slimCODE

It’s clear to me now. Blogs are for tweets that can’t fit into 140 chars. Often do I find myself with a nice idea that can fit into 140 chars, but that would also benefit to be exposed in greater terms on my blog. But the ease and quickness of posting to Twitter always wins.

The art of compressing a message to fit nicely into 140 chars is not given to anyone, though. My @slimCODE Twitter account (corporate) was followed by @RescoApps from Resco.net. Since I do use their Resco Explorer software, I politely followed back. Then I received these two automated direct messages:

Thank you for the follow!We hope our tweets will always remain worthful for you. Use our"new follower"gift.Will last only till 1st February.

The Gift:25%price discount on our PhotoManager for WM: http://www.resco.net/buy/pocketpc.asp?additem=11117&code=TWITTER1&m=Twitter Regards,R

Both messages are exactly 140 chars. Notice the absence of spaces after punctuation in the first message, and around the “25%” in the second message, and the use of “till” instead of “until” in the first message. And that second message with the ugly URL is unreadable. That’s lazy work, guys. You could have done much better! Understand the importance of good “Tweet Compression”. It’s an art!

For example, replace “1st February” with “Feb 1st” and you save 5 chars you can allocate to spaces and that missing “u” in “until”. Also, use smaller URLs. I understand the benefit of using your own domain. Add a redirection on your site, so you can use something like “www.resco.net/newfollower”, it’s much cleaner. Finally, drop that “Regards,R” signature. Twitter is not email.

Oh, by the way: “worthful” isn’t a word.

And also: I hate auto-direct messages. I’m not using Twitter to talk with robots. Unfollowed. :(

I’m currently testing a Windows Mobile application. I’m doing final tests directly on my real devices. I had my HTC Touch Pro2 phone hooked via USB, and the tests went perfectly. Then, I unplugged it and plugged my old HTC P4000 to make tests on an older device. I pressed F5 in Visual Studio .NET, and checked my P4000’s screen for the usual “Do you trust that application” prompt… Nothing. But from the corner on my eye, I saw that my Touch Pro2 was asking for the question. Hun? I clicked “Yes”, and there I was, in the middle of a debugging session via WIFI!!! Tracing was working well, I could breakpoint, pause and continue.

I had no idea my phone was still connected to Windows Mobile Center. As a matter of fact, Mobile Center was waiting for my feedback about how to sync the newly plugged P4000. Once I answered “Connect without synching”, VS.NET started using the P4000 for debugging.

And all this happened 5 minutes after I told myself I should tweet that I want my phone to sync via WIFI.

Now, I’m trying to reproduce this, and I can’t. It seems timing had a lot to do with this, and the fact it was the first time Mobile Center saw my P4000 in this session. If only Windows Mobile Center (and VS.NET) was supporting multiple devices connected at the same time.

It could have been the very poor download numbers I’m getting for my three apps on the Windows Mobile Marketplace. It could have been the total confusion I’m seeing within Microsoft about overlapping projects (FolderShare vs SkyDrive vs Live Mesh vs My Phone, Azure vs Live Framework, Win32 vs WinForms vs WPF vs Silverlight, WebForms vs MVC, etc). It could have been the disgust I have for Mr. Balmer, though I’m sure he works hard.

No. The hit came from behind. It came from a source I did not expect. I can still hear her sentence, thrown like a banality, just like when she talks to me about gossips.

“Why don’t you make your little applications for the iPhone? You’d have more success.”

Bam. I was stunt. My wife, that wonderfully non-technically versed, non-gadget prone person I share my life with was just stabbing me in the back… And I couldn’t answer. To keep the face and the technical superiority I’m suppose to have over her, I tried to made a “honey, what do you know about all this?” kind-of-face, and said without thinking “it would cost me a lot of money to jump in that boat, and I would have to relearn everything. I’m not ready for this.”.

Translation: I could not justify the purchase of a Tablet PC and a new Windows Mobile phone in the past months, and I’m too damn lazy to learn something new.

And I kept thinking about this the whole weekend. I felt stupid. I felt ashamed. I felt exposed and vulnerable. The reasons for me to keep developing for the Windows and Windows Mobile platforms were just a “façade” in front of my laziness and comfort. Am I doing the wrong thing by staying in that comfort zone?

I dug deeper and deeper, trying to convince myself I could not be THAT lazy, and finally pinpointed the true explanation for me to hold onto the Windows Mobile platform. Simple and sincere attachment to Microsoft, and a true desire to see them succeed. If I’m still developing for Windows Mobile, it’s not because I think they will succeed, it’s because I want them to succeed.

They spoiled me with the best development tools, an awesome managed framework, a huge developer community, tons of sample code and a new openness that makes you feel part of the gang.

In the meantime, they forgot about actual users and their own perception. While Balmer was busy shouting “developers, developers, developers” in one room, and talk to big corporations in another, the simple general public user was forgotten by Microsoft. Their new desktop OS, Vista, almost crumbled after MS decided it was more important to be secure than usable. And their mobile OS was forgotten in a closet, accumulating dust and a bad odour.

Today, Tuesday October the 20th, 2009, as a developer, I’m shouting from the deepest of my heart: Microsoft, stop thinking like developers, stop thinking like evangelists or regional directors. Put your “general user” shoes and hat, and act. Don’t talk. Act. Straighten up you act, I should say. Clean up the complete mess you are displaying with those overlapping product ideas that rarely come to completion. Simplify your offerings into simple and user-friendly products and terms. Force developers to use APIs that will make the user the most important target, not the developer’s comfort. Give us a unified and up to date API to address the users’ demands. Consolidate your Windows Mobile, Zune and Windows Phone offerings once and for all under one roof, with the best framework you can give developers so they can concentrate on users.

I will not wait until 2010 to make a final decision between Windows Mobile and the iPhone. Show me… no… prove me before the end of the year that you have a consolidated and ubiquitous vision of the Windows Phone, the Zune brand, their respective Marketplace and Silverlight development. I’m not ready to wait any longer. I’ve waited enough. It’s now or never.

My friend Odi and I were “chattwitting” about a possible Apple Netbook or Tablet PC, and we didn’t have the same vision about what that computer would look like. I could not imagine there was a big enough market for a Tablet-only computer for the market-savvy Apple.

Because I wanted to explore development of multi-touch applications, I didn’t hesitate buying myself a Tablet PC. It’s a convertible laptop, as I wanted this computer to replace my current laptop. Anyway, nobody could use a Tablet like a laptop, right?

Well, I decided to try it, for a week. I’m sure that’s enough to get the idea. That week already started, with the installation of Windows Live Writer, and creation of this post, fully written with the on-screen keyboard. I can already say that typing with the on-screen keyboard is far from optimal, not much better than those phone keyboards. The #1 problem is when typing the same letter twice. If you double-tap too fast, only one letter is typed. Also, because the keyboard window can (and must) be moved, your fingers don’t get the hang of positions.

Another thing I miss is quick access to slimKEYS and its slimLAUNCH extension. It would make more sense to have an icon in the taskbar to open slimLAUNCH. It still works with the on-screen keyboard but takes more time.

Right clicks can also become a problem. Normally, you can tap-and-hold and wait for imitating it, but it does not always work, or is imprecise. Take Windows Live Writer for example: correcting typos with those red underlines is difficult since it often thinks you’re tapping a line below.

Finally, every time you need to enter text in a textbox and the keyboard isn’t visible, three taps are necessary, a little excessive, but I didn’t check the options yet.

During this week, I’ll be trying the following tasks (and more):

• Read and post on Twitter.
• Read and write emails with Gmail.
• Surf the web.
• Listen to music with Windows Media Player.

I won’t stop myself from using the stylus, but instead compare touch and stylus head to head.

See ya in a week, or on Twitter.

Brant, a fellow developer and slimKEYS user was asking me how slimKEYS was auto-updating itself. I thought this would make a good blog post, so here is my answer, Brant!

The installer

Because I’m exposing a plug-in interface (and I’m too lazy trying to figure out how click-once would fit in this scenario), I’m not using click-once, but instead relying only on the installer being smart enough to uninstall any old version and install the new one. With modern installer makers, this is pretty straightforward. Simply make sure to generate a new GUID every time you change the version number. I’m using Advanced Installer, and it automatically suggests me this when I change the version.

The second gotcha is correctly closing any existing slimKEYS process before the installation proceeds. Because slimKEYS does not have a real visible main window, relying on a simple WM_QUIT wasn’t always working for me. Honestly, I should have kept trying this method, but instead decided to go with a custom closing mechanism. When slimKEYS starts, it calls the RegisterWindowMessage like this:

m_stopMessage = Win32.User32.RegisterWindowMessage( "StopSlimKeys" );

In the main form’s WndProc, I have this very simple and explicit code:

else if( m.Msg == (int) m_stopMessage )
{
  Application.Exit();
}

You can think of this as a placeholder in case one day I want to perform some special task when closing because of uninstallation. For the installer part, I created a very simple DLL which is broadcasting the same message to all processes, like this:

extern "C" STOPSLIMKEYS_API void StopSlimKeys( void )
{
  UINT uMessage = RegisterWindowMessage( L"StopSlimKeys" );

  SendMessage( HWND_BROADCAST, uMessage, 0, 0 );
}

I’m deliberately using SendMessage with the special HWND_BROADCAST handle, since I had less success using BroadcastSystemMessage{Ex} on both Windows XP and Vista. Go figure!

Another OS-related problem I had to fight a lot with during the past years is when to call this custom DLL in the installer phases. Broadcasting this message seems to require my custom DLL to be running elevated. The earliest step is under InstallSequence/FindRelatedProducts. Unfortunately, under Vista, a new “Close running process” dialog appears before that step. Bummer. Turns out you can run a custom action under the InstallUISequence/FindRelatedProducts. This occurs after elevation, but before that special Vista prompt. But not so fast! Under XP, you still need to call your custom action under InstallSequence. That’s why my installer is calling my custom action twice!

Having packaged my installer into an EXE requiring elevation in the first place would have saved me all this trouble, but I initially went for an MSI, and spread an URL with that extension to many sites. I had to live and die with an MSI.

The updater

Now that my installer behaves correctly when updating a running version of slimKEYS, all I need to do is download the latest package if a newer version is available. You’re probably already thinking about some XML file you could check via HTTP, with version information and small descriptions. If you’re using Advanced Installer, stop trying to reinvent the wheel, that’s already supported.

When creating your package, you can enable “Advanced Updater”. This will generate and embed into the MSI two sibbling EXE and INI files. If you check your slimKEYS install folder, you can see files slimCODE.slimKEYS.AutoUpdate.exe and slimCODE.slimKEYS.AutoUpdate.ini. Take a peek at the INI file, you’ll see a line like this:

URL=http://www.slimcode.com/slimkeys/downloads/updates.ini

That’s the file I’m changing every time a new MSI is available. You can easily manage that INI file with Advanced Installer, by creating a new “Updates Configuration” project.

The glue between

So my MSI is installing a nice slimCODE.slimKEYS.AutoUpdate.exe file with my other executable. It will serve very little if nobody runs that program! And nobody calls it automatically either. You have to execute that file, or tell the MSI to add a Windows scheduled task. I’m not a fan of the later option. Turns out slimKEYS does look for and execute that file every time you start slimKEYS. Because the INI says to check once a day, running that file many times a day won’t cause multiple checks.

private void CheckForUpdates()
{
  try
  {
    string updaterFilename = Path.Combine(
      Path.GetDirectoryName( Application.ExecutablePath ),
      "slimCODE.slimKEYS.AutoUpdate.exe" );

    if( File.Exists( updaterFilename ) )
    {
      System.Diagnostics.Process.Start( updaterFilename, "/silent" );
    }
  }
  catch( Exception except )
  {
    System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine( "[EX] MainMessageForm.CheckForUpdates:" );
    System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine( except.Message );
  }
}

I hope this sheds some light on how slimKEYS updates itself. Oh, and remember to keep calling that updater file!

In case you haven't heard yet, slimKEYS is now free to use. Totally free. No catch, No ads, no malware, nothing.

Why would someone earning money from a product decide to make it suddenly free?

Because I never made any money with slimKEYS.

Now, you're probably thinking "slimCODE decided to make slimKEYS free so they can stop putting energy on it", right?

Is this the end of slimKEYS?

No way! For a simple reason: I'm the number one customer myself. I couldn't work on a computer without slimKEYS.

Then, why not leave it at 15$?

Because I still dream of seeing slimKEYS becoming a successful product, and I realize my definition of "successful" isn't based on the amount of money I can bring in with slimKEYS, but more with the number of users I can gather. The equation is obvious:

• I'll never make a fortune with slimKEYS, never.
• I want to continue to work on slimKEYS.
• I need motivation in order to work on a product.

So my last attempt in keeping motivation is to make it used by more and more people. And for that, I'll need help from the current very loyal users. Spread the word! Blog it, tweet it! slimKEYS is free, and there's no catch.

And if people still think it deserves money, it's always possible to make donations.

And besides, if I can't make money with it, why not drive traffic at least?

But I paid for slimKEYS! That's not fair!

I agree, it's not fair for those who paid. If you really feel betrayed, you can ask a refund. If you really think that back then, slimKEYS was worth something, but now it doesn't, even some small donation, I'll gladly refund.

Just send me an email with your registration information.

Why not make it open source?

The answer should now be obvious: I still want full control and ownership of the hard work I've put into slimKEYS. Else, motivation would drain away a little more. Starting an open source project is a logical pattern. Turning a 4+ years old project into open source is resignation.

Maybe one day. Once the user base is strong enough? Maybe.

How do you pay your bills, then?

I hope this does not surprise you, but slimKEYS is not my only professional activity. I do contracts for custom development, and I also work on other product ideas (too many, must focus!). I'm leaning toward mobile development. For example, I have slimPASSWORD for Windows Mobile coming soon, for opening your slimLAUNCH.Passwords file on your phone. I also have two other Windows Mobile apps in the oven.

As for DutchTab for Windows Mobile, still at 5$, it will also become free in a few weeks, with a small update. I don't think my two customers will mind.

I'm an HTC P4000 owner, and I really like having a phone with a sliding keyboard. I had my eyes on the new HTC Touch Pro for a couple weeks now, but I just noticed (via @wmdev) that HTC released a second generation Touch Pro, called Touch Pro2 (what did you expect for a name?). I have nothing against multiple generations, they are a sign a company is evolving and improving. The Touch Pro was available since only a couple months. Why release a Pro2 so early? Is the first gen buggy? Is there something we should know about it?

Looking at the sales pitch for the Pro2, it looks like the only improvement is the conference call features. It's about the only thing they brag about. I decided to compare both specs to get a better glimpse at the differences.

• The Pro is smaller in width and height (102 x 51 mm) than the Pro2 (116 x 59 mm), but is actually thicker (18 mm versus 17.25 mm), which is not apparent when looking at photos.
• The display screen is way bigger on the Pro2, at 3.6" instead of 2.8". This enables a better resolution of 480x800 (WVGA) on the Pro2, versus the 480x640 (VGA) resolution for the Pro.
• The Pro2 is slightly heavier at 175 grams, only 10 more than the Pro at 165 grams. But with a bigger body and screen, that's expected.
• The Pro2's sliding screen can be tilt for better viewing.
• The battery in the Pro2 has a 1500 mAh capacity instead of 1340 mAh for the Pro, but with a WVGA resolution to drive, it shortens the Pro2's use time on WCDMA networks from 378 minutes to 270 minutes (that's a lot). Strangely, on GSM networks, it's the same for both devices (I don't get it).

The rest is about the same. 512 MB ROM and 288 MB RAM, almost the same Qualcomm processor at 528 MHz (7200A for the Pro2, 7201A for the Pro).

HTC should really push more the fact it has a bigger screen and better resolution. Those are far more important features for me than conference calls. I was preparing myself to buy a Touch Pro so that I could play with G-Sensor development. I think I'll wait for the Pro2!