled and wrote:Imagine, if you will, a Process()... the user pauses it, and in the meantime he goes off to do something else... If that "something else" Involves calling another script with a "$>" token, the original file (which the first script is still reading) is actually overwritten and then very bad things happen, as you can imagine.

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Aug 13, 15:16

I restarted the system several times (I needed to because I switched SATA from IDE to AHCI), and it still doesn't work using the token with IrfanView... it's strange, because it worked before and I didn't change any settings that could cause side effects to this.

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Aug 29, 22:43

I think I found the issue.

The reason IrfanView doesn't accept the file list anymore is because x2 has started generating the temporary file list text file in Unicode encoding mode, and IrfanView doesn't like that. Converting it to ANSI encoding makes IrfanView accept the file list without issues.

The question is what made x2 generate the temp file using Unicode encoding? Probably I have done something without being aware- it's the only plausible explanation because IrfanView was accepting the file list before (meaning it wasn't generated as Unicode by x2), but not anymore (since it doesn't use ANSI).

So the solution would be to make x2 generate non-Unicode temp file list text files again (I don't know how to change that back yet) or to copy the temp file to a non-Unicode text file and then use it (which requires an intermediate script).

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2011 Aug 30, 01:10

The better solution would be for Irfan Skiljan to fix that IrfanView deficiency.
You might make the suggestion on IrfanView forum or email him about the issue.

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2011 Aug 30, 03:05

IrfanView includes an Ansi2Unicode plugin... do you have it enabled?

Options / Properties/Settings / Language

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Aug 30, 06:38

fgagnon wrote:The better solution would be for Irfan Skiljan to fix that IrfanView deficiency.
You might make the suggestion on IrfanView forum or email him about the issue.

I'm going to do that. The fact still remains that IrfanView worked before and then stopped working (same IrfanView and X2 versions). I'm sure I didn't make any changes to the IrfanView settings so it must be something I did to x2 or system-wide, so I'll do a little more research about that too.

FrizzleFry wrote:IrfanView includes an Ansi2Unicode plugin... do you have it enabled?
Options / Properties/Settings / Language

Yes, it is enabled, but I think that the plug-in refers to Unicode filenames and is unrelated to Unicode encoding in a text file.