Monthly Archives: March 2017

Ant v 1.1.0

Published / by Andrew

After some feedback from my sister (i.e., the end-user) as well as some changes that I wanted to make myself, I’ve updated Ant to version 1.1.0. Remember that the purpose of the program is to help you keep track of what you’re working on. That way, if you have billable hours, you’ll know what you were working on and when without having to guess “I think I spent about two hours on the Pensky file.”

Find both the install files and the documentation on the Github site: https://github.com/anorman728/ant.

It’s currently Windows-only because I wanted to have something in my portfolio that uses C# and I wasn’t able to either get Gtk# working correctly or get Mono to compile this project.

New features include:

  • Can populate Prompt Times based on an interval and subinterval lengths instead of one-at-a-time.
  • Can clear the Prompt Times list with one button.
  • If the output file is not readable (which will happen if you have it open in Excel), it will warn you.
  • Adding times is more keyboard-friendly.
  • Headers added instead of just starting the file with “Ant log file.”
  • Can add multiple messages instead of just one message.
  • Prompt is a little less intrusive (it pops up in the lower-right corner and remains on top, but can be ignored).

I’d also like to point out that I’m available for freelance/consulting work– If you would like a custom program, feel free to email me at anorman728@gmail.com.

Ant

Published / by Andrew

The reason I haven’t been too active in the past week or so is because I’ve been busy working on a Windows Forms project in C# called “Ant,” and version 1.0.0 is now available on GitHub.

This project is based on a VBScript project that I had at my last job. I needed to keep track of how much time I spent on each individual project, so I wrote a script to prompt me once an hour with “What are you working on right now?” It would then take that input and put it into a CSV file, so I could keep track of it in Excel. (It’s VBScript instead of PowerShell because I wrote it before I became familiar with PowerShell.)

I was describing this project to my sister, and she said it would be very useful for people with billable hours. In its incarnation at that time, though, it would be kind of weird to distribute, so I decided to make it into a project that could be put into production. I did it in C# just because my experience in C# is light, so this gives me a little more exposure to the language.

Initially, I was going to make this project cross-platform using Gtk#, but I wasn’t able to get Gtk# working correctly (it’s very buggy), so it’s now a strictly-Windows project using the traditional Windows Forms. This is kind of ironic since I primarily use Ubuntu.

Between installing Windows 10 in a VirtualBox VM (Virtual desktops! Finally!) and learning a few things about Windows Forms that I didn’t already know from VBA in Excel, I spent quite a bit of time on this project, and there’s still some more to come. You can see the upcoming features in the Ant.todo file.

Reco: Outlining

Published / by Andrew

I have a reco today that’s a little different. It’s not for a particular program, but for a methodology that I’ve been using for quite some time.

Beginning a new project can be daunting. Everyone already knows that. Trying to organize my thoughts is difficult, especially for larger projects. “How do I get XYZ accomplished?”

What I’ve been doing for years, and not just for coding, is simply making outlines of what needs to be done. My personal methodology has been evolving over all of the time that I’ve been doing this and has become pretty specific. The end result (as seen in the screenshot above) is a todo list that’s organized as an outline. I’ve actually developed a Vim syntax file that color-codes it, and that color-coding has become extremely useful. (This is the same format as my notes files on GitHub.)

The key is as follows:

  • > = Todo
  • + = Done
  • * = Information
  • – = Canceled
  • : = Title
  • ! = Important to remember
  • ? = Unanswered question

This doesn’t follow the specific rules of outlines that are taught in English classes. For example, it’s not uncommon for me to have only one subpoint. There’s good reason not to do this in a slideshow presentation, but it doesn’t really apply to these outlines.

Despite how specific the structure is, the content is very fluid. Throughout the course of a project, what it starts out as in the beginning could be radically different from how it ends up as by the end of the project. It’s not a “This project must follow this exact course” outline, but, instead, is essentially my thoughts written down. Todo points may be added, information points will definitely be added, entire sections could be added or canceled (I try not to actually delete so I don’t accidentally lose important information), etc. This helps me to organize everything as well as just remember everything. Additionally, the indented format lets me use Vim’s indent code-folding method (or, in my case, an expr called “ModifiedIndent”, which you can see on my GitHub), and keeping these files helps me more easily pick up an old project months or years after I haven’t touched it if/when I need to.

Of course, I would never say “This is something you have to do.” That’s actually the case for all of my recos, but, in this case, it’s especially true. I’ve very much come to recognize Matt Hartley’s favorite catchphrase, “Different strokes for different folks.” This is something that came about for me while I was an undergrad in math– Start solving a problem by writing down everything I know. (Come to think of it, I may have picked it up from the way they do differential diagnoses in “House”.) It evolved from there and has become an essential part of how I think.

This last part is slightly off-topic, but the screenshot above is from a project that I’ve just started (hence all > and no +). It’s a program that I’m writing for my sister to help keep track of time, based on a VBScript program that I wrote for myself a while ago (at the time, I didn’t know PowerShell). I was describing how I had a script run once an hour and prompt me with “What are you working on right now?” Then it would store the result in a CSV file, which I could later open in Excel and count how many hours I spent working on any individual project. She said that would be very useful in her line of work, and, huzzah, a C# project was born. If it were just for me, I would probably just use either PowerShell with Windows Task Scheduler or BASH with cron, but, if I want to share it with others, I’d rather have one package do everything (and, in this case, a GUI program). I’m hoping to be able to use Gtk# to run it cross-platform.

That’s all for right now. Thanks for reading!

Threadstr update: User options page and some Node.js tricks

Published / by Andrew

I have a major update and some minor updates for Threadstr.

It’s still not meaningfully functional, but it’s far enough along that I don’t intend to wipe the database on updates anymore.

All functions in the Options page are now usable. (Or, at least, they’re supposed to be.) Additionally, there’s a favicon added, helmet is being used to secure the Express app, and forever-monitor is being used to reset the server when it goes down for whatever reason. Finally, I moved the MySQL command that simply keeps the database alive to another place because it’s possible that its previous location was causing a memory leak by opening up way too many connections and not closing them, and its frequency is now every ten minutes instead of every five seconds.

Next up is actually being able to create and add to threads– The Feature Presentation.