[King Kovifor]

Hello,

Some may consider this to be spam, but I am looking for a good trustworthy group to mess with my application and give feedback on how I can improve it.

If you would like to help me (if not I will not be offended), these are the requirements:

• Leopard-only
• Use iTunes as primary music player

If you would like to help, you can download it by clicking on "1.0.6" at this website:

http://spartantechnologies.googlepages.com/

Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks,
King Kovifor

EDIT: Sorry, wrong forum. I thought I was in third-party products!

[kieran]

It looks like a good program.

I just try not to use anything up in the Menu Bar. I like that to be as clean as possible. Plus, I don't have Leopard.

[Wyatt]

That does look pretty cool. I try to keep my menu bar empty, too, but I might try this out when I get back to my office tomorrow (just a PC at home right now).

I would suggest some keyboard shortcuts for all the controls in the dropdown. I think that could make the application useful for even more people.

[Yonzie]

I run Leopard (10.5.1) on the desktop in my signature.
I started the app before I started iTunes, and it didn't do anything except display the song name. Couldn't use it, couldn't close it.
Force-quit and re-started your app and it worked.
I like it. A lot actually.
Bad stuff:
If iTunes isn't running, it should be able to start it.
If iTunes hasn't played a song yet, your app crashes on launch.
When i choose "Quit iTunes", only iTunes should quit, and it should change to an icon in the menu bar so that I can "remotely" start iTunes.
In any case, there's no need for your app to quit (except that it only works when started after iTunes)
If at all possible, the number of stars should be actual stars, and one should be able to rate the currently playing song.

Sounds bad, but you're off to a great start. I like it!

[King Kovifor]

Originally Posted by kieran23kk It looks like a good program. I just try not to use anything up in the Menu Bar. I like that to be as clean as possible. Plus, I don't have Leopard.

Thanks for the feedback, but it is one of the only non-Apple menus that I actually use.

Originally Posted by fcgriz That does look pretty cool. I try to keep my menu bar empty, too, but I might try this out when I get back to my office tomorrow (just a PC at home right now). I would suggest some keyboard shortcuts for all the controls in the dropdown. I think that could make the application useful for even more people.

I need to figure out how to make keyboard shortcuts available through a system wide no matter what application you are in before I could add those, but that is a good idea.

Originally Posted by Yonzie I run Leopard (10.5.1) on the desktop in my signature. I started the app before I started iTunes, and it didn't do anything except display the song name. Couldn't use it, couldn't close it. Force-quit and re-started your app and it worked. I like it. A lot actually. Bad stuff: If iTunes isn't running, it should be able to start it. If iTunes hasn't played a song yet, your app crashes on launch. When i choose "Quit iTunes", only iTunes should quit, and it should change to an icon in the menu bar so that I can "remotely" start iTunes. In any case, there's no need for your app to quit (except that it only works when started after iTunes) If at all possible, the number of stars should be actual stars, and one should be able to rate the currently playing song. Sounds bad, but you're off to a great start. I like it!

I will handle your amazing feedback one by one:

Starting the application before iTunes was something that I noticed after I released that. When I open the application, and if it realizes that iTunes is not running, all it did was make the menu bar, and never actually created the menu, so trying to open it was impossible because I never created the menu. I have already fixed this within v1.1.0 Beta 1 which is my current development version. (This takes care of the if iTunes is not running, my app won't be able to work).

I know about crashing if iTunes isn't playing. I just haven't found a work around yet.

The reason "Quit iTunes" quits both Tune-A-Holic AND iTunes is because if iTunes is quit after Tune-A-Holic has started up, the program will stall and crash because iTunes isn't sending notifications and Tune-A-Holic is not finding any notifications to go off of. So yes, as of right now, there is a need for Tune-A-Holic to quit because if not it will stall.

I need to figure out how to set ratings and such and how to use images in the menu bar item. If that happens, that was my actual intention from the start. So I hope to be figuring that out sooner or later. lol.

And the feedback actually helped me on a bit. Good criticism, in my eyes, is the only way that something can be made better because nothing is perfect.

[Yonzie]

Originally Posted by King Kovifor I know about crashing if iTunes isn't playing. I just haven't found a work around yet.

Exception handling? try {...} catch ? something like that In any case, it's good that it's learning experience. In a few years you'll look back and wonder WTH you were thinking

Originally Posted by King Kovifor I need to figure out how to set ratings and such and how to use images in the menu bar item. If that happens, that was my actual intention from the start. So I hope to be figuring that out sooner or later. lol.

Well, it's a minor issue. Take a look at iTunesRating (the developer is unfortunately MIA and no source) (might not work on Leopard)

[King Kovifor]

Originally Posted by Yonzie Exception handling? try {...} catch ? something like that In any case, it's good that it's learning experience. In a few years you'll look back and wonder WTH you were thinking Well, it's a minor issue. Take a look at iTunesRating (the developer is unfortunately MIA and no source) (might not work on Leopard)

I am not familiar with exception handling, but I will look in my reference book for it. So thanks for that. And I will look at iTunesRating, but since Scripting Bridge was introduced, I am not sure if there is actually a setRating: function or something like it. I am working on lyrics support right now so... I haven't had time to mess with ratings.

[alcimedes]

Actually you might want to start a sister thread in the programmer's nook. We have some decent programmers at AN.

[King Kovifor]

I will do that. Thanks... Can't wait for more feedback! And will you move this to the correct forum please?

[Fahrenheit]

Very impressive. Although I personally would like no dock icon. Also I would like it just to not say anything if iTunes isn't running.

[King Kovifor]

Originally Posted by Farenheit Very impressive. Although I personally would like no dock icon. Also I would like it just to not say anything if iTunes isn't running.

I thought about doing that, but I think once I get this done with (the new version) I might add settings with things like what to say. And I don't know how to run an application with no dock icon so that isn't an option right now.

[Yonzie]

You seem to have a bug:


Only happens sometimes, only on some songs, and only the first time after that song starts. Seems to be related to a general positioning-issue:


Also, the menu item should stay at the very left of the various icons. For menubar hints, you may want to look at Quicksilver, I think it was recently open-sourced and it does a lot of the menu-bar stuff you want.

This app does much the same as right-clicking the iTunes icon, but for some reason it's nicer to use...

[King Kovifor]

Originally Posted by Yonzie You seem to have a bug: Only happens sometimes, only on some songs, and only the first time after that song starts. Seems to be related to a general positioning-issue: Also, the menu item should stay at the very left of the various icons. For menubar hints, you may want to look at Quicksilver, I think it was recently open-sourced and it does a lot of the menu-bar stuff you want. This app does much the same as right-clicking the iTunes icon, but for some reason it's nicer to use...

Cause you have to hold on the iTunes icon. And I noticed that too. I didn't find much of a problem. I think that is the computers fault for trying to do both at the same time. If you let it go for one to two seconds before opening up the menu it seems to work.

And that last little tidbit is pretty nice to know, and makes me want to truly release this, as an official product... Of a company. lol. Oh, and it goes to the left when it is the last thing opened. That is just the way NSMenuExtra (or whatever it is called) works... I could try to make it constant left, but it doesn't actually affect me so I wouldn't think of doing it.

[King Kovifor]

Hey,

I am glad for all the feedback I have gotten, and I would like to tell you that I have updated it to be v1.1.0 and would like feedback on the latest version. It is the same link as before, but you need to click on v1.1.0 instead of v1.0.6... I added a couple new features.

Thanks,
Jeremy

[rollercoaster375]

I like the app (I have a tendency to not learn the names of songs for my music, so that would be quite helpful), but I can tell you it's almost useless to me without dock icon hiding. I can't stand seeing the dock icon for menu bar applications.

[chucker]

http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?LSUIElement

[Kraetos]

I was actually looking for an app to do exactly this about a year ago. The solution I eventually came up with - QuickTunes - is unreliable on Leopard.

That said, once you get the dock hiding down, I'll gladly be an ongoing beta tester for you.

[King Kovifor]

OK. I think I am going to release this without any major changes... I just added the LSUIElement to remove the dock icon. I still keep it in my dock to open it up and stuff...

Edit: Released, I hope you two will give me a ton a feedback so you keep me busy for weeks to come. lol.