[release] Panther Style Alt+tab

[Miqx]

Its a good update, the only problem is that for some reasone it doesn't recognize explorer.exe as an open task, for instance I had the folder open that had the switcher.exe in it as well as irc and internet explorer, only internet explorer and irc showed up the folder window did not

Great update otherwise though...

Thanks

Miqx

[FatAxl]

This is great !! It worked great right out of the box. I have one request. Is there a way to exclude apps from showing ?? Mine shows objectbar, objectdock, etc.. as apps to switch to. Is there a way of excluding them from the list ??

Thanks and great work.

FatAxl

[IngeneerMind]

:woot: ehehehhe YEAHHHHHHH dude i love you !!!! this baby is amazing !.....

but.

is there a way to turn black the app`s background ... do you kow what i mean... ???

coz now it shows a gray one... maybe black WoW that must look really nice ! :naughty:

[edited]

and yeah an exclude list is very important. and i can`t switch between the folders i have opened coz it does not show them

Thanks

[Nate]

Originally posted by IngeneerMind@Dec 7 2003, 12:35 PM

maybe black WoW that must look really nice!

Black and 50% opaque, you know with transparency. That would be even better!

[silencedge]

This is really great. Thanks.

And yes, an exclusion list will be perfect. Would be nice to get OB, CursorXP, OD and other little programs out of the way.

THANKS AGAIN! Really nice little application. (Y)

[FeAt]

Hi,

Okay, okay... I know..

The "Exclusion list" will be in the next release, don't worry.

I hope the next version will finished before Christmas.

(Otherwise, OD and OB has an option to hide themself from the TaskManager and the Windows's task bar. Temporary use thoose option.)

Have a nice Aqua-Day..

[BlackIce]

But other apps come up that dont need to be there besides objectbar or yz dock. Example is cursor xp which skins your mouse and so an exclusion list is important to exclude things like that too.

[Zoggynog]

Originally posted by BlackIce@Dec 9 2003, 04:42 PM

But other apps come up that dont need to be there besides objectbar or yz dock. Example is cursor xp which skins your mouse and so an exclusion list is important to exclude things like that too.

Good thing he said he would make one!

muhahahahaha!

Awsome Awsome, truely awsome work...don't let developement die on this Please!

there was some ancient thread around here...where people talked about this all day and then everyone just said...use powertoys alt-tab! Great to see someone bust this out.

:rule: :rock:

[chameeeleon]

Is there any way to make the switcher smaller? It takes up half the screen on mine, and if I have more than 5 programs running, the others get cut off.

[mephisto]

thanks for this, is really nice. but mine is not showing the background.........

[FeAt]

Hi,

Here it is the new version of Switcher.

It uses new 'applicationsList.ini' structure. It has 'Showable' and 'Exclusions' section and you can add comments using the '//' signs.

New version

For chameeeleon: Be patience, the next major change will be the 'resizeable' Switcher. :shy:

(Y)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[Nate]

Originally posted by FeAt@Jan 1 2004, 12:26 AM

Here it is the new version of Switcher.

Downloading now. Let's see if the background has transparency / opaque.

Thanks!

[chameeeleon]

Originally posted by FeAt@Dec 31 2003, 11:26 AM

For chameeeleon: Be patience, the next major change will be the 'resizeable' Switcher. :shy:

Alright, I'll wait patiently then, I know that in the end you'll deliver - just like you have with the exclusion list! A great app that's only getting better!

[IngeneerMind]

thanks feat for giving us this new year gift !!! i`m downloading it ! rightnow ! :rock:

[IngeneerMind]

black background !! please !!!

[Nate]

Originally posted by IngeneerMind@Jan 1 2004, 03:08 PM

black background !! please !!!

Yep, I think the background is a little darker. But I can't seem to finder a panther screenshot with alt-tab, only a pre-release one. Oh, and lower memory usage. And give us the option to change the font. Lucida Grande Bold is ugly.

EDIT:

I found this.

Mac users, care to provide a screenshot?

found another with transparency

[FeAt]

:staffs here:

Short reply:

...and lower memory usage...

Lower memory usage is not solvable, because .NET manages the memory-handling of Switcher.

High resolution images uses a lot of memory. I've optimezed my code for SPEED not for "size". Switcher loads into the memory all of the images which is defined in the applicationsList.ini file's [showable] section. An average PNG is 30k BUT .NET Image object uses more memory than the pure image size.

I think 20-25MB of RAM usage is not much in that time when 512MB RAM module is average in a simple PC. (I'm use for testing, and developing too, an old PC has 366MHz CPU and 320MB of RAM.)

Have a nice Aqua year!

[lecter]

Wonderful app!

Is there any way to make it manage multiple Internet Explorer/Explorer windows?

[smerickson]

this is an excellent release. Great job.

My only request would be for it to remember the z order of the windows like the original alt tab does. Other than that this thing is great.

[Nate]

Originally posted by FeAt@Jan 1 2004, 11:26 PM

:staffs here:

Short reply:

Lower memory usage is not solvable, because .NET manages the memory-handling of Switcher.

High resolution images uses a lot of memory. I've optimezed my code for SPEED not for "size". Switcher loads into the memory all of the images which is defined in the applicationsList.ini file's [showable] section. An average PNG is 30k BUT .NET Image object uses more memory than the pure image size.

I think 20-25MB of RAM usage is not much in that time when 512MB RAM module is average in a simple PC. (I'm use for testing, and developing too, an old PC has 366MHz CPU and 320MB of RAM.)

Have a nice Aqua year!

Oh, too bad. But it's still great, working fine on my laptop.

[Stevie BM]

Originally posted by FeAt@Jan 1 2004, 04:26 PM

:staffs here:

Short reply:

Lower memory usage is not solvable, because .NET manages the memory-handling of Switcher.

High resolution images uses a lot of memory. I've optimezed my code for SPEED not for "size". Switcher loads into the memory all of the images which is defined in the applicationsList.ini file's [showable] section. An average PNG is 30k BUT .NET Image object uses more memory than the pure image size.

I think 20-25MB of RAM usage is not much in that time when 512MB RAM module is average in a simple PC. (I'm use for testing, and developing too, an old PC has 366MHz CPU and 320MB of RAM.)

Have a nice Aqua year!

No offence, FeAt, because you're obviously a fairly competent developer, but that's a load of rubbish.

You can memory manage as efficiently in .Net as you can in unmanaged applications (C, C++, et al.), if not moreso. You just have to actually take care to make your classes implement IDisposable properly, clear up their objects properly, and not use overly memory or processor intensive operations.

When I say "you can memory manage", I don't mean that you have to explicitly manage memory, like in C++ or whatever, I mean that .Net can, if you do things properly.

For example, let's look at the string (or System.String) object:

The string datatype is immutable in .Net. This means that if you create a string, and change that string over and over, your program creates a new instance of that string in memory every time you assign or alter the contents of the string. That's just how strings work in .Net.

If you're changing a string regularly, then, it's better to use a System.Text.StringBuilder, because the StringBuilder class is mutable. In other words, the "string" in a StringBuilder can be changed extremely quickly, with little extra overhead. The only downside is that it takes a little longer to initialise.

Therefore, if you're changing a "string" once or twice, use a regular string, otherwise, use a StringBuilder. There are examples like this throughout .Net.

This is just one example of how choosing the right object can make your programs massively more efficient, I can, off the top of my head, think of maybe 40 other objects that have "alternates" like this.#2>

There is absolutely no reason any developer should have for blaming such a small app's 10Mb+ memory usage on .Net - about 10Mb is, after all, what the .Net CLR requires to execute, so your app should come in, in memory, around a few megs more.

If you want help improving the efficiency of your code, feel free to PM me for advice.

[IngeneerMind]

@nate

i have found this one.... have a look.

@stevie BM

you are danm right ! and maybe (don`t know it is just a possibility) you and feat can work on this.... so this app gonna be one of the coolest one !!!

btw (i have 256 MB of ram )

[Nate]

Originally posted by IngeneerMind@Jan 2 2004, 03:51 AM

@nate 

i have found this one.... have a look.

That's pre-release 10.3.

[Goku]

stevie, there is no need to write "loads of rubbish" if you disagree with Feat.

Afterall the guy is making this so sweet app, for free. If you know that he's wrong about his assumption with .NET then be stlightly more easy on him.

Thank you Feat, and thanks for the info stevie.

[Stevie BM]

Originally posted by Goku@Jan 2 2004, 09:23 PM

stevie, there is no need to write "loads of rubbish" if you disagree with Feat.

Afterall the guy is making this so sweet app, for free. If you know that he's wrong about his assumption with .NET then be stlightly more easy on him.

Thank you Feat, and thanks for the info stevie.

I know that he's making it for free, Goku, and I can understand what you're getting at, but I don't like when people make claims about technologies which patently aren't true.

It's not that I disagree with him, per se, it's that I know (and can categorically prove) what he said was untrue - there's a difference between that and a disagreement: if you disagree, there is a question of doubt or personal preference - in this case, I can (and have, along with numerous others) prove what I've said, and it's fairly well documented by Microsoft, too, in the .Net developer references, as well as various other online resources.

I can understand that my tone may have been overly harsh, but I said what I said, and there's no point in me going back and editing that now.