Simple slide show program I wrote

[timwhit]

I wrote this slide show program because I couldn't find anything else on the web for free. It is quite simple, needs no installation or anything special to run, and it's real small (48KB). Oh and it's completely free.

http://www.timwhit.com/sf/SuperSlider.exe

I'm looking for suggestions on new features that would make it better, and if you find any bugs in it then let me know (there's bound to be something wrong with it).

And, it is written entirely in VB6, the language of the devil as some would have you believe.

 

[Fushigi]

The requested URL was not found on this server.

- Fushigi

 

[Will Rickards WT]

http://www.timwhit.com/sf/SuperShow.exe

 

[Handruin]

I wrote this slide show program because I couldn't find anything else on the web for free. It is quite simple, needs no installation or anything special to run, and it's real small (48KB). Oh and it's completely free.

http://www.timwhit.com/sf/SuperSlider.exe

I'm looking for suggestions on new features that would make it better, and if you find any bugs in it then let me know (there's bound to be something wrong with it).

And, it is written entirely in VB6, the language of the devil as some would have you believe.

I'm dumb and need help

:rotfl:

Good stuff timwhit!

 

[Handruin]

I am able to crash the program...

When I click on the tiny slider bar arrows in the upper right corner by the slider timer, I receive:

run-time error "13"

Type mismatch

I press the "ok" button and:

Then the program exits completely.

Suggestion, could you add an option to disable the text at the bottom so that the screen is only images? (the text is not at all bad, just my suggestion) Also, what about saving slide shows? Perhaps a way to define galleries to display?

Other then that

 

[timwhit]

Thanks for the suggestions Handruin, glad you like it. I already fixed the one problem you found and a new copy is up already.

Sorry about the bad link, I couldn't remember what I had called it.

http://www.timwhit.com/sf/SuperShow.exe

I will work on a way to save the shows and disable that text label at the bottom.

I appreciate the help, come on people try it out.

 

[timwhit]

OK, you can disable the filename label now too.

 

[Handruin]

OK, you can disable the filename label now too.

With the check box selected, I do not see the path and file name when I'm running a slide show.

Question, is there a reason for the limitation of 102 seconds. Not that I need any more then 5 seconds, just curious.

Don't kill youself with adding the ability to save galleries, I was just sharing an idea. Other then that the slider bar no longer crashes.

Another idea I have is that if you plan to offer this to the public, maybe add a version section under the help so that people can keep track? I see a version history on the "exe" file...it states version 1.0.0.0.

I also just noticed with the help section is that if I open the help, and then click on the main slideshow application, the help falls to the background. OK, not a big deqal, but then if I click on the help button again, nothing happens. Is it possible to either A: keep the help on the foreground all the time, or B: have the help come to the forground if a "dumb" user such as myself clicks the help again?

Please know I'm not trying to be a punk and rip apart your tool. I think the tool is great and I'm only trying to help if I can. :wink:

 

[timwhit]

Please know I'm not trying to be a punk and rip apart your tool. I think the tool is great and I'm only trying to help if I can. :wink:

Don't worry about it, your critisism is quite constructive. I have gone through a lot of code reviews with my boss before that were a lot harsher and not nearly as helpful.

 

[timwhit]

Has anyone else tried my program yet? I want more opinions....is this something that is actually useful? Or, am I wasting my time here? (Actually I would have written the program anyways because it was something that I have a need for.)

 

[Cliptin]

Class not registered: You need msstdfmt.dll

 

[timwhit]

Class not registered: You need msstdfmt.dll

Hmm, I've never seen that one before. That is just a reference to a library that my program isn't even using. I have taken it out, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Thanks for letting me know Cliptin.

If you have the time, try it again and let me know.

 

[Cliptin]

Class not registered: You need msstdfmt.dll

Hmm, I've never seen that one before. That is just a reference to a library that my program isn't even using. I have taken it out, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Thanks for letting me know Cliptin.

If you have the time, try it again and let me know.

I get the same thing plus: Runtime error 713

 

[timwhit]

Cliptin, what OS are you running?

 

[time]

No crashes on this W95 OSR2 box, Tim. However, it's a very dirty system - a veteran of four years and many hundreds of software installs, so it should have every VB runtime library known to man or Microsoft. Unfortunately, you're already encountering what I warned about in the other thread:

It's much more attractive for a software distribution than say, VB, because you don't have to sweat on which libraries the user might have.

If you run with it, I think you'll also need to package all necessary runtime files for each platform, and make them available as an optional download. At least that's what I've seen other publishers do.

Tip: There's something wrong with how you're restricting the timer interval to 1 second and higher. I managed to select zero, which makes for a very fast slideshow, but the program doesn't respond to pressing [Esc]. If 'Repeat' is checked, oops!

Okay, I just worked out how I did it. When you first start the program, the SpinEdit stops at 1. If you enter any number, from then on you can click the spin edit down to one less than that number. For fun, I entered -1, which resulted in no slideshow but a hung app instead (inifinite loop).

Otherwise, looks good so far. Good luck!

 

[timwhit]

Thanks for the advice Time. I really wish I could figure out why that error that Cliptin got is coming up. There is no reference to that library at all, and there really aren't any controls in use that aren't totally standard MS stuff.

I know what you mean about libraries being a problem. We use some weird libraries in some of the Access database apps and it can be a royal pain to get them to work on a users system after having forgot how you originally got them to work on your machine 2 years ago.

On that timer interval, I did it really crudely. I will rewrite that part of the program or just restrict you to the up and down arrow, instead of allowing a number to be typed in.

I'm also working on a simple image viewing program. I know that there are a ton of these on the market. But, I like the experience of writing my own, and mine should be faster and simpler than most of the rest.

 

[ihsan]

Tried it and worked great. No crashes nor issues whatsoever on XP non SP1. However :

1) Instead of using just a timer, perhaps you can include a mouse wheel slide control ie. ACDSee32.

2) You include an option to allow the slide show to be shown a maximized screen AND a full screen. I prefer the slide show to be done full screen but sometimes I need to toggle between windows fast without Alt+Tab'ing them hence the maximized windows. Very useful when you need to compare images.

 

[ihsan]

You may find FreeImage really handy for your upcoming image viewing program. It's a collection of really fast (C++ based) and extremely easy to use image libraries (JPG, BMP, PNG and many others). Codes based on royalty free image patents, that is. I used it for my class assignments but it can be done on Visual Basic too, although I've never tried it.

The project is already dead, discontinued so grab the sources while Sourceforge is still hanging on to them.

 

[timwhit]

Tried it and worked great. No crashes nor issues whatsoever on XP non SP1. However :

1) Instead of using just a timer, perhaps you can include a mouse wheel slide control ie. ACDSee32.

2) You include an option to allow the slide show to be shown a maximized screen AND a full screen. I prefer the slide show to be done full screen but sometimes I need to toggle between windows fast without Alt+Tab'ing them hence the maximized windows. Very useful when you need to compare images.

On point #1 I doubt this will happen for one reason. And that's because my scroll wheel on my mouse sucks so I don't use it. The main reason I am writing this program is for my use. I just thought I would share it with you all because I thought it might be useful to some of you.

#2 This might happen, I will look into how hard it would be to do this. Probably not too hard really.

 

[timwhit]

I have updated my Slide Show program with some new features. If anyone has a few minutes can they try it out and let me know what they think? Also, let me know if there are any bugs or if it crashes on you. I have tested it and have been using it for the past 5 months without any noticeable bugs. If you think there is a feature missing then tell me and I will see if I can include it.

This time I packaged it with all the appropriate libraries and an installer.

Tim's Super Slide Show

 

[Howell]

Are you aware of Irfanview? Maybe you will find some features you like.

 

[Handruin]

Found one bug so far:

Launch Tim's Super Slide Show

Browse to a dirctory with images.

Add one or more image to the list by clicking "add"

Click "save show"

When the window opens to browse to a directory, click "cancel".

Error message occurs:
run-time Error '5':
Invalid procedure call or argument

Click "OK" and program exits completely

Enhancement request
You spent the time to make an install kit, yet I did not get an icon on my desktop or start menu. I had to browse to the install directoy and make my own.

Simple enhancement to provide a desktop icon option during install.

 

[Handruin]

My enhancement request sounded harsher than it should have. I only mean it as a good thing. You've done a nice job with the slide show.

 

[timwhit]

I just added the save button yesterday, I thought I had all the kinks worked out of it but I guess not. I removed the option to install an icon by default. I thought it might piss people off. No desktop icon, but I will allow it to make a Start Menu icon. I am uploading a fixed version right now. Ok, fixed version is up.

If anyone is interested in seeing the source code, I can upload the entire VB6 project and you can check it out. You have to have VB6 to open it though. You might not understand what I'm doing in a lot of the code, because I haven't commented much of anything yet.

 

[timwhit]

Stop apologizing Doug...it wasn't harsh at all. Tell it like it is, damn it!

 

[Handruin]

Two more recommendations:

1 - Rename "VB and VBA Program Settings" registry key to something that reflects your company name listed in the .exe.

2 - Remove this registry key when I uninstall.

I'm going to try your latest version now. (you should also increment the version number so that I can give feedback against a version)

 

[Handruin]

The save show functions correctly now. One very small nitpick is that the save show feature does not warn the user during an overwrite of a previously saved show.

You also allow people to add duplicate pictures. (May be on purpose?) I found it odd that I accidentally added one of my pictures twice...I thought it was deja vu for a second there.

 

[Handruin]

I found another bug.

Launch your slide show and click numerous times in any of the gray area. In the upper left corner a small text message is displayed that reads:

"You pressed the left button". Did you forget to take out some debugging code? :mrgrn:

As you continue to click in the gray area the text will scroll down the left side of the page.

 

[SteveC]

Is there any way to pause the slide show?

 

[Handruin]

"space bar" Controls are listed in the help section.

 

[SteveC]

Doh! A help file, the last place I would have looked.

 

[Handruin]

Your show passed the "huge jpeg" test. I loaded a world trade center overhead view image which consumes 265 MB of memory when loaded. Your program loaded it like a champ.

Only confusing part was that it paused with no indication it was loading.

This also made me think of how your program increments time. This image took 10 seconds to load which caused it to be instantly skipped because my delay was set to two seconds.



Found another bug (please don't get mad)

Open tsss

Browse to a set of images

add the images to the list

Save a "save show" somewhere on your drive.

Clear out all the listed images using the "Clear all" button.

Click on "load show" and when the "open" window opens, click "cancel".

Notice that your previously saved show is loaded even though you clicked cancel.

 

[SteveC]

Checking or un-checking "Show Filename" seems to have no effect; it's always shown.

 

[blakerwry]

i'd like to be able to set the number of seconds using the keyboard as well as the arrows

 

[blakerwry]

and can you inlcude an option to scale all images so they fill the screen... while keeping aspect ratio

 

[timwhit]

and can you include an option to scale all images so they fill the screen... while keeping aspect ratio

Right now all images do fit the screen. Larger images are scaled down to fit, but smaller images are kept the same size. Do you really think there is a need to make smaller images fit the screen? If you do then I will make that option it is not that hard.

 

[timwhit]

Checking or un-checking "Show Filename" seems to have no effect; it's always shown.

Ya, that's one option that I forgot to fix, I will fix it tomorrow and post the fix.

 

[timwhit]

I found another bug.

Launch your slide show and click numerous times in any of the gray area. In the upper left corner a small text message is displayed that reads:

"You pressed the left button". Did you forget to take out some debugging code? :mrgrn:

As you continue to click in the gray area the text will scroll down the left side of the page.

I forgot to take the code out for that. I was trying to make it so that you could left click to advance the slide show and right click to move to the previous slide. But it wouldn't work in the form that shows the slide show, so I was trying it in the other form. I still need to figure out what the problem is with that...

 

[timwhit]

Two more recommendations:

1 - Rename "VB and VBA Program Settings" registry key to something that reflects your company name listed in the .exe.

2 - Remove this registry key when I uninstall.

I'm going to try your latest version now. (you should also increment the version number so that I can give feedback against a version)

The registry key is created using a standard VB function (SaveSetting). I'm not sure how to create registry entries by any other means right now, but I will research it and find a solution. The uninstall function is made using the same program that created the executable, which is the "Package & Deployment Wizard". This is the easiest way to create an installer for a VB program. There are other free installers, but they make you define all the appropriate libraries that are used by the program, which can be a royal PITA. I will see if I can find a way for the uninstaller/installer to define the registry entries to be removed when uninstalling.

I will start incrementing the version number each time that I make changes to the executable so that it will be easier for you guys to tell me what is wrong with my program.

Thanks for all the help that everybody is giving. Anyone that has programmed anything knows how hard it can be to test ones own work. Every time someone else checks it there is always an inconsistency that will pop up.

 

[timwhit]

i'd like to be able to set the number of seconds using the keyboard as well as the arrows

I will try to include that in the next build, it shouldn't be that hard to fix.