Command line usage and suppression of Dialogs and background

[jmckeown]

I execute compareit via command line from a script that compares many files, so compareit is executed multiple thousands of times during a script execution.

When compareit is being executed in command prompt mode two things occur that I would like to be suppressed. The first, is all windows dialogs (such as the percentage bar that pops up if the files being compared are large, to show the time remaining on the comparison) pop up to the front of the screen, causing anything that you had focus on to be unfocused.

If you are writing an email while compareit is being executed in the background, then you will not be able to type on your email because it loses focus every time compareit is executed again. If the percentage bar must be displayed, can it be displayed in "background" or unfocused so that it doesn't affect multi-tasking. I attempted to do this myself by creating a shortcut and forcing compareit to start minimized, with no luck.

An even more optimal solution would be that whenever compareit is executed in command line mode, all dialogs are suppressed, and compareit is started minimized or in the background (much like how winzip works in command line mode) so that it does not disturb a user executing this from a script (which I imagine most users who take advantage of the command line option do).

[grigsoft]

Yes, this is a known issue and will be fixed in nearest updates.

[jmckeown]

Do you have a list somewhere of planned additions and estimated release dates on the site somewhere? I didn't know if you you did, but I do check back regularly to see if the alpha has changed.

[grigsoft]

Sorry, I don't have any public future plans. I recommend you subscribe to RSS feed of development blog.

[grigsoft]

You can check this update - http://grigsoft.com/blog/?p=63 , it should solve discussed problem. Let me know if you will face it again.

[Ro Ablate]

[quote="grigsoft"]You can check this update - http://grigsoft.com/blog/?p=63 , it should solve discussed problem. Let me know if you will face it again.[/quote]

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet - but you might want to edit your blog...


I was confused when I saw the build code was 1857 on a file named wincmp4b, since you had put out wincmp4b build 1909 some months ago...

I downloaded, and found it was a version 3 update, and not another alpha of version 4.

You might want to revise your blog and its referenced filename.

[grigsoft]

Thanks Ron, I will check it.

[Ro Ablate]

Hmm. Maybe my mistake? But I am not sure...
I had forgotten you were labeling the files for v4 alphas as wincmp3.exe...

The title of the window shows "4a"
The help shows 3.9.9.1935.

Very confusing.

I thought version 4 was a significant re-coding effort.

I have been avoiding using v4a's for regular use, as I depend on CompareIt! heavily and am not willing to [b]regularly[/b] question the tool's output.

Is there to be an update to v3, or just to v4alpha?

Is v3 essentially frozen, and all new efforts (time allowing) being coded into only v4alpha?

("...enquiring minds what to know...")

[grigsoft]

Yes, 3.9.9 is used as v4 alpha - I just don't want to mark it 4.0 before release. 3.8 is basically frozen, but since I can not release 4.0 as I expected, maybe I will make an update with tweaks and fixes which I can apply to 3.8.
As for "wincmp3" name, it was not a good idea to add version number to exe, but I don't want to do it again - probably it will stay this way.

[Ro Ablate]

[quote="grigsoft"]Yes, 3.9.9 is used as v4 alpha.
3.8 is basically frozen, ... maybe I will make an update with tweaks and fixes which I can apply to 3.8.

As for "wincmp3" name, it was not a good idea to add version number to exe, but I don't want to do it again - probably it will stay this way.[/quote]

I see that you renamed code in question as wincmp4b.zip. Thank you.
Your comment above is unclear. Are you intending to name v4alphas as wincmp4b, and tweaks to v3.8 as wincmp3?

Also, I am still very confused by the build number sequence on your v4alpha. I downloaded it, thinking it was a v3.8 tweak because the build number was too low to be a new v4alpha compilation.

[jmckeown]

Thanks for adding this feature to the software!

Unfortunately it isn't working 100% for me yet. If I execute win compare from a command line generating a report like this:

wincmp3.exe filename1 filename2 /min /g:hsen0 report.htm

it still pops up the "Comparing files" dialog with the percentage bar. It does not happen all of the time, it appears to only happen when files are large (maybe test it with a 20 meg file).

However, I did test the feature without the command line via:

wincmp3.exe filename1 filename2

and it started CompareIt! minimized as it properly should. It seems to me that the option will need to suppress the "Comparing files" dialog that pops up and shows a percentage bar of how long until the comparison is done as well.

Thanks!

[grigsoft]

jmckeown, Aah, sorry, I have not thought about single file comparison report - I was updating only folders reports generation, as longer operation. Can you try this one: http://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp4b.zip.

[jwolfe]

Im helping Jmckeown with this project and just wanted to say its working great now. There are no dialogue popups or loss of focus in windows. I also love the PDFtoText dll that has made some compares very easy. Just wish I could get the same for PCL. Another printer language that doesnt like being looked at...

thanks for the great tool it's working great!