Spent some time really working with the new build for the first time (on another PC,) and came up with a few things that might be of note. Figure this is the only chance I'll get to maybe get a feature or two thrown in that would help my studying (and I would hope, others as well), so, here goes. Some bugs, some feature requests, some thoughts, and then a general mishmash. Take what you like, ignore what you don't :P. Would love to see a few of the Learn Mode features in though, since I practically live there.
Cosmetic
Global: Menu fade-in: Follow XP registry settings, or option to disable
Global: Personalized menus: Follow XP registry settings, or option to disable
Main toolbar: Drop-down for "Stackz Language Settings": At one point, the spacing between each language ("English?/?Japanese?/...) was too tight or the font was too big. This resulted in: "Enolish", "Jaoanese", "Chinese Simolified", etc. Funnily enough however, this changed to 'normal' a bit later in the session, and everything was visible and spaced nicely.
File options: When clicking between flags via the radio buttons, the English non-flag doesn't completely erase previous flags ? the top & bottom borders remain visible (1 line of pixels maybe, each side)
File options: ColorMode tab: ?Advanced...? button position overlaps ?Options? frame
File options: Ability to change the colour of the Unknown & Old items in the RepeatAdvisor? Currently grey & orange respectively.
Main display: Clicking either of the two half-shields (top-right of "x day reserve", and top left of unknown area - top bar) produces an hourglass, and seemingly does nothing?
Learn Mode: When stack has no remaining elements except for what's on the local stack, and CTRL is pressed, 'add entry to local stack' becomes enabled. However, there are no elements left to add.
Learn Mode: The area around the 5-way controls is not redrawing correctly. When alt-tabbing between applications, the previous window's text/screen is visible around these five buttons.
Main Display: Ability to rename columns (?unknown?/?bad?/etc.) May not apply to how each individual uses the application.
Functional
Learn Mode: Option to hide numbers on left side representing location in local stack. Tendency to associate the number (or relative location of blue highlight bar) with answer, and not the word being studied.
Learn Mode: Sort modes: A display/sort order that cycles through all x elements in the local stack randomly, but won't repeat any elements until all elements have been displayed at least once. Example: On stack: A,B,C,D,E. Current random could be: ACABABCDADACE. "E" essentially starves. Mode 2: ACDBE/BCEDA/ABCED/DECAB/DBCEA/etc.
Learn Mode: Sort modes: Time-based mode - track time taken to answer each element, and show in worst-to-best order. E.g. in ABCD: A(10s),B(5s),C(2s),D(6s) / A(7s),D(4s),B(5s),C(3s) / A(2s),B(4s),D(1s),C(2s), B(),D(),C(),A(),...
Learn Mode: Key combo to mark current element as wrong/right (affecting right/wrong stats) without adjusting position in main stacks. Alt+click / Alt+left, etc. Useful in SuccessRatio modes, when you don?t want to necessarily move the element to the next stack yet.
Learn Mode: Since the four lines displaying elements aren't editable, prevent them from taking cursor input when clicked upon. Unless it's there for cut & paste, in which case automatically copy to clipboard on select, & return focus to the five buttons at the bottom. For keyboard users, there's no way to tab out of that area w/o clicking down among the five buttons.
Learn Mode: Method to remove current element from local stack, without adjusting known/unknown status or adding a new element in its place. There are occasions when it?s nice to remove a known element, without having to complicate the mix with a new unlearned one.
Learn Mode: When closing via X in corner, if main Windows Z-order was changed it will jump to previous window in order. To replicate: Open Learn dialog, alt-tab to notepad, alt-tab back to Stackz, hit X ? and notepad appears (not the main Stackz window.)
File options: On initial load, one of either Sorted/Random radios is enabled. However, after clicking the language radios, both Sorted/Random radios disappear. All part of the same series I presume? What do the language radios do?
Main Display: Hitting [enter] on a selected stack does nothing. Might be nice to perform default action (unknown - learn, other - test, ?)
Main Display: Ability to add multiple columns. Probably not going to happen, however? I generally use the RepeatAdvisor, with custom refresh intervals for the days. However, 5 columns = 5 intervals. With larger Stackz (thousands of entries), it would be nice to extend this to 6+, for the ?known but will probably forget a month from now? ones. Currently only achieved by creating two stackz, & some manual labour.
'k, that's it ;D
lol, I lied... Two more:
Learn Mode: When starting learn mode, it seems to sort the initial order by date-last-studied, and randomize on same date. So, for elements that have never been studied, each time you enter learning mode the order is completely randomized. Would be great if there was some pre-defined order (even a random one, so long as it doesn't change.) Reason being, say you study for 15min the first 5 of 15 elements in a stack. If you come back later, you can't resume since the ordering changes each time - so you can't build on what you've already worked on, and instead end up working on a different set of elements.
General: Running a .szm file (in this case, from the desktop) sometimes causes an error and doesn't open the file (Stackz continues to open fine however). For some reason I can't replicate at the moment - it's actually opening fine in Stackz, and I didn't jot down the error. Anyway, just in case someone else reports it as well.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: The area around the 5-way controls is not redrawing correctly. When alt-tabbing between applications, the previous window's text/screen is visible around these five buttons.
I see this too. In my case, Vista, with "Desktop Theme" set to Windows Standard or Windows Classic. When the test dialogue is opened, these little spaces between these buttons don't draw correctly. Sometimes they are white, sometimes they are "transparent", as this poster describes. (learn and match dialogues too)
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Sort modes: A display/sort order that cycles through all x elements in the local stack randomly, but won't repeat any elements until all elements have been displayed at least once. Example: On stack: A,B,C,D,E. Current random could be: ACABABCDADACE. "E" essentially starves. Mode 2: ACDBE/BCEDA/ABCED/DECAB/DBCEA/etc.
I agree.
Big thanks for those comments, also the minor ones. You seem to know Stackz quite well indeed! :-)
Many of the issues are details that are on my todo list but I have not yet found the time to attack these details.
CosmeticQuote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Main display: Clicking either of the two half-shields (top-right of "x day reserve", and top left of unknown area - top bar) produces an hourglass, and seemingly does nothing?
This was fixed in beta 3.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: When stack has no remaining elements except for what's on the local stack, and CTRL is pressed, 'add entry to local stack' becomes enabled. However, there are no elements left to add.
Ctrl has no function anymore in this dialog, this should be removed. Thanks for pointing this out!
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: The area around the 5-way controls is not redrawing correctly. When alt-tabbing between applications, the previous window's text/screen is visible around these five buttons.
This has been reported before, but I can't duplicate it...
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Main Display: Ability to rename columns (?unknown?/?bad?/etc.) May not apply to how each individual uses the application.
In preparation...
FunctionalQuote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Option to hide numbers on left side representing location in local stack. Tendency to associate the number (or relative location of blue highlight bar) with answer, and not the word being studied.
An option to use dots or stars instead of the numbers is planned for the file config with a low priority.
Association is considered as very minor risk - it may be rather helpful in the first desperate attempt to learn a new card. The number will be different in the next learning session. Moreover, the longer the card stays in this dialog, the less it is mastered thus the more the number helps. The better the card is known, the quicker it will leave the dialog, and the number becomes irrelevant... still, a change is planned.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Sort modes: A display/sort order that cycles through all x elements in the local stack randomly, but won't repeat any elements until all elements have been displayed at least once. Example: On stack: A,B,C,D,E. Current random could be: ACABABCDADACE. "E" essentially starves. Mode 2: ACDBE/BCEDA/ABCED/DECAB/DBCEA/etc.
This has been on the list for a long time, it just did not make it into this release.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Sort modes: Time-based mode - track time taken to answer each element, and show in worst-to-best order. E.g. in ABCD: A(10s),B(5s),C(2s),D(6s) / A(7s),D(4s),B(5s),C(3s) / A(2s),B(4s),D(1s),C(2s), B(),D(),C(),A(),...
Interesting idea!
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Key combo to mark current element as wrong/right (affecting right/wrong stats) without adjusting position in main stacks. Alt+click / Alt+left, etc. Useful in SuccessRatio modes, when you don?t want to necessarily move the element to the next stack yet.
We had previously discussed such things internally. The cons are: Function overload. Breaks the simple general stakz concept (moving cards) where the known cards can be retrieved on the right side, instead introduces a completely differnent way of using Stackz. This makes the whole sytem more difficult to learn for new users. In addition, uses hidden functionality to the dialog (alt key), or adds gui complexity if not done with auxilary buttons (both ways will be difficult on a mobile device with stylus and small screen). The better way would probably to officially add a new mode where the buttons have a differnt functionality consistently, but that's not done quickly. Generally, we want to keep it simple and not overload it with too many functions.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Since the four lines displaying elements aren't editable, prevent them from taking cursor input when clicked upon. Unless it's there for cut & paste, in which case automatically copy to clipboard on select, & return focus to the five buttons at the bottom. For keyboard users, there's no way to tab out of that area w/o clicking down among the five buttons.
Known issue. We don't want to do things like automatic copy on click however because that's a hidden, non standard function, and there may be situations where you don't want to copy the entire text. You can't currently put the foucs back on the buttons without mouse, yes - but you can't take it away from there without mouse either (you can't copy text without mouse - another restriction). This will be improved some day.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: Method to remove current element from local stack, without adjusting known/unknown status or adding a new element in its place. There are occasions when it?s nice to remove a known element, without having to complicate the mix with a new unlearned one.
Yes - at the price of introducing another button. Functionality versus simplicity...
There is a workaround, switch to the "direct initialization" and back to the "graudual initialization", then you re-start with just one element. This is not really in the sense of the inventor though, but I use this myself in the situation you are referring to.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
File options: On initial load, one of either Sorted/Random radios is enabled. However, after clicking the language radios, both Sorted/Random radios disappear. All part of the same series I presume? What do the language radios do?
Not sure which radios you mean... has been redesigned for beta 3. Please ignore the radios on the first page of the lesson options, they will be removed.
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Main Display: Ability to add multiple columns. Probably not going to happen, however? I generally use the RepeatAdvisor, with custom refresh intervals for the days. However, 5 columns = 5 intervals. With larger Stackz (thousands of entries), it would be nice to extend this to 6+, for the ?known but will probably forget a month from now? ones. Currently only achieved by creating two stackz, & some manual labour.
This has been requested before, we don't plan to do it currently... again, complexity vs simplicity. We more go into the direction of adding flags to the cards (i.e. "excluded from review", or maybe even "exclude for the next 3 months". The RetentionManger with its exclusion range was the first step into this direction where the study tools don't include all selected cards in the process.
Quote from: Abi
Learn Mode: When starting learn mode, it seems to sort the initial order by date-last-studied, and randomize on same date. So, for elements that have never been studied, each time you enter learning mode the order is completely randomized. Would be great if there was some pre-defined order (even a random one, so long as it doesn't change.) Reason being, say you study for 15min the first 5 of 15 elements in a stack. If you come back later, you can't resume since the ordering changes each time - so you can't build on what you've already worked on, and instead end up working on a different set of elements.
You can use the "DefinedOrder" ColorMode in this use case. You can define the defined order in the Stackz edit dialog.
Thanks again for all that feedback!
Quote from: Chris on June 10, 2007, 11:15:20 AM
Quote from: Abi on June 07, 2007, 03:58:27 AM
Learn Mode: The area around the 5-way controls is not redrawing correctly. When alt-tabbing between applications, the previous window's text/screen is visible around these five buttons.
This has been reported before, but I can't duplicate it...
I have some more specific observations. (And some non-specific!)
Beta 4 Standard Edition, Vista. Windows desktop theme: any. Stackz GUI theme: any.
Upon opening a dialogue having these buttons, these areas (the button backgrounds?) do not paint.
1.
**Giving the maximize command** to the open dialogue, with the button on the upper right, causes these areas to paint. Upon closing and re-opening the dialogue, whether maximized or not, it doesn't repaint. Minimizing and Restoring doesn't work. Dragging it doesn't work either. I think this is a good clue. I don't know how you can fix this if you can't see it, but this seems very clear-cut. (You may send attempted fixes to me, if you want to.)
2.
This makes it paint: Open a window belonging to the Windows *operating system*, such as the Start menu or Control Panel, over the buttons.
This makes it unpaint: Open or drag over it an application not belonging to the operating system, such as Notepad. Here the button backgrounds take on the Notepad window's background and/or border colors. Any *text* in Notepad is not left behind.
I'm not an expert, so please forgive what follows if it is nonsense. It is a guess...
It is an inheritance error with regard to the ownership of these button backgrounds, and the responsibility for repainting them. Guessing: Windows doesn't know, or is misinformed, about who owns these areas, but *the parent window*, Stackz, does know. So when Stackz is told, by Windows, to repaint its children, it can. Guessing: But Notepad does not have the authority to tell Stackz to repaint its children. But somebody should...but the responsible process hasn't been told...
3.
Are these buttons drawn with rectangular "transparent" backgrounds? That would make them dependent upon the underlying window to paint those areas. Guess: But the underlying window wrongly thinks, sometimes, that those rectangular areas are taken care of by the button-image. OR, it is painting out of order. How does the repainting caused by the maximize button differ from a repainting that should happen when Notepad passes over?
No more guessing from me, I promise.
End.