Request a tiny app again

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Request a tiny app again

ephphatha: Dec 18, 2009

Glad you got it sorted. For reference you could also surround the variable name in curly braces

code:

mv ${DATE}10* /${DATE}/October/

or quote the variable (using double quotes specifically)

code:

mv "$DATE"10* /"$DATE"/October/

I usually prefer the first form since it's a syntax that's been reused in many other languages.

# ? Mar 31, 2021 10:43

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 21:38

Takes No Damage: Nov 20, 2004; The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.; Grimey Drawer

Good to know, the { } method looks a bit cleaner, but putting the entire variable in " " makes sense as well, so I may edit over to one of those just to keep things Best Practice^TM. Thanks.

# ? Apr 4, 2021 22:16

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a 'tiny app', but I'm not finding any commercial software that just does this thing, so maybe someone here can put something together, or knows of an existing piece of software that will do it:

I need to schedule blocks of time for different events. I know how long each event takes, and what I'd really like is some kind of drag-and-drop calendar situation so I can arrange the schedule. Events range in duration from 2-20 hours or so, and need to be able to roll over between days on the calendar. I also need the ability to schedule on an arbitrary number of multiple parallel tracks.

Some nice-to-have features would be:
The ability to define some stock events and drag and drop copies of them onto the schedule.
Configurable constraints on when a particular predefined event can be scheduled, i.e. must start after/end before x time, cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event
Configurable constraints on how many copies of a particular predefined event can be scheduled to start on a given day

The pipe-dream feature would be a function that optimizes the schedule based on the above constraints, but I'm pretty sure that's unrealistic for anything less than ERP software or something similar.

Anyway, I have no idea how 'tiny' this actually is, but maybe someone has something similar they can tweak, or can recommend a commercial product that will do this. Thanks.

# ? Apr 23, 2021 06:49

leper khan: Dec 28, 2010; Honest to god thinks Half Life 2 is a bad game. But at least he likes Monster Hunter.

fatman1683 posted:

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a 'tiny app', but I'm not finding any commercial software that just does this thing, so maybe someone here can put something together, or knows of an existing piece of software that will do it:

I need to schedule blocks of time for different events. I know how long each event takes, and what I'd really like is some kind of drag-and-drop calendar situation so I can arrange the schedule. Events range in duration from 2-20 hours or so, and need to be able to roll over between days on the calendar. I also need the ability to schedule on an arbitrary number of multiple parallel tracks.

Some nice-to-have features would be:
The ability to define some stock events and drag and drop copies of them onto the schedule.
Configurable constraints on when a particular predefined event can be scheduled, i.e. must start after/end before x time, cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event
Configurable constraints on how many copies of a particular predefined event can be scheduled to start on a given day

The pipe-dream feature would be a function that optimizes the schedule based on the above constraints, but I'm pretty sure that's unrealistic for anything less than ERP software or something similar.

Anyway, I have no idea how 'tiny' this actually is, but maybe someone has something similar they can tweak, or can recommend a commercial product that will do this. Thanks.

I've been trying to convince work to build something like this. I'll let you know if it ever gets off the ground. :shrug:

# ? Apr 23, 2021 12:58

pseudorandom: Jun 16, 2010; Yam Slacker

fatman1683 posted:

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a 'tiny app', but I'm not finding any commercial software that just does this thing, so maybe someone here can put something together, or knows of an existing piece of software that will do it:

I need to schedule blocks of time for different events. I know how long each event takes, and what I'd really like is some kind of drag-and-drop calendar situation so I can arrange the schedule. Events range in duration from 2-20 hours or so, and need to be able to roll over between days on the calendar. I also need the ability to schedule on an arbitrary number of multiple parallel tracks.

Some nice-to-have features would be:
The ability to define some stock events and drag and drop copies of them onto the schedule.
Configurable constraints on when a particular predefined event can be scheduled, i.e. must start after/end before x time, cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event
Configurable constraints on how many copies of a particular predefined event can be scheduled to start on a given day

The pipe-dream feature would be a function that optimizes the schedule based on the above constraints, but I'm pretty sure that's unrealistic for anything less than ERP software or something similar.

Anyway, I have no idea how 'tiny' this actually is, but maybe someone has something similar they can tweak, or can recommend a commercial product that will do this. Thanks.

For now, I doubt I'll have time to help, but I'm still curious and want to ask for clarification:

1. When you say roll over, that just means that the entire duration can span two days, right? Like, a two hour event starting at 11pm and ending 1am? Not a two hour event starting at 4pm, pausing at 5pm, and resuming the next day from 9am to 10am, right?

2. An event would NOT be constrained by the "cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event" requirement for second a parallel event?

# ? Apr 23, 2021 20:06

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

pseudorandom posted:

For now, I doubt I'll have time to help, but I'm still curious and want to ask for clarification:

1. When you say roll over, that just means that the entire duration can span two days, right? Like, a two hour event starting at 11pm and ending 1am? Not a two hour event starting at 4pm, pausing at 5pm, and resuming the next day from 9am to 10am, right?

2. An event would NOT be constrained by the "cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event" requirement for second a parallel event?

1. That's correct. All the events are considered continuous for whatever their duration is. The important thing is that I need to be able to schedule a known duration, rather than scheduling start and end times. I need the software to help me figure out when the events should start and end.

2. It should be constrained for any copy of that event on any track, up to whatever the constraint count is. Imagine that you need a specific piece of equipment to do a job, but you only need it for the first 20 minutes of that job, and then someone else can use it to start that same job somewhere else. I'm trying to parallelize tasks while deconflicting limited resources.

I appreciate your help, I know this is stretching the definition of 'tiny' but I'm very grateful.

# ? Apr 24, 2021 06:59

Volguus: Mar 3, 2009

fatman1683 posted:

1. That's correct. All the events are considered continuous for whatever their duration is. The important thing is that I need to be able to schedule a known duration, rather than scheduling start and end times. I need the software to help me figure out when the events should start and end.

2. It should be constrained for any copy of that event on any track, up to whatever the constraint count is. Imagine that you need a specific piece of equipment to do a job, but you only need it for the first 20 minutes of that job, and then someone else can use it to start that same job somewhere else. I'm trying to parallelize tasks while deconflicting limited resources.

I appreciate your help, I know this is stretching the definition of 'tiny' but I'm very grateful.

That sounds like what Gantt charts in project management and planning applications do, doesn't it? Now, optimization and automatic event scheduling may require some programming in that software, whatever that may be, but that's all that it seems to be. Am I missing anything?

# ? Apr 24, 2021 18:17

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

Volguus posted:

That sounds like what Gantt charts in project management and planning applications do, doesn't it? Now, optimization and automatic event scheduling may require some programming in that software, whatever that may be, but that's all that it seems to be. Am I missing anything?

It is basically a Gantt chart, but every Gantt charting software I can find is designed around the project management function and works in terms of days. I need something that works in terms of minutes and hours. It is very similar to a Gantt chart in principle, though.

e: Also Gantt charts are typically built around creating a task flow and then assigning resources to tasks. What I'm trying to do is assign tasks to resources.

fatman1683 fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Apr 25, 2021

# ? Apr 24, 2021 22:52

Volguus: Mar 3, 2009

fatman1683 posted:

It is basically a Gantt chart, but every Gantt charting software I can find is designed around the project management function and works in terms of days. I need something that works in terms of minutes and hours. It is very similar to a Gantt chart in principle, though.

e: Also Gantt charts are typically built around creating a task flow and then assigning resources to tasks. What I'm trying to do is assign tasks to resources.

Aha, that makes sense. So your resources are called tracks, right? And your tasks are called events?

With that vocabulary, let me see if I understand the requirements:

- You have several tracks, a known number (presumably can be added/removed)
- You have a bunch of events (dozens?), predefined (you called them stock events)
- An event has a name, a duration and a set of constraints
- You have a start time for the entire operation (Let's say Monday, April 26, 15:00:00)
- You add events (or have the software add them) to each track, in whatever order you want
- Maybe have a button for the software to add them based on constraints, after which they can be further manipulated by you.
- Then each event, while on the track, will have a start time and an end time.

Does that sound right?

fatman1683 posted:

Configurable constraints on when a particular predefined event can be scheduled, i.e. must start after/end before x time, cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event
Configurable constraints on how many copies of a particular predefined event can be scheduled to start on a given day

When you say "cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event", will that be for a particular track or for any of the tracks? How do you define an event to be equal with another event? Same name? Some origin (same stock event they were copied from)?
Again, "how many copies" would that apply to any defined track currently on the schedule? And, how is a day defined? From 0:00-23:59? What do you do when daylight savings comes around? Or goes away? (You lose or gain one hour) How should that be handled? Again, this presumes you're working in local time, not UTC (UTC would make DST not apply for example).

Would this be an application that would handle a rolling timeline of these events? Or would it require for the schedule to be saved/loaded from a file (a document)? That is, every time you come to work and you open the application, you always see the same thing, whatever you have scheduled previously, maybe then start to delete the events and plan a new one? Or would you require to open an existing document with these events scheduled or create a new one, etc. ?

What happens with the schedule? Exported somewhere (if yes, what format)? Printed? Or ... nothing, you just look at it and make decisions based on the information presented?

This may or may not be a tiny app, depending on the answers, but I think it would be good to flesh out the requirements as much as possible, regardless how this will get done (and it does look like a program would help you in you job here).

Oh, and another thing, presumably you'd want a desktop application right? Or on some other platform (mobile, web?)? And by desktop would mean Windows?

Volguus fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Apr 26, 2021

# ? Apr 26, 2021 04:10

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

Volguus posted:

Aha, that makes sense. So your resources are called tracks, right? And your tasks are called events?

With that vocabulary, let me see if I understand the requirements:

- You have several tracks, a known number (presumably can be added/removed)
- You have a bunch of events (dozens?), predefined (you called them stock events)
- An event has a name, a duration and a set of constraints
- You have a start time for the entire operation (Let's say Monday, April 26, 15:00:00)
- You add events (or have the software add them) to each track, in whatever order you want
- Maybe have a button for the software to add them based on constraints, after which they can be further manipulated by you.
- Then each event, while on the track, will have a start time and an end time.

Does that sound right?

This is correct.

Volguus posted:

When you say "cannot start less than x minutes before/after another copy of the same event", will that be for a particular track or for any of the tracks? How do you define an event to be equal with another event? Same name? Some origin (same stock event they were copied from)?

Copied from the same event, as the constraints only apply if they're copies, and must apply across all tracks.

Volguus posted:

Again, "how many copies" would that apply to any defined track currently on the schedule? And, how is a day defined? From 0:00-23:59? What do you do when daylight savings comes around? Or goes away? (You lose or gain one hour) How should that be handled? Again, this presumes you're working in local time, not UTC (UTC would make DST not apply for example).

Correct, total copies across all tracks. I'm fine with doing everything in UTC with a configurable offset. The system this is going into isn't DST-aware on its own and uses the same UTC+offset approach.

Volguus posted:

Would this be an application that would handle a rolling timeline of these events? Or would it require for the schedule to be saved/loaded from a file (a document)? That is, every time you come to work and you open the application, you always see the same thing, whatever you have scheduled previously, maybe then start to delete the events and plan a new one? Or would you require to open an existing document with these events scheduled or create a new one, etc. ?

A continuous timeline isn't necessary, it can be done in blocks. I'm normally scheduling a week (7 days) at a time, but events can hypothetically roll over from the end of one week to the start of the next, so being able to see the week plus a day or two on either end would be helpful. It isn't necessary for the software to be aware of rollovers on adjacent weeks, it doesn't happen often enough to be much of a hassle to account for it manually.

I would want the ability to save a particular schedule to file and create new ones, as I currently keep copies of my spreadsheet from each week.

e: Some additional context: Ideally, I'd have the ability to create templates, each consisting of a set of events from which I can create the schedule. Right now I only do the one weekly schedule this way, but it's likely that I will be doing multiple parallel schedules in the future, each with separate events, resources, and constraints.

Volguus posted:

What happens with the schedule? Exported somewhere (if yes, what format)? Printed? Or ... nothing, you just look at it and make decisions based on the information presented?

Right now it gets handjammed into a legacy scheduling system that doesn't have an API or anything, so 'nothing' would be an acceptable answer here, but printing it could conceivably be useful at some point.

Volguus posted:

This may or may not be a tiny app, depending on the answers, but I think it would be good to flesh out the requirements as much as possible, regardless how this will get done (and it does look like a program would help you in you job here).

Oh, and another thing, presumably you'd want a desktop application right? Or on some other platform (mobile, web?)? And by desktop would mean Windows?

A desktop application would be fine. A web application would also be acceptable if that's easier to create, but I can't imagine needing or wanting this on mobile. Windows is my primary platform, but I also have access to Linux machines if that makes it simpler.

I really appreciate all your help, hopefully this answers your questions.

fatman1683 fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Apr 26, 2021

# ? Apr 26, 2021 08:27

Volguus: Mar 3, 2009

Thank you for the answers. Diving deeper into this, I looked at what available ready-made components (namely a nice looking and easily customizable gantt-like component) are there. And there aren't many options, unfortunately, for all the languages I've looked at (C++ with Qt, wxWidgets or MFC), Java (JavaFX, though there is something for Swing). I mean, there are, but they're either lovely or proprietary.

To be honest, such a component may be fun to write, but such an application is definitely not tiny. Having your requirements laid out in more detail helps though for whoever would want to give it a shot. I will too, but I can't promise anything, and definitely nothing can come soon (from me at least).

It is surprising though that all these mega-expensive project scheduling and management tools have such limitations that they cannot be used for minute/hour/week long tasks. Oh well.

# ? Apr 27, 2021 23:08

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

Volguus posted:

It is surprising though that all these mega-expensive project scheduling and management tools have such limitations that they cannot be used for minute/hour/week long tasks. Oh well.

Yeah, this is really more of a manufacturing/ERP type problem than a project management problem. But software for that is even more mega-expensive. I appreciate your efforts, though!

# ? Apr 28, 2021 06:41

nielsm: Jun 1, 2009

Have you looked at room or conference planning software?

# ? Apr 28, 2021 07:19

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

nielsm posted:

Have you looked at room or conference planning software?

I looked at a few when I was exploring scheduling software in general, but the ones I found seem to be mostly focused on space planning and management, ticketing/attendance tracking, etc. Some of them said they have an agenda function but didn't show any screenshots or examples of how it works. I agree that some sort of conference/educational software might work, as I envisioned scheduling 'classes' in multiple 'rooms', but I have yet to find one that gives a good description or example of how it handles this.

# ? Apr 28, 2021 17:27

nielsm: Jun 1, 2009

Actually, can't you more or less do it with MS Outlook, having multiple calendars (one per track) open in week or schedule view? You can drag appointments around within a calendar and between calendars there.

With the old version I happen to have installed:

# ? Apr 28, 2021 18:00

fatman1683: Jan 8, 2004; .

nielsm posted:

Actually, can't you more or less do it with MS Outlook, having multiple calendars (one per track) open in week or schedule view? You can drag appointments around within a calendar and between calendars there.

With the old version I happen to have installed:

This only works if you know when each event is supposed to start and stop. I know how long each event takes, but I need the software to help me figure out start and stop times based on utilization.

# ? Apr 28, 2021 20:44

Volguus: Mar 3, 2009

Request Fill
Name: Events Scheduler
Download link: https://github.com/sa55231/scheduler/releases
Source Code: https://github.com/sa55231/scheduler
Features and Usage: It provides a barebones application to aid the scheduling.
Screenshot:

More updates will be coming, but the first few releases have been deemed acceptable enough by the requester.

Volguus fucked around with this message at 14:44 on May 21, 2021

# ? May 21, 2021 14:34

pseudorandom: Jun 16, 2010; Yam Slacker

Volguus posted:

Request Fill
Name: Events Scheduler
Download link: https://github.com/sa55231/scheduler/releases
Source Code: https://github.com/sa55231/scheduler
Features and Usage: It provides a barebones application to aid the scheduling.
Screenshot:

More updates will be coming, but the first few releases have been deemed acceptable enough by the requester.

Wow, very well done.

# ? May 21, 2021 19:09

Tuxedo Gin: May 21, 2003; Classy.

Humble Request
Problem: It is extremely difficult to get 4G modules to make a data connection in Linux if you don't have a fairly deep understanding of networking and how your OS interacts with devices.
Description and requirements: Some kind of script that will run through the steps of getting a data connection with 4G modems, including making whatever IP/DNS adjustments are necessary.
Nice to have features: Maybe prompts for variables (or reads them from a file) to get APN settings or in the case of multiple modems. Would be amazing to be able to just run the script and then be able to use the data connection.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 14:29

Sad Panda: Sep 22, 2004; I'm a Sad Panda.

Humble Request
Problem: I'd love my students to be able to practice bubble sort in a gamey way. I have an old Windows program that works, but it is a little clunky and not portable. https://www.dropbox.com/s/h28hfy5j2qs0rrr/Sorting_Algorithms.zip?dl=0 is a link if you would like to see it. I've attached a quick screenshot. It'd be really useful for my students - and I know lots of other teachers that'd love to have it too.

Description and requirements: A browser-based game that randomly generates a list of numbers and asks the user if according to the algorithm they should swap or not. At the end of a pass it asks if they have finished the sort or they need a new pass. If they are wrong, they lose a life. Users get three lives for a level. Run out of lives? Game over.
Level 1 - 4 numbers
Level 2 - 6 numbers
Level 3 - 8 numbers
Level 4 - 10 numbers
Level 5 - 10 numbers, timed. At the end it tells them their time. It keeps track of this so they can try to set a new best later on.

In terms of platform - I was assuming that client-side JavaScript embedded in an HTML file is the easiest/best option. Nothing fancy that involves a server to keep track of scores or anything like that is required at all. If I could host it on my website or just have the students open an HTML page off the school local network that'd be fantastic.

Nice to have features: An insertion sort option would be great too as that's the other sorting algorithm that students have got to understand.
It'd be mainly for use in lessons on a desktop. If it were to scale to function on a phone-sized display that'd be amazing to let them practice outside of the class.

Hopefully I've explained it clearly. Let me know any questions and I'll clarify anything.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Aug 13, 2021 19:45

ephphatha: Dec 18, 2009

This is a really basic implementation, only bubblesort for now and no fancy styling/instructions. It's a single html file that you can download and run anywhere and should work in any reasonably modern browser. Using only basic HTML and JS concepts so it'll use default browser alerts for feedback/prompts, I was mainly interested in knocking something up with no dependencies so hopefully someone else can do a prettier version if that's desirable.

https://ephphatha.github.io/html-sort-game/sort.html - instructions.

# ? Aug 14, 2021 15:24

Sad Panda: Sep 22, 2004; I'm a Sad Panda.

ephphatha posted:

This is a really basic implementation, only bubblesort for now and no fancy styling/instructions. It's a single html file that you can download and run anywhere and should work in any reasonably modern browser. Using only basic HTML and JS concepts so it'll use default browser alerts for feedback/prompts, I was mainly interested in knocking something up with no dependencies so hopefully someone else can do a prettier version if that's desirable.

https://ephphatha.github.io/html-sort-game/sort.html - instructions.

Lovely, thank you for knocking that together. Some quick feedback about functionality...

1. Big thing - They should swap when first element < second element. If they don't (ie swap when shouldn't or don't swap when should) - "You need to swap these items. Lose a life." / "You don't need to swap these items. Lose a life."
2. Minor - If the list isn't sorted but they say it is, it currently says "The list is not sorted, keep going." Could you let them know they lost a life? - "You must continue making passes until you do a pass without making a swap. Lose a life."
3. Query/Alternate idea - Is it possible to give different options than OK/cancel or is that just a consequence of using the default alerts? Maybe as an alternative - at the end of the pass could have two buttons become visible to the right of the current list. Finished / New pass.
4. Improvement idea - If they finish a pass and need a new pass could you add a new line for the current pass like in the attached picture? It really helps visualise the progress of the sort.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Aug 14, 2021 16:58

ephphatha: Dec 18, 2009

Sad Panda posted:

Lovely, thank you for knocking that together. Some quick feedback about functionality...

1. Big thing - They should swap when first element < second element. If they don't (ie swap when shouldn't or don't swap when should) - "You need to swap these items. Lose a life." / "You don't need to swap these items. Lose a life."
2. Minor - If the list isn't sorted but they say it is, it currently says "The list is not sorted, keep going." Could you let them know they lost a life? - "You must continue making passes until you do a pass without making a swap. Lose a life."
3. Query/Alternate idea - Is it possible to give different options than OK/cancel or is that just a consequence of using the default alerts? Maybe as an alternative - at the end of the pass could have two buttons become visible to the right of the current list. Finished / New pass.
4. Improvement idea - If they finish a pass and need a new pass could you add a new line for the current pass like in the attached picture? It really helps visualise the progress of the sort.

1, 2, 4 are all easy done, I've updated the js to handle that. Apologies for missing that requirement, I didn't actually download the program you linked to so I had/have no idea what the existing behaviour is like.

3 is because of the use of default alerts. Browsers don't give any room for customising these simple dialogs so a different approach is needed to make it more user friendly. Your suggestions sounds good, I was mainly trying to avoid having buttons appear/disappear repeatedly on the page as it make the logic slightly more complicated and I'm lazy. Would you be comfortable having the buttons always be visible? Do they need to appear to the right of the lists or would it be acceptable to have Skip/Next/Finished/New Pass buttons in a row?

I've updated the hotkeys and embedded the instructions on the page below the buttons, same link as before.

# ? Aug 15, 2021 02:46

Sad Panda: Sep 22, 2004; I'm a Sad Panda.

ephphatha posted:

1, 2, 4 are all easy done, I've updated the js to handle that. Apologies for missing that requirement, I didn't actually download the program you linked to so I had/have no idea what the existing behaviour is like.

3 is because of the use of default alerts. Browsers don't give any room for customising these simple dialogs so a different approach is needed to make it more user friendly. Your suggestions sounds good, I was mainly trying to avoid having buttons appear/disappear repeatedly on the page as it make the logic slightly more complicated and I'm lazy. Would you be comfortable having the buttons always be visible? Do they need to appear to the right of the lists or would it be acceptable to have Skip/Next/Finished/New Pass buttons in a row?

I've updated the hotkeys and embedded the instructions on the page below the buttons, same link as before.

Thank you, those changes are fab and make it that much better.

If making the buttons only show at the end of the pass is annoying, then leave it with the dialog box. I'd prefer to have them presented with the choice (via buttons or dialog box) at the end of a pass as that's when they should be considering that question.

One thing that's not in the logic which ties in with that is...

- A bubble sort is not considered finished until all the items are sorted AND a pass has been finished without any sorts (which is how it knows that all the items are sorted). Sorry that I didn't mention that above.

Could you change the check that you do at the end to take that into account? One way is just keep a flag if there has been a swap or not, if it's the end of the pass AND there's not been a swap (given the live system forces them to swap if they should) then it's sorted and they are ready to stop.

Think it'll basically be done then.

# ? Aug 16, 2021 09:44

ephphatha: Dec 18, 2009

Most of the state has been handled by css classes and the dom itself so I've added ".dirty" as a class for (the first of the pair of) items which have been swapped. This isn't made visible with a style rule or copied to the history, but could be done if you wanted to make it more visible by adding a rule to the style section similar to the following:

code:

item.dirty {
	background-color: red;
}

I could also polish the visuals a bit and move away from browser alerts, given this started as a quick hack I went simple

. I'll play with improving it when I have time so if there's any particular layout for the prompts you had in mind that'd be helpful.

# ? Aug 19, 2021 13:49

Sad Panda: Sep 22, 2004; I'm a Sad Panda.

ephphatha posted:

Most of the state has been handled by css classes and the dom itself so I've added ".dirty" as a class for (the first of the pair of) items which have been swapped. This isn't made visible with a style rule or copied to the history, but could be done if you wanted to make it more visible by adding a rule to the style section similar to the following:
code:
item.dirty {
	background-color: red;
}
I could also polish the visuals a bit and move away from browser alerts, given this started as a quick hack I went simple . I'll play with improving it when I have time so if there's any particular layout for the prompts you had in mind that'd be helpful.

Thank you for that update I've been playing around and here's the next bit of feedback.

3 bugs
1. If you have successfully completed the sort (finish a pass correctly without swapping) and tell it you need a new pass, you should lose a life, but don't. "You finished a pass without making a swap. The list is sorted. Lose a life."
2. Minor visual thing - If you swap the final element in the list, "Have you finished sorting the numbers" comes up before the numbers are updated on the page.
3. Inconsistent behaviour - If I should swap, but tell it not to swap I lose a life and stay on the same two elements. If I shouldn't swap, but tell it to swap I lose a life and move on to the next two elements. Could you make it so both are like the first one - it doesn't progress until you get the choice right?

Idea
Not sure how it would work, but some kind of 'realistic' mode could be neat. That would have the background-color for items on the current row be the same as the font. This would emphasise the idea that the computer can only see/compare two items at a time. It could be enabled with a tick box.

Styling
In terms of styling, could we make the following changes? Having the background colour on the selected item makes them stand out nicely. Adding a light border to each item makes it look more like a list/array. Not sure of the CSS, but I'm guessing there's a way to 'pad' the rows so there's a couple of pixels between one row and the next so it doesn't look like one big table?

code:

        item {
            border: 1px solid;
        }

        item.selected {
            background-color: aliceblue;
            border: 2px solid;
        }

I've been using it on my computer and keyboard works pretty much perfectly so haven't been touching the buttons. I think buttons would be more useful if I were to be using it on a mobile device. I think that adding them (turning them from invisible to visible) to the collection of buttons when required is the best option if we go down that route.

# ? Aug 21, 2021 18:10

Toph Bei Fong: Feb 29, 2008

Humble Request
Problem: Scheduling employees something I am very bad at. I always miss details, schedule incorrectly, or otherwise bungle things. It would be nice if I had an app that could take in the availability of 6-8 people, and produce a work schedule based on that availability, while also maintaining staff level requirements. I have not been able to locate roster software that isn't way more complex and detailed than this.

Description and requirements: Basically, a calendar app that takes the employee availability, weekly scheduled hours, and open time data, and produces random schedule combinations based on that data and fulfilling those requirements.

i.e. Alice is available MonWedFri from 10-5 and works 20 hrs/week, Bob is available MonTueWed from 1-4 and works 15 hrs/week, Carol is available TueThrFri from 9-3 and works 10 hrs/week, etc. Open hours are Mon 10-4, Tue 9-3, Wed 10-4, Thr 9-3, etc. and from this data, create "solved" schedules that have at least X people in the building at all times, and Y people on the service desk, while also filling the hour requirements and keeping within the availability of staff.

Nice to have features: The ability to weight certain things (ie. Alice likes working longer shifts, Bob likes working mornings), but this could be handled manually by just creating new schedule combinations until one popped up that matched the requirements.

# ? Aug 28, 2021 16:33

pseudorandom: Jun 16, 2010; Yam Slacker

I might try doing this if I get bored, but no guarantees. A couple questions though: Would you want some kind of minimum/maximum shift length? Would there preferred shift change times?

# ? Aug 28, 2021 19:28

Toph Bei Fong: Feb 29, 2008

pseudorandom posted:

I might try doing this if I get bored, but no guarantees. A couple questions though: Would you want some kind of minimum/maximum shift length? Would there preferred shift change times?

Thanks very much if you do find the time, but no worries if other things take priority

Making shift length another variable for consideration would be super helpful. I don't think that scheduling a time for shift change would matter as much, as we're not open terribly long each day right now.

# ? Aug 28, 2021 19:39

ephphatha: Dec 18, 2009

Sad Panda posted:

Thank you for that update I've been playing around and here's the next bit of feedback.

3 bugs
1. If you have successfully completed the sort (finish a pass correctly without swapping) and tell it you need a new pass, you should lose a life, but don't. "You finished a pass without making a swap. The list is sorted. Lose a life."
2. Minor visual thing - If you swap the final element in the list, "Have you finished sorting the numbers" comes up before the numbers are updated on the page.
3. Inconsistent behaviour - If I should swap, but tell it not to swap I lose a life and stay on the same two elements. If I shouldn't swap, but tell it to swap I lose a life and move on to the next two elements. Could you make it so both are like the first one - it doesn't progress until you get the choice right?

I actually updated this to fix 1 and 3 a few days back, never got around to posting to let you know. 2 is a side effect of using browser alerts. I have a timeout set before it pops up in the hopes that the browser renders the changes but it's still not consistent. I'll get in touch via PM about the enhancements you suggested here since I don't wanna dominate the thread

# ? Aug 29, 2021 11:07

Dans Macabre: Apr 24, 2004

Humble Request

Problem:
Instagram doesn't let me post text as a main post (Because it does images/video).

Description and requirements:
I want a text-to-image generator where I can paste text into an input box and it spits out that text as an image. Example output could look like this:

Requirements: something I can host myself on a linux server.
It would store the output file on the same machine and return the path of that file to me (or display it).

Nice to have features: web front end

# ? Sep 2, 2021 16:43

Toshimo: Aug 23, 2012; He's outta line...

But he's right!

nvrgrls posted:

Humble Request

Problem:
Instagram doesn't let me post text as a main post (Because it does images/video).

Description and requirements:
I want a text-to-image generator where I can paste text into an input box and it spits out that text as an image. Example output could look like this:

Requirements: something I can host myself on a linux server.
It would store the output file on the same machine and return the path of that file to me (or display it).

Nice to have features: web front end

You probably just want Imagemagick: https://legacy.imagemagick.org/Usage/text/

# ? Sep 2, 2021 17:06

Dans Macabre: Apr 24, 2004

Toshimo posted:

You probably just want Imagemagick: https://legacy.imagemagick.org/Usage/text/

oh snap

what's up toshimo

# ? Sep 2, 2021 19:32

Sri.Theo: Apr 16, 2008

Is something that could take a OneNote file, on macOS, and export it to text files (maybe using Markdown) in structured folders (Notebook, Section, Pages) trivial or virtually impossible?

I've found a couple of projects that can do it, but one is Window's only and the other requires messing around with Azure directory in a way that looks tricky.

https://github.com/alxnbl/onenote-md-exporter
https://github.com/Danmou/onenote_export

# ? Nov 25, 2021 11:38

nielsm: Jun 1, 2009

Sri.Theo posted:

Is something that could take a OneNote file, on macOS, and export it to text files (maybe using Markdown) in structured folders (Notebook, Section, Pages) trivial or virtually impossible?

I've found a couple of projects that can do it, but one is Window's only and the other requires messing around with Azure directory in a way that looks tricky.

https://github.com/alxnbl/onenote-md-exporter
https://github.com/Danmou/onenote_export

The first one is indeed Windows only yes, despite being implemented in .NET 5. It depends on a COM library installed with the Office for Windows version of OneNote, so it won't work on non-Windows systems. That library is used to do the actual reading of the contents.

The second uses Office Online, logging in via Azure/Microsoft account, and will only work with notebooks stored on OneDrive. It shouldn't be difficult to get working, but it's useless if you have the OneNote data as a classic local file.

You'd have to go looking for (or write from scratch) an implementation of the file format (documented here) to make a platform-agnostic exporter, that also isn't dependent on other locally installed software or the data being on OneDrive.

# ? Nov 25, 2021 12:07

Sri.Theo: Apr 16, 2008

nielsm posted:

You'd have to go looking for (or write from scratch) an implementation of the file format (documented here) to make a platform-agnostic exporter, that also isn't dependent on other locally installed software or the data being on OneDrive.

�which sounds well outside the realm of �request a tiny app�. Thanks for the information though, I�ll try and get the second option to work

# ? Nov 25, 2021 15:06

Dans Macabre: Apr 24, 2004

Sri.Theo posted:

Is something that could take a OneNote file, on macOS, and export it to text files (maybe using Markdown) in structured folders (Notebook, Section, Pages) trivial or virtually impossible?

I've found a couple of projects that can do it, but one is Window's only and the other requires messing around with Azure directory in a way that looks tricky.

https://github.com/alxnbl/onenote-md-exporter
https://github.com/Danmou/onenote_export

If you only need to do this once: Import your OneNote to Evernote and then import from Evernote to Joplin, which will give you the markdown files.

# ? Nov 25, 2021 20:39

null_pointer: Nov 9, 2004; Center in, pull back. Stop. Track 45 right. Stop. Center and stop.

Android auto is probably the most temperamental, frustrating app ever made. Sometimes only restarting the service will let my VW head unit connect to the phone.

Someone wanna create an app that just finds the Android auto process, kills it, then restarts it? I can throw a few USD your way.

# ? Nov 30, 2021 03:53

smiling giraffe: Nov 12, 2015

null_pointer posted:

Android auto is probably the most temperamental, frustrating app ever made. Sometimes only restarting the service will let my VW head unit connect to the phone.

Someone wanna create an app that just finds the Android auto process, kills it, then restarts it? I can throw a few USD your way.

Do you still need this?

# ? Jan 10, 2022 00:00

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 21:38

Sri.Theo: Apr 16, 2008

Any interest in creating a command-line app that extracts all the text from a tweet and its replies and saves them to a .txt document?

It's the type of thing that would be useful for saving book recommendations etc. Would also be useful to have options for deleting duplicate lines, saving usernames etc. Although, I get the feeling that there may be API shenanigans that make this complex.

# ? Feb 15, 2022 10:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Request a tiny app again

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