slimCODE

Hey guys. slimKeys looks great so far. Currently, I am a SlickRun user (um, am I allowed to say that here?) evaluating slimKeys before I plunk down my barely earned money. I really like what I see so far, as it goes way beyond the aforementioned unmentionable.

One question, though. I miss my "Magic Words" from SlickRun. slimLaunch seems like the logical replacement, but it is not so easy to add commands if they are not already in the "Matching Items" list. Unlike your comment on using "pnet" to launch "Paint.NET" from the shortcut in the Start Menu,  I might want to tie a "taskmgr" to the Windows Task Manager or "addremove" to the "Add Remove Programs" Control Panel applet. Neither of these are all that easily done. Basically, I want to be able to use the ALT-ENTER feature to tie a command to anything I want: give me a textbox to enter a path or URL or something. Finally, my question: is there a simple way to use slimLaunch's ALT+ENTER feature to tie a command to a path or URL that I specify rather limiting the command targets to entries in the "Matching Items" list?

 If the answer is "no", I am eager to write a "Magic Words" plugin.
 

The way you would like it, the answer is "no". Currently, the only way to create a magic word is via slimLAUNCH and Alt-Enter. It wouldn't be difficult for me to add such an option. The only problem I see is that a slimLAUNCH hotkey is bound to its sources, a list of monitored paths. These paths can be a single filename. This means I could add a hotkey for specifying custom filenames and commands (the magic word) that would get added to the source explicitly. For the moment, what you can do is add a new FileSystem source to your slimLAUNCH hotkey, select a "user-specified path", enter the file's path in the "path" field and the file's name in the "restricting file masks" field, making sure to uncheck the "also look in subfolders" option. Then you have to do the Alt-Enter trick the first time.
 This is painful, but should do the job until I add such a feature.

Thanks for the hint!

Hmm, I'm a little mystified as to why I can't configure things the way you've specified. I've add "System" as the Folder type, set "*.exe|*.cpl" as the Restricting File Mask, and slimLaunch finds nothing when I type "taskmgr". Equally mystifying is that I've selected "User-specified path" for Folder Type,  "C:\David\Visual Studio Projects" for Path, "Files only" for Include, and "*.sln" for Restricting File Mask, but slimLaunch finds none of my VS.NET solutions.

Am I misinterpreting something?

I think I never let the installer finish running. The SlimKeys directory in my Program Files does not contain the executable, so I was running the app from memory. I've run the installation again, and slimKEYS Setup does not seem to be making much progress beyond the "... This may take several minutes." page. I will let it sit there for a while this time, but the installer doesn't seem to want to finish. It uses 0% of the CPU.

Just plunked down my money, as I like it alot and know I will be a royal pain in the butt asking questions.

I might have to try my hand at writing a "magic words" plugin. One thing I notice is that the ALT+ENTER feature only allows one command per item. Is item the correct term? I'm interested in having two shortcuts for Firefox: one that runs as one user and one that runs as another. Same thing with the apps I write for work: one shortcut for an admin and one shortcut for a limited user. This does not seem possible.

Where does slimLaunch store the items and commands? I looked in slimKEYS.config, but all I saw was the "LaunchedItems". I take it we are advised not to edit this config file, right? I tried adding a second FileSystemItem in the LaunchedItems section for Firefox, but it does not show up in the slimLaunch UI after a restart.

 Again, great app. I'll be quiet now. At least, until I start working on that plugin.
 

That's indeed very strange. These are the files you should see under the "slimKEYS" installation folder:

End-User License Agreement.txt
slimCODE.slimKEYS.AutoUpdate.exe
slimCODE.slimKEYS.AutoUpdate.ini
slimCODE.slimKEYS.Common.dll
slimCODE.slimKEYS.Common.xml
slimCODE.slimKEYS.exe
slimCODE.slimLAUNCH.Common.dll
slimCODE.slimLAUNCH.Common.xml
slimCODE.Win32.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimGRAB.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimLAUNCH.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimLAUNCH.FileSystem.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimLAUNCH.Passwords.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimPASTE.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimSEARCH.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimSIZE.dll
plugins\slimCODE.slimVOLUME.dll

First, can you tell me what version of Windows you are running? Second, do you see a slimKEYS entry in the "Add and remove programs"? If so, can you try uninstalling and reinstalling it?

If you open the main slimKEYS window, and press the third toolbar button, do you see eight entries, each checked?

Finally, if you are installing on Vista, make sure NOT to run slimKEYS from the installer at the end, because this will run slimKEYS with  admin credentials.

You can't have two commands for a single item. slimLAUNCH.FileSystem will return only one item per file it sees on your drive, not per "LaunchedItem" entry in the config. It may work if you explicitly add a second FileSystem source to your slimLAUNCH hotkey, though I didn't test this. I'll see how this can be supported more easily.

Please, don't be quiet! Speak! It's with suggestions like these that the product will adapt to the users' needs, not the developer's need! And thank you very much for your purchase!

Those binaries are there now and slimKEYS works as one would expect, but the installation process still never came to a complete stop. It sat there for a good half-hour doing nothing. Task Manager showed three msiexec processes, which I killed one by one. At the end, slimKEYS works fine and remembers all the configuration changes I make at runtime.

Here are the answers to your questions:

1. Windows XP Pro, SP2.

2. No, I do not see slimKEYS in "Add and Remove Programs".

3. Yes, eight plugins, all checked.

4. I installed with admin privileges on Windows XP Pro, SP2.  The installer never came to a complete stop. The progress  bar  stayed at 100%, but I never got the final page of the installation wizard with the "Finish" button.
 

I tried your suggestion of creating a second FileSystem source, which works. When I used ALT+ESC to associate the alternate command to this item from the second source, slimKEYS threw some kind of ObjectSynchronizationException. The message balloon disappeared before I got a good look at what it said. I'll send you any log file you might want to look at.

This is easy for me to test. Let's not waste your time on this, since I'll work on a way to allow two commands much more easily, and will have to spend time testing this functionality anyway.

Thanks a lot.