Alpha Testers Required for Circle Dock 0.9.2

Okay, good luck! I'm still using the older version for now as its still more stable. I'm still having that line issue though, hopefully that'll go away in the next version.

 

Ok, I've uploaded a version of Circle Dock (Alpha 6) with a fix for the 64-bit issue: http://circledock.wikidot.com/download-circle-dock

Please see if this works on your 64-bit operating systems.

 

Working just fine on 64bit now.

 

I'm getting the same Start menu shadows and it seems like i have to do a longer click to bring up the start menu (actually it seems that it may be just to sensitive for moving. if my mouse moves at all it won't bring up the start menu but instead moves the dock a bit. I have to have the mouse perfectly still in order to bring up the start menu. other then that it seems good. Finally a dock that I want to use.

 

Hmm, I will keep those start menu shadows in mind as I'm work on getting the rest of the program finished now since I now know it can run on both 32 and 64-bit Windows.

Those start menu shadows are not really under my control because Circle Dock doesn't actually render the Windows start menu in Vista. I think it is a bug with Vista itself because it is not redrawing the screen properly. However, I have found the cause of it:



Go right-click on Computer-> Properties-> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> under the Performance group box -> Settings -> uncheck Show shadow under menus

If you use Circle Dock to open the start menu again and close it, it won't leave any new residual borders. To get rid of the current residue, reboot your computer.

As for the click sensitivity, I will be adding in an option to adjust the click sensitivity since someone on a tablet wants that feature too.

 

Wow, awesome lookin' program Bart! Can't wait till I get home from work and can try it out. Keep up the good work.

 

Oh, I'm sorry to bother you then.

 

Okay I got a chance to try it out tonight. Pretty awesome App I must say. However, I'm having the same problem as one of the earlier posters. I get the shadow lines burned into my screen after I open the Start menu through circle dock.

EDIT: how do you change the hotkey setting to bring up circledock? I go into settings and change it, but there is no OK or APPLY option...

Screen cap:

 

The shadow lines are a bug with Windows itself. I have checked on the web and other programmers are having this problem too. I just wonder how Object Dock gets the start menu to show without the shadow line residue. Follow the instructions in post #55 here to remedy it.

To change the hotkey, go into the Settings Panel -> Location & Toggling and then click on the combination you want. Make sure to click "None" in the last selection box if you done want anything from their.

 

Issue: occasionally double-clicked icons will not open

Issue: double-clicked icons that have been reassigned will cause the program to crash or delete the icon from the dock

 

Hello,
For issue 1: the program is not set up to use double-clicks, it is meant for single-clicking to launch items. In Alpha 6, there was sometimes an issue with the dock getting focus after toggling the visiblity with the middle mouse button, this seems to be fixed with Alpha 7 that will be released this weekend.

For issue 2: Right now, the program is not set up to track changes made to the target file/programs it should run. I'm planning on doing that in a future version. What the program should do is pop up an error message if you click on a dock icon whose target it cannot find. The crashing/deletion of the icon from the dock thing is new to me though. I'll have to check that out and see if I can replicate it.

 

Yeah, I already knew about the location & toggling menu. Okay, basically I can set a new hotkey (Ctrl + Tab) for instance, but is there no way to remove my middle mouse button as a hotkey? I have 'None' selected but it still binds my middle click...

It's very annoying trying to use tabs in my browser without a middle click.

 

Options to change the mouse toggling is coming in the new Settings Panel in Alpha 7 this Sunday.

 

Hey,

If you're interested, I would love to do a help file that you could embed once you have a stable release. Writing for a program decent UI would be a pleasant change, I do tech writing on Dynamics AX modules... ugliest UI decisions in the world.

Let me know with a response on this board if you're interested and I'll set it up once you have a couple more releases out and have gotten the program to a phase where features aren't being added or debugged so much.


speaking of documentation, it would be pretty handy for the people who downloaded the alpha at my office (i started a following) if you could put up some instructions on how to upgrade from version to version without stomping on your settings?

 

Sweet! Coding Circle Dock doesn't leave much time to write a proper help file that users can understand. I think that once I get into beta mode for Circle Dock 0.9.2, the it would be time to write a proper help file. Right now, I'm working on Alpha 7 which is due out this Sunday. It will have the new settings panel that will actually let you change many of the program settings and there are a few new features implemented by request, such as click sensitivity for touch screen users.

I have a pretty firm idea of what features I want to be coded in for the final release of Circle Dock 0.9.2 and I think that I'll be done in about 2-3 weeks and then it could be off in beta mode to ensure stability. How about sending an e-mail to me at [email protected] with how to contact you once I think I have the final feature set for 0.9.2 done?

As for how to upgrade without losing all your settings, for Alpha's 1-6, you could just copy the CircleDock.exe file into your old Circle Dock directory since that was the only thing that got changed. For Alpha 7, however, I have added more items to the data and language files so they are not compatible.

It is possible to write some code in that will allow you to carry over your old settings, but I don't think that will happen with Alpha 7 since I won't have enough time. However, I think this is a good idea and I'll try to implement it for Alpha 8 which should come out a week after Alpha 7.

P.S. I see Dynamics AX is made by Microsoft. Can you ask the Windows guys at Microsoft about the start menu shadow residue bug: http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=14478.0
Why are menu shadows not child-parent types but are child-process relationships and is there a way I can fix it using code?

 

LOL, we're a 3rd party microsoft partnered developer and microsoft still won't help us at ALL with our debugging.

The only microsoft guys we're really in contact with is their writing team anyways, they aren't much help.

I'll see if one of our developers knows what the problem might be.