Enhancement suggestions

[mhawkins]

I have only just started using Girder thanks to the Askey plugin developped by Tano.

First off, many thanks to Tano and espescially Ron for making this program available.

I have only just started to explore the features of Girder, so what I am suggesting may interfere with other functionality so may not be feasable, but here goes:

What I suggest is an idea developped in another program called IRAssistant.

It has an option whereby the IF learn function allows you to learn a sequence of buttons rather than a single button. You set the delay between buttons, and provided to sequence of buttons is pressed within the delay, it activates the action.

This on it's own adds more available buttons to the remote, coupled with the following suggestion it makes using the remote for multiple programs easier.

My second suggestion would be to change the tree slightly so that commands could be added to the root of the tree, and not in a group. Then add an option to the group itself which would allow it to be activated by an IR button, which also deactivates all other groups.

Sounds a bit complicated and pointless, but what you can do is add commands to the root tree like "volume up" or "switch to TV-Out" which do not deactivate, and keep all the individual programs in seperate groups. Add the 1st suggestion to the mix and you get a scenario something like this:

Press buttons "Shift" and "1" on the remote.
Power DVD group activates and all the buttons on the remote work for Power DVD.

Press buttons "Shift" and "2" on the remote.
Power DVD group de-activates and Winamp group activates and all the buttons on the remote work for Winamp.

In either scenario the "volume up" or "Tv-out" buttons still work because they sit in the root tree and do not de-activate.

I know that something similar could be setup using a grop with multigroups to activate and de-activate other groups, but it requires a bit more setting up and would need to be updated every time a new group is added. Also, without the sequence of IR Buttons those of us who are using non universal IR receivers like the UIR are limited to the buttons that come with the remote.

Anyway, just my suggestions. Thanks again Ron for the great program.

Mark

[mterlouw]

I like your suggestions, but both of them can be implemeted by using other commands. I know Girder can come a long way in the areas of ease of use and more intuitive functionality, but as long as I've known Girder it has been about giving it's users the capability to perform the actions they need it to do. Everyone wants Girder to do something special for them, and that's what makes Girder so great. It is very flexible (and extensible) so it can do almost whatever you can imagine you want it to do. You may have to jump through a few hoops to get it done, but Girder will do it for you.

If you want to make button combinations, I suggest you look at Girder as kind of a scripting language. Through the use of registers and commands you can implement button combinations. The script may not be very efficient, but Girder executes commands reletively fast anyways.

About the 'global' commands you're requesting, just make a group called 'global' and put commands in that group and don't let any other group disable it. So it requires you make one extra group, so what? That's a good example of how Girder may not give you exactly what you want, but by using a little creativity and being flexible you can get Girder to do almost anything.

These are just my views on this. Ron may have different intentions for Girder, and maybe he can help you out with those suggestions. One thing I believe everyone can agree on is that Girder needs better documentation, and with that documentation new users may be able to read and understand better how Girder works and be able to create scripts that do whatever they want it to do. Bear in mind that this is hard to do considering Girder is constantly improving and updating it's interfaces and functionality.

The bottom line here is Girder can do anything you want it to do. If you can't script it with the built-in commands, maybe you can create a plug-in for Girder. If you can't make a plug-in, maybe you can ask Ron to help you out. For what you're asking, Ron may really like your ideas and include them in the next version of Girder (or create a plug-in for it), but while you're waiting you can make a script to do the same thing. I'd suggest you play with the program for a while and get a better feel for it, and if you still need help making the commands you can post here and I'm sure me or someone else will be happy to help you.

Mike

[Ron]

Hey Mike, Mark,

Thanks for the nice explanation Mark! Indeed I am very aware of the documentation shortcoming and the not-so-ease of use. These are things that will be addressed in the next release though. I appreciate all thoughts and ideas that you all have! That will make Girder the best program out there.

As for your request, this would take MAJOR code rewrites that I don't want to do in the current codebase. Its stable now and does what I expect it to. But the new Girder is far off yet, so we'll have to do with the current program

[mhawkins]

Thanks for the replies.

As you said Mike, you can do just about anything with the program with a little playing around.

The groups is not a major problem to get around as you described and after having a look at the documentation I can see that it is fairly easy to accomplish.

I will have to have a closer look at the key sequences though. At the moment I can figure out how to do it.

Of my suggestions, the multiple IR key sequences is the most helpfull, and would seem the easier of the two to implement.

In any case, the program is great!

Thanks for making it available to us all.

Mark