Searching has become worse in the latest version
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#35 Searching has become worse in the latest version
Until now, Blaze always seemed to know what i was looking for. For example, once i had launched Plants vs Zombies with it the first time, simply typing "pl" would make it the top result. Easy fast and convenient.
But now, it doesn't. It doesn't seem to remember frequently used files as it used to. Typing "plants" brings up the games uninstaller. So does "zombies", and so does "plants vs zombies". It's quite frankly dangerous to use now, besides being slower and less convenient for anyone the optimization doesn't apply to.
Hi. Thanks a lot for reporting. This is a bug related to the command learning system. I will have to improve it a little and it will be back to normal in the next version, which should be out in the next days.
I just fixed it in version 0.5.6.3. Do you confirm?
Thanks.
It's still about the same as before. It seems broken in a slightly different way. A sideways move more than an improvement so to speak.
Can you provide me with a few examples that worked for you with 0.5.2 and don't work anymore with 0.5.6.3?
I've done several tests like the one in which the uninstall was selected instead of the application and it doesn't happen anymore.
Thanks for your time.
One of the things i use it for is quickly launching movies, typically downloaded youtube clips and the like.
One of them has "sociometry" in the title. Before the previous update, after launching that file the first time, simply typing the first one or two letters of that word would bring it to the front. This worked for pretty much anything.
Tried finding it just now for the first time after this update. I had to type out "socio" before it appeared which is not too bad. But to relaunch it, i had to type the first 3 letters. So it works to some degree, but not as well as before.
However, things get a little weird on the way there. Typing "s" brings "kekkaishi 9.avi" to the front, and the file i want is nowhere on the list. "so" brings "Awesome.jpg" to the front and the rest of the list is full of other seemingly random things. And then with one more letter the right file is suddenly there. It all seems a bit random.
Returning the the original plants vs zombies example, the full name is "plants vs. zombies". If i type "plants vs zombies" it suggests a google search with no other options.
As mentioned earlier, i used to be able to type "pl" and launch it from there. Now i need to type "pla". If i keep typing the name it will give me the game for a bit longer, then the uninstaller, google search, uninstaller, google, and finally the uninstaller for the remaining part.
Another thing i used to be able to do is launch a given file in a series of movies (movie 1, movie 2, movie 3 etc) and when i started typing movie again it would bring the last one launched to the front. Now it seems to find the same one every time, in this case number 14 out of 26.
Hi there. Thanks for your reply.
You identified 3 main problems, concerning:
1) sociometry – Typing “s” and not getting “sociometry”. I understand why this happens and will try to improve it as soon as possible.
2) “plants vs. zombies” – I created a shortcut with that name and typed “plants vs zombies” and blaze found it with no problem. Did this happen with 0.5.6.3 or with 0.5.6.0?
3) movies – I tried a similar approach, calling several episodes of an anime I watch by part of its name and it always brought the last episode.
Although I couldn’t check for problems #2 and #3 I hope they vanish from your system by fixing problem #1. Would you mind to try an unofficial portable version of Blaze? I hope I can get it ready in the next few days.
Yet again, thanks a lot for your time.
Regarding 2), i didn't do any extensive testing with the previous version so i'm not sure exactly what has changed, only that the feel of the problems is similar.
I did a little more testing with 3). I have Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 1 through 27 in the same folder.
lagann brings up number 21 (i have never called this episode through blaze before).
lagann 2 brings up number 2.
lagann 21 brings up number 21.
So far so good. However;
lagann 9 brings up google.
lagann 7 brings up number 27 with no option for 7 in the list, just google in second spot and that's it. Launching this file and typing lagann brings number 27 back up. Launching number 2 brings 27 up again on the next try.
There are more oddities of that nature but those variations seem to encompass things.
And sure, i would be happy to try another version.
Also, it looks like the autoupdater installs the new version over the old one. Could it be that some bad data from a previous version somehow got left behind and is messing things up? Should i try to uninstall it and then do a clean install, or would that just make things worse?
Reinstalling might not be a bad idea. If you try it out, please tell me if things got any better. Nonetheless, the preferred command learning system is novel and it uses a new file; so older data should be ignored.
I think that this problem concerning the numbering might be related to other bug (but rather simple to fix), in which single lonely characters may be stripped from the user query. So if you play around with other episodes represented by two characters or more (from 10 to 27) there shouldn’t be any problem. Can you confirm this? If so, the fix is trivial.
Thanks.
It found lagann 10 through 27 just fine (as well as 1 and 2, but not 3 through 9).
However, another series, Shinkon Gattai Godannar has problems. The numbering goes 01-09 and then 10-26. "godan 10" through "godan 20" work fine, but 21 through 26 just brings up google. So do "godan 1" through "godan 9", except "godan 8" which brings up number 18. However, 01 through 09 work fine.
Hi there. I've released a new unofficial build of Blaze Portable, which can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/blaze-wins/files/Unofficial%20Releases/Blaze-Portable-u0.5.6.6.zip/download
Can you test it?
Thanks a lot for your time.
Initial five minute impression is very good. Plants vs zombies is back to normal. First few tries brought up the uninstaller at various points, but that stopped once i selected the game itself and searched for it a second time.
I mentioned in earlier builds that i had problems with .lnk files. I still do, but with this build i can select the .mp4 file it points to and it will remember that result the next time.
Only issue so far is that when i search for "lagann 11" and up, it will put another series in the top spot (with the correct number). It keeps doing this even after repeated attempts, but the correct file is in second place on the list so this is a minor issue.
I'll keep testing it and write more later, but so far it looks very good.
So, what do you think so far?
What kind of problems do you really have with .lnk files?
Also, what other series show up instead of lagann no matter what? Can you tell me how many eps do both series have so I can test with dummy files?
Thanks for your time.
Sometimes when i try to find one of my .mp4 files it will give me a .lnk file instead. This is fortunately uncommon, but it always happened with one or two specific files.
The primary offender was "edition.mp4". With previous builds, i would always get "edition.lnk" instead which would give me a popup that said "The operation was canceled by the user". The .mp4 file was in the dropdown so this was just a minor annoyance. With the current version, i can select the .mp4 version and it will remember that the next time. I still get the popup if i try to use the .lnk file, but as the .mp4 file is always on top now, it's no longer much of a problem.
The files where the wrong file shows up are:
"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 1" through 27. The first 14 are .mp4 files, the rest are .mkv.
"Maison Ikkoku - 01 [TD]v2" through 10 plus "Maison Ikkoku - 11 [TD]" through 96. There is also a movie called "[#maison-serv] Maison Ikkoku - The Final Movie [Baf]" in the same folder (i have no idea if this matters). All of them are .avi files.
"lagann 1" through 9 finds the correct files. However, it also has some maison ikkoku files in the dropdown for some reason. Nothing else, just files from those two series and google.
"lagann 11" and up found maison ikkoku for the most part (always with the correct number). On day one of using this version, it would continue to find maison ikkoku even after repeatedly selecting the lagann file. But today, after i select the lagann file from the dropdown and open it, it finds it the next time i try.
Other minor issues: It doesn't remember which movie i last opened from a given series. It always suggests lagann number 2 when i just type in "lagann" no matter which one i opened before. Not really important.
Sometimes when i hit enter to open whatever i want opened, nothing happens. This could simply be because my laptop is overheating or maybe vista ignores user input when a lot is going on. Don't know what causes this but it only happened a few times with a lot of activity.
On the whole i think this version is better than any of the previous. I don't understand why it does some of the things it does, but none of it really bothers me all that much.
More weirdness.
typing in "this is a spider" fails to find "This is a spider.jpg". So does "a spider". "this is" somehow manages to find it.
Thanks for pointing that out. I think I managed to fix that. ;)
In the latest official version the majority of the problems addressed on this thread should be fixed. Do you confirm?
Thanks for your time.
The quirks from the portable version seem to be fixed and everything else is in working order. Just a few details.
Plants vs zombies is still working like it should, but something odd happened. After i had used the new version for a few hours, it seemed to... i dunno, forget something.
Normally "pl" (or just "p" but i always use at least 2 letters for safety and accuracy" would bring up plants vs zombies as per normal. But this one time it didn't, instead it suggested "plans.txt" which is a file i have never opened with blaze. I had to type "plants" before it found the uninstaller. From there i found the game in the dropdown.
Second try i had to type "pla" before it found it. After that it worked perfectly again and has been ever since.
Dunno what caused this and it hasn't been happening with anything else so far.
Secondly, i noticed that certain naming conventions can be troublesome. For example i have a picture named "youwantmetodowhat.jpg". typing in "you want me to do what" fails to find it. Seems like it should. There are probably many old farts out there who have trouble letting go of the limits of the old DOS names and the like.
Hi there. Thanks for reporting.
So if I understood correctly the first problem, Blaze forgot for a short period of time the entry plants vs. zombies, right? Then, it started to work good again a while after. If that’s it, I think I know what problem it might be. It should be related to the cache I first introduced in Blaze in version 0.5.6.0 and I wish to fix it soon.
As for the second problem, typing "you" didn't show any results, even down in the dropdown box? What about "youw", "youwa", and so on?
I tried with a dummy file with the very same name and it worked on my system, so I think it might be also related to the cache problem.
Thanks a lot for your time.
I had a lot of files with "you" in them and there are only so much space on the dropdown, so no telling if it would have worked just with that. "youw" still didn't find it, but when i got to "youwa" it became the top result. Typing the entire name out also works so no real surprise there.
The filename itself is just a sentence with the spaces removed. I just figure, from a human heuristic point of view, it would make sense for this to work.
And did you have more files beginning with "you"? Not sure if this is a problem or you just had too many files with "you". If you are suggesting that files beginning with a string should come first then yes, they should and they used too on Blaze 0.5.2. I hope I can fix this soon.