SyMenu Forum

Gianluca

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23/01/2016 Topic: & sometimes appears in menu text Gianluca Administrator	Can you tell me the exact text you set as the SyItem name? The correct replacement should be this one: &Program name becomes Program name (we know that the underline doesn't appear but it works the same as accelerator) &&Program name becomes &Program name
23/01/2016 Topic: a couple ideas for the future Gianluca Administrator	I'm trying to reply to your proposals even if they are not so clear for me (maybe it is a language misunderstanding in this case). Glenn wrote: the idea could be configured to hide the one that doesn't match the native architecture, presumably the one that matches would be preferred. The only real utility of this feature is when you hide a x64 program in a x32 platform. In some cases it is necessary to execute x32 programs in the x64 platform. An example: I user my preferred image viewer, Irfanview, to scan images from my printer. My printer driver is compatible with x32 architecture, so if I want to scan something I have to execute Irfanview x32 even if my system is x64. Honestly I think that the usefulness of an implementation that hides or preferably offers certain programs according to the OS architecture is very low. Hide/show trough command line. You are right. A too long and complex command line is not viable, above all the items to switch on/off are many. Advanced parameter. Well your idea is great and really useful at a UI level too. I can create the dropdown with the most common environment variable, program variables and some special variables. The dropdown will help you to fill a multiline textbox where you can set and edit your variables by hand too. I wouldn't push the system to create a specific operator syntax for activate/deactivate the features, but every feature could be represented by a different variable followed by the value. It's a more generic and expandable method. For example if you want to hide an item you will have the variable SYMENU_SHOW SYMENU_SHOW=false In case you want to show or hide an element based on a condition you can use SYMENU_SHOW=%BIT%==x64 Using the %BIT% variable instead the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE we remain consistent with the variables define for the tooltip and we can use the variable value in the right hand side of our equation. Naturally all the not SYMENU_ variables will be considered system variables or item variables. When you want to define the Working directory for example you can create it dynamically with the universal unit identifier (#:\) as you do today Working directory=#:\SyMenu\ProgramFiles or dynamically with a custom variable passed from the command line Working directory=%customPathFromCommandLine%ProgramFiles All this architecture represents a simple idea started from your thoughts but I'm not so sure to implement it because: 1) I'm not so sure that this viable, consistent and understandable 2) I'm not so sure it is really useful for a lot of users. Your scenario and the implementation you are requesting are very special. I want to use my time to meet the requirements of a many users. So we can continue to speak about this topic but I would like to see a lot of interested about it too otherwise our speculation will remain so. Glenn wrote: actually, is there any reason to have the "Enable advanced params" as a checkbox? if everything is blank, what gets enabled? Simply you can disable the advanced params without any need to empty all the fields and the system preserves your values for a future use.
23/01/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	Hello VVV_Easy_Symenu. The feature you are requestion nearly already available and it's the colum Released on. I know that today this column is not so accurate because the release date is the program release date and not the SPS one but with the passing of time the program and the SPS release date will converge. Anyway, since for the new programs the dates are always different, we can evaluate for a furure version a new columns with the SPS date only.
25/01/2016 Topic: Further theme customisation Gianluca Administrator	Hello sl23. Even if when we talk about customization I'm the first one to get excited, I have to reply no... Unfortunately drawing every single element with different colors and/or styles is too demanding and we risk to reduce performance. What performance? You could ask. SyMenu is a highly performance program, I really doubt that you as a user ever observed a drop in performace. Well the reason for this SyMenu reactivity is that Tom exists. Thanks to Tom, one of our user, I discovered that SyMenu could be loaded with more than 2.800 items - I'm not joking, Tom's got more than 2.800 elements in his menu - and his SyMenu didn't die, but the performance was suffering a lot. With the last two versions I worked really hard to make possible and highly reactive even a 2.800 items menu. I don't want to lose this incredible target with demanding operations on every single item. Second question: what if a user like Tom doesn't customize the colors and styles? The performance suffers the same because the code to customize the item is there even if ineffective. Right arrow on SyContainer. I'll try to make them more visible with dark themes, but I don't know if it is possible. Version on tooltip. Yes it's possible and necessary with the new SPS programs.
25/01/2016 Topic: First user SyMenu 5.00.5866 Gianluca Administrator	Thank you guys! And remember to give your like on Facebook and LinkedIn if you want the SyMenu spreads!!! edited by Gianluca on 25/01/2016
25/01/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	I have to review the entire SPS grid... it's too crawded, some filters are useless (what does it for ordering by version???), and it is painfully slow... I need to study something smart.
25/01/2016 Topic: & sometimes appears in menu text Gianluca Administrator	Got it. I'll keep you posted.
27/01/2016 Topic: a couple ideas for the future Gianluca Administrator	Glenn wrote: BIT ? x64 With the ? marking that as a "visibility" option, instead of = meaning a variable to set... examining the BIT variable and seeing if it contains x64 or not. My doubt in using an operator to impose visibility on an item is that: what does happen when we need to set another property on that item? Shall we define another operator? For example we could think that in certain machine we want to execute some items in elevated mode. The operator could be § and the syntax MACHINENAME § AdminPC Some items should be shown but disabled when in read only mode ç READONLY Some others will be executed twice when you pass true from the command line with the variable %xyz% £ %xyz% We will risk to be short of strange operators and to create an obscure system for super experts. This is the reason for which I prefer to use built-in variable. Our syntax will change in: SYMENU_RUNADMIN=%ComputerName%==AdminPC SYMENU_DISABLE=%READONLY% SYMENU_EXECUTETWICE=%xyz%==true Well I don't like a lot my proposed syntax but I totally disagree yours, because it is more cryptic than mine. I'm completely opened to other proposals but clearer, consistent, and expandable. Glenn wrote: but my only reason for questioning it was to save space in rearranging things I think that if we pass to the dropdown system almost all the advanced box will be dedicated to a multiline textbox where the environment variables, the built-in variables, and the custom variables are shown. So the space shouldn't be a problem anymore. This things is starting to tickle my mind Last thing. Wow Glenn... I greedily read your slashdot article. Bravo! Everyone working deeply in Windows should read that. My two cents to the topic now. If multiple program instances and virtual desktops are not the reply because the Windows behaviour, have you ever thought about program virtualization? It's a bit like portabilize a programs but a bit different. With program virtualization you create a sandbox where the program executes believing to be in charge of its world and instead it is inside a fishbowl, so the virtualization concept could be extended to allow the creation of simultaneous multiple sandboxes starting from the same executable. In the past I played with Altiris SVS (now Symantec Workspace virtualization) and VMWare ThinApp but either don't push the concept to an extreme like you are proposing... and it is a shame.
27/01/2016 Topic: New version bug or bugs or misunderstandings Gianluca Administrator	I can't reproduce the -sm"CTRL+F2" bug. It works for me. Can you confirm the problem with the double quotes? I solved the -cv casing problem. In the next version you'll got all your casing in the right place. I never promised to remove them in READONLY mode. The important thing is that the relative forms are inaccessible. Maybe in one of the next version I'll implement this.
27/01/2016 Topic: weird positioning leads to usability issue Gianluca Administrator	It's a bug on tooltip positioning. Incredibly MS have never discover it or never care to fix it, whatever. I know that for long. My idea was to create a completely user draw tooltip to make it pop on a more proper position and, above all, to avoid tooltips wide as the entire screen.... Sometimes I think that the guys in MS are a bit crazy...
27/01/2016 Topic: & sometimes appears in menu text Gianluca Administrator	Anyway there is a bug. If you create a long named item and the scrolling on items is activated the & char won't be considered as an accelerator, if the item is shorter or the scrolling is deactivated it is considered correctly.
27/01/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	So you are suggesting to create a conditional trashed item? Too much work sorry. Don't empty your trash if you want to maintain a backup or better you can use an old SyMenu plugin that does the backup for you. Unfortunately it is not selective, but seriously, is there someone over there that has disk space problem on 2016? Your proposal to mix the configuration form with the SPS Manager is really interesting. I have to think about that. In the meanwhile I can suggest you to open the configuration form and go to Item manager menu - Get new Apps. You open the SPS Manager the same but you have the configuration form already opened. Would it be the same if the two windows were not modal? You could open both and both can take the focus with the classical ALT+TAB.
27/01/2016 Topic: Total Commander Gianluca Administrator	Hello magz. I've just reviewed your SPS. We still have a lot of work to do but my first impression is very good :-) You did a great job with your integration work with TC but I have a question for you: how do you know the SyMenu items paths and names? Don't tell me that you directly read the file system... you lost a lot of information and create a lot of noise in your TC menu. If you want a cleaner and more accurate method I propose you to use the SyMenu public interface. You can create a simple plugin that reads all the items directly asking to SyMenu. In that way you don't risk to create false elements, you can get the real name of the items that is not easily understandable from the file name, if you need the icon you can have it too. Tell me one more thing. Is the TC launcher really so better than SyMenu? I can improve it again and again if there are some things it can't do so well. Well I totally love Total Commander but IMHO the launcher is not its best feature.
29/01/2016 Topic: & sometimes appears in menu text Gianluca Administrator	Yes it is possible to switch it off. http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx#Advanced_menu_Options_Menu The right option is: Scroll right - never The boundary to activate the scrolling is not depending on the room available on the menu but it is a fixed characters number.
29/01/2016 Topic: weird positioning leads to usability issue Gianluca Administrator	What heppens? I go crazy with MS...
29/01/2016 Topic: New SyMenu version 5.00 Gianluca Administrator	I know that I'm a little late but I owe this post to all the peolple that help me during the beta tester. Thanks guys. I'm very surprised for your feedbacks and help. The public beta release approach is no more so unpleasant to me These are the main news for the 5.00 version New fully customizable menu structure New option to show the contextual menu on start button mouse hover New element in contextual menu to directly go to SyMenu options New form options The contextual menus scrollable buttons are now bigger to simplify the use on touch screen devices Bug fixes The main effect of the new fully customizable menu structure is that starting from this version I finally killed the compact menu. This compact menu was really appreciate but was a bunch of bug to solve and a double programmin work for me. Now you are free to decide how, where and if add the built-in element inside your menu. The other real news here is that SyMenu finally land on the social network Facebook and Linkedin. Please, help me to spread it through this media too, so SyMenu can reach more and more user. It's easy you know, click on the like button on the facebook and follow SyMenu on the Linkedin. https://www.facebook.com/symenu https://www.linkedin.com/company/symenu
30/01/2016 Topic: Sorting options for folders Gianluca Administrator	Which folder are you referring to? A SyMenu logical container? Or an indexed folder?
30/01/2016 Topic: Total Commander Gianluca Administrator	Ok. Understood. Your need for TC is quite peculiar so I think your method represents the best resolution you can try. Forget the plugin alternative. Regarding the bugs you reported. SyMenu shakes It's difficult to reproduce and when it is difficult to reproduce it is more difficult to solve it. I'll try to think about that. Auto update SPS at startup I can create an option to activate/deactivate the auto update for SPS. In case SyMenu discovers that some of your SPS are outdated you will receive a notification. This could be the first step to a fully automatic updater. Separate updater app I don't like at all this solution. It's senseless unless you are speaking about two different products. It is perfectly possible to create an external program that takes care for updating the SPS (files and application) since it is all public but I won't be me to do that. My vote goes to a new SyMenu feature. Crash on click mailto for report broken SPS In the next version you'll find the right click copy and the fix for this bug too. Install SPS in separate folders I'm studying a way to install any SPS inside its proper folder. In my opinion the ideal destination for a program is a logical folder with the same name as its category. For example a program whose category is System will be placed inside a logical folder named System on the root of the logical items tree. If the folder doesn't exist SyMenu creates it by scratch. You will be able to enable/disable this behavior for every downloading/installing session. Exit button placement Solved! Starting from the 5.0v you can put it wherever you like. UPX It's not in my plan. Sorry.
30/01/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	Not at all. It's a simple choice. When you open a new Window you can define if it must be modal or not i.e. if the parent has to be locked or not. I choose to lock the configuration form when you open SPS manager to avoid inconsistent actions. For example you can delete an SPS from the configuration and try to update it from the SPS. Or you can add a new app from the SPS Manager while you are saving the tree in the configuration. Who is the winning? With the windows both enabled you constantly risk a race condition that is real bad. A race condition is a situation when you start a legitimate action on an entity but when you arrive to finish the process you are not allowed to do that anymore because in the meanwhile you lost the race with a cuncurrent action. The result is an error and in the worst case an inconsistant configuration.... you risk to loose your items. Not a great thing.
30/01/2016 Topic: User preference 'Poll' Gianluca Administrator	My two cents on the PAF plugin. I'm not working on that code since a long time because I think the SPS is a better standard. So the natural place for the PAF plugin should be the software graveyard but, since it is used a lot, I'm suggesting a compromise. I will leave the PAF plugin living but I don't distribute it anymore through the SyMenu main package. In this way it remains available as a separate download until its natural death. @VVV_Easy_Symenu @ls23 I had a long and interesting talk with sl23 regarding the opportunity to privilege the original package over the PAF (or whatever) package. sl23 asserts that choosing the original one is good but if the derivative package is more stealthy we should prefer it. It's a really interesting topic: original vs. portability and stealth. This is my idea. The original version is always the best choice because we tell the users when it is not perfectly stealth. The only reason to prefer an alternative package is when the original one doesn't work at all without an installation process or when it is to much invasive on the host PC. Too much invasive doesn't mean that it leaves some minor tracks here and there. But sl23 is right from his point of view. If a stealth alternative exists why not to equally include for the more demanding users? Shall we start to publish more than one version for the same program?