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QCE - Observations from the armchair
- QCE - Observations from the armchair
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QCE - Observations from the armchair
joeNOR > 2022-09-15 05:16
Jean, I'm sorry for this long post, but I didn't want to pollute the forum with a series of shorter posts.
Please move this post to the beta thread if I posted in the wrong place. I didn't want to pollute that thread either.
And, please do not take this as me complaining, I'm fully aware that this is an early beta and a work in progress.
Observations
I deliberately use the term "observation", not "bug".
Some of this may be bugs, or missing features (this is a beta after all), or intentional at this point in the development, or me just misunderstanding, or just a suggestion from the armchair.
Currently using: QCE v.0.1.5 Portable.
OS
Works on Window 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2016 Core, Windows Server 2019 Core & GUI.
So, no surprises there.
Minor issue: The center section of the status line, the Line-Char-Pos-Sel info, flickers on all operating systems.
I guess this is QCE constantly updating the status line?
On Win 10/11 it is very minor, on Core it is very visible.
Local VMs, and RDP
The clipboard function works as expected between the host and VMs running locally.
The clipboard function works as expected in RDP-sessions.
So, no surprises there.
Save to Clipboard button, not working without entering a character
F.ex. when using the Change case function the button is greyed out after conversion until I enter a character (space, letter etc).
File --> Save to clipboard works fine.
Clipboard History in QCE
(Slightly revised from my post in the beta thread)
If possible, it would be nice if QCE supported clipboard history to make it independent from tools like Ditto or the Windows Clipboard History feature.
Write history automatically or manually
If history is implemented it would be very useful if there was a choice/setting to:
A. Write history automatically, ie when QCE detects a change on the clipboard.
B. Write history manually, ie the user have to push a button or (preferably) use a hotkey to write the current content to QCE history. (push-to-stack for us old assembler geezers )
Possible limiters/settings for the History function
1. Limit the number of entries, delete oldest first, ie. only store N number of entries in history.
2. Limit based on date, delete/overwrite all entries older than a given date and/or delete/overwrite all entries older than N days.
3. Limited tag support, ie the user can assign some simple user defined tags to the different clips, and then search and/or sort based on the tag.
Menus not working
Options --> Select Editor mouse hotkey
Options --> Select Editor keyboard hotkey
(I guess they are not implemented yet?)
CTRL-S hotkey not working
CTRL-S, save to Clipboard does not work.
I have to push the button or use the menu to save.
Possibly a conflict somewhere, but I am unable to find it.
Hotkey switching between Edit and Save mode
If possible there should be one hotkey to change between Edit mode and Save(d) mode
(While still keeping the CTRL-S since it is pretty much a standard).
Is it possible to use CTRL-E to just toggle between Save(d) and Edit mode?
Right-click menu
Change case
Pops-up a "Yes-No-Ok, got it" box EVERY time.
This gets very old, very fast!
Please, please, please make it possible to disable this in a future release.
Find and replace
Does not actually work if the cursor is placed at the end of the text in the editor.
If the cursor is placed somewhere in the text, the search goes from that point and to the end.
The replace all menu choice works on the whole text, no matter where the cursor is.
Could replace and replace all be merged to one choice/dialog box, f.ex. similar to the replace dialog in Excel or VS Code?
Info text for non-supported formats
I have no clue if this is possible to do, but could there be an info text/placeholder thingy in the editor when the clipboard contains data not supported by QCE?
For example if I copy an image, the editor just goes blank.
As I said elsewhere, QCE is a nifty tool/concept and with some bells and whistles it would be very useful indeed, and make me ditch some other tools I use to handle copying and pasting.
Regards,
joeNOR -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
Jean Lalonde > 2022-09-15 08:59
Thank you for these useful observations, Joe. I'll try to comment on it before leaving for vacation in a few days. -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
joeNOR > 2022-09-15 09:03
No rush, take your time, and I'll appreciate any comments you have AFTER your the vacation!
-jN -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
Jean Lalonde > 2022-09-15 13:54
> Minor issue: The center section of the status line, the Line-Char-Pos-Sel info, flickers on all operating systems.
> On Win 10/11 it is very minor, on Core it is very visible.
On my system, it does not flicker. Not sure what I can do against it.
> I guess this is QCE constantly updating the status line?
Correct.
> Save to Clipboard button, not working without entering a character
> F.ex. when using the Change case function the button is greyed out after conversion until I enter a character (space, letter etc).
The "Save Clipboard" button is normally enabled only when, in Editing mode, something was changed in the editor. In my case, it is enabled after a "Change case" command that changes something.
> Clipboard History in QCE
Noted. Thanks for the updated version.
> Menus not working
> Options --> Select Editor mouse hotkey
> Options --> Select Editor keyboard hotkey
> CTRL-S, save to Clipboard does not work.
These are bugs. Noted.
> Hotkey switching between Edit and Save mode
In Read-only mode, Ctrl+E switch to Editing mode. When in Editing mode, it shows the Edit menu. Not sure it is a good idea to change it to trigger "Save Clipboard". Use Ctrl+S instead.
> Change case
> Pops-up a "Yes-No-Ok, got it" box EVERY time.
> Please, please, please make it possible to disable this in a future release.
Clicking "OK, got it" disable the confirmation dialog box. Is this what you want?
> Find and replace
> Does not actually work if the cursor is placed at the end of the text in the editor.
"Find" and "Find and replace" start at the current cursor location. I think it is standard in editors.
> The replace all menu choice works on the whole text, no matter where the cursor is.
Yes. Or it does it on the selected text only.
> Could replace and replace all be merged to one choice/dialog box, f.ex. similar to the replace dialog in Excel or VS Code?
Yes. All these find and replace commands were quite complex to implement. I kept this integration for later.
> Info text for non-supported formats
There is a small mention in the status bar "Binary", "Empty" or "Empty or binary" when the content cannot be determined (by the technique I use at this time). I could get more detailed info, I think. What other info would like to see about the binary (or non-text) content? Size?
> For example if I copy an image, the editor just goes blank.
This is what is done actually.
---
Thank you Joe for this great beta test report. QCE is not ready for prime time but with your help, we will get there :-) -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
joeNOR > 2022-09-16 04:10
Thanks Jean for your reply!
>The "Save Clipboard" button is normally enabled only when, in Editing mode, something was changed in the editor. In my case, it is enabled after a "Change case" command that changes something.
This doesn't work (for me), the conversion does not enable the Save button, I have to insert a space or letter in the converted text to enable the button.
>Clicking "OK, got it" disable the confirmation dialog box. Is this what you want?
This doesn't work (for me), even if I click "Ok, got it" the dialog box still pop up the next time.
>"Find" and "Find and replace" start at the current cursor location. I think it is standard in editors.
Not in f.ex. VS Code, the Search function lists all entries regardless of where the cursor is.
>There is a small mention in the status bar "Binary", "Empty" or "Empty or binary" when the content cannot be determined (by the technique I use at this time). I could get more detailed info, I think. What other info would like to see about the binary (or non-text) content? Size?
That would be very helpful, but if it is difficult to implement, a simple message in the editor, like "Content not supported" would be great. This is due to my personal workflow (see below) and may or may not be important to users in general.
A personal argument for History support in QCE
This is probably a fringe case, but I'll try to explain why History in QCE is a big deal for me.
Workflow
On my main workstation I run a number of virtual machines, some RDP sessions and a connection to another machine using Parsec.
In effect all these machines shares the clipboard (via the main workstation) and I now run QCE on all of them.
So, if I copy something to the clipboard (from any of the connected machines, or the main workstation) it pops up in QCE on all the other machines because of the connection to the main workstation.
With a History function I can copy something on any machine, quickly switch to the machine where I want to use the copied information, and push it to the (local) History on that machine for later use. A huge benefit imho.
-jN
PS! Sorry for the nagging about History!
-
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
Jean Lalonde > 2022-10-19 13:41
Hi Joe,
Here is an update on your remarks (as of v0.1.7):
INVESTIGATING
- status bar flickering
- "Save Clipboard" not enabled after Change Case -> it seems that I broke the button completely in v0.1.7! Use the "File, Save" menu for now...
DONE
- Change mouse and keyboard hotkeys not working
- "OK, got it" still shows the dialog box -> Confirmation prompt removed (now that undo is available)
ON THE ROADMAP
- Clipboard history
- Merge Find and Replace/Replace all
- Binary content: show info in Editor when not text with additional info if available ON THE ROADMAP -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
joeNOR > 2022-10-19 13:51
Thank you!
0.1.7 already running on my main workstation.
A couple of points:
-Regarding status bar flickering, bump it way down on your priority, there is some strange stuff going on while using AHK through RDP (or other remote sessions) with some gui stuff.
I can live with it, and I think this is a much more fundamental issue than QCE, QAP... my 2 cents.
- Save Clipboard - noted
The DONE stuff: Thank you!
The ON THE ROADMAP STUFF: Thank you again, no rush, but I think those three issues are all on my really, really big time wish list for QCE...no pressure!
-jN
Side note:
I've actually been running QCE on all my workstations/lab machines (be it physical or virtual) since 0.1.5 as a clipboard monitor (awaiting your decision on "history") just to have a quick way of checking what is stored in the clipboard when I am switching between the main workstation, vm's and RDP sessions.
So, QCE is already in "production"!
-jN -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
Jean Lalonde > 2022-10-19 14:24
> it seems that I broke the button completely in v0.1.7! Use the "File, Save" menu for now...
Fixed in v0.1.7.1.
> So, QCE is already in "production"!
Just remember this is a beta release and don't rely on it yet for critical tasks.
Thanks for your feedback and support :-) -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
rrosenwald > 2023-02-06 20:23
I'm new to the forum and to QCE, but like joeNOR I'd love to see a support for History. I currently use AceText from Just Great Software strictly for its History. -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
Jean Lalonde > 2023-02-07 08:41
(2023-02-06 20:23)rrosenwald Wrote: I'm new to the forum and to QCE, but like joeNOR I'd love to see a support for History. I currently use AceText from Just Great Software strictly for its History.
Welcome to the forum. Your +1 is noted.
Have you tried to select a Clipboard history item in AceText while QCE is in synced mode? -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
rrosenwald > 2023-02-07 10:35
QCE works as one would expect it to. i.e. it changes the cliupboard to the selected history item -
RE: QCE - Observations from the armchair
Jean Lalonde > 2023-02-07 11:31
(2023-02-07 10:35)rrosenwald Wrote: QCE works as one would expect it to. i.e. it changes the cliupboard to the selected history item
So, we can say that QCE and AceText are working well together. Unfortunately, I have not as good results using Windows Clipboard History tool and Ditto clipboard manager.