IR.exe v8.00 Beta now posted

[mathdon]

IR.exe v8.00 Beta now posted

I have posted a beta version of IR.exe v8.00 here. It includes Mike England's RDF File Specification version 3 and my addendum to it giving the new additions. Mike hopes to incorporate the addendum into the main document before v8.00 goes on general release. There is also the usual cumulative Release Notes, updated for v8.00.

I have also included a document specifically on the new facilities for URC-7780 and URC-7781 and their extenders, and updated RDF files for these remotes that take advantage of the new facilities. These are singled out as they are the only two remotes currently available that use "soft" device selection. Anyone who would like to try out how IR works with such remotes can do so simply by loading the RDF (for the unextended remotes, not the extender version). The RDF on its own loads IR with the Manufacturing Reset state of the remote, and a complete setup can be created by adding devices, etc. to this without needing to possess the remote.

https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=6217

[The Robman]

I've only just started playing with it, but I notice that it's losing line breaks in the notes on the General tab. It's converting them into the "®" symbol.

If you open the FromRob.ir file using the regular IR, the notes look like:

CABLE mode controls two ReplayTV units
TV = Toshiba CZ32V51 32"
VCR1 = Panasonic PV-4551
AUX1 = Samsung SV5000 Worldwide VCR
CD = Aiwa DV-75 stereo receiver & Sony CD (using device combiner)
P&P = X10 IR543 box (for light control and CD power)

AUX2 = device multiplexor
1) Sony camcorder
2) Pioneer DV525 DVD player
3) Raite AV715 DVD player
4) Viewmaster VM4000+ universal cable box

but if you open them using IR8, they look like:

CABLE mode controls two ReplayTV units®TV = Toshiba CZ32V51 32" ®VCR1 = Panasonic PV-4551®AUX1 = Samsung SV5000 Worldwide VCR®CD = Aiwa DV-75 stereo receiver & Sony CD (using device combiner)®P&P = X10 IR543 box (for light control and CD power)®®AUX2 = device multiplexor®1) Sony camcorder®2) Pioneer DV525 DVD player®3) Raite AV715 DVD player®4) Viewmaster VM4000+ universal cable box®®Rob®http://www.hifi-remote.com®rob1@rockabilly.net

Also, could you post an IR file from your URC-7780 remote so we can see the new features in action?

[mathdon]

I haven't touched anything to do with notes, or even anything that should affect them, so I've no idea what is going on but I will look into it. I did notice those (R) symbols but presumed they were intended - I had never loaded the "From Rob" file with an earlier version, but I will do so now to help to see what is going on.

I'll post a URC-7781 .ir file, but you don't actually need it as just loading the RDF file is equivalent to loading the Manufacturing Reset state. You can then add devices, etc and play with them as you wish. There's more info in the notes for users of these remotes.

The danger, always, of course, is that you don't check things you don't believe you have affected - I presume that's what's happened with the notes.

[unclemiltie]

I'll post a URC-7781 .ir file, but you don't actually need it as just loading the RDF file is equivalent to loading the Manufacturing Reset state. You can then add devices, etc and play with them as you wish. There's more info in the notes for users of these remotes.

Don

how did you do this? Did you fill in all of the "fixed data" in the RDF that gives you the equivalent of the 981 reset? I've always wanted to do this with the atlas remotes but have never quite figured out how to deal with the conflict of what the user puts in and what the RDF wants.

[mathdon]

First correction to IR 8.00 Beta

Apologies to those of you who have downloaded the 1st beta. Rob's issue with the notes turns out to have been due to a very weird file corruption. Presumably to save space in some earlier version, a CR/LF combination is stored in Notes as $AE, which happens to be the Registered sign. The corruption resulted in the back conversion not happening as it was searching for a strange sequence of characters. A corrected version is posted here.

If you want to check the version, right click and look at Properties/Details. The first beta had File Version 8.0.0.0. The corrected one has version 8.0.0.1.

[mathdon]

Bill, I'm so glad you agree with my philosophy about what an RDF should do, but it is the "soft" device selection of these remotes that makes things easy. There are no default device codes as there are no default devices! The number of installed devices is anything between 0 and 12 (the design limit) and in a 981 reset the remote returns it to 0. So the device codes, user device labels and default device labels are all filled with $FF. This is the IR.exe default fill value so $FF goes in automatically if the RDF tells it nothing different.

Everything else that is required is in the Other Settings. I introduced read-only settings as there are some that I needed to set on initialization (memory clear) that I neither wanted to explain nor wanted the user to change. There is no FixedData section, other than for the extender where it is only one byte, the version byte (as sorted out by you and Rob earlier on).

I'm not sure what I would do if I had to put in a set of default device codes to achieve a 981 reset. Neither FixedData nor AutoSet is appropriate. Perhaps there is a case for a new section, DefaultData, that is set by the RDF but which is overwritten by a '.ir' file?

Graham

[The Robman]

Would it be possible to use the column to the right of "Code" in the General tab for Notes? We could use it to store things like "Tivo" or the brand.

[mathdon]

Rob, you made that suggestion earlier, but there is a logistical problem which is why I have put it off till a later version. I know it looks empty, but it is the Labels column for remotes that use labels, and in the "soft" device selection remotes it splits into two, Labels and Seq, the latter being the position of the device in the display sequence on the LCD screen. That panel is in fact rather crowded for the URC-7780/81.

At present, if you adjust the width of the IR display the extra width all goes on the Other Settings panel. The divider between the Device Buttons and Other Settings panels is not moveable. I want to look into how to make it moveable. I could then add a further column for Notes and hide both the Labels and Seq columns for remotes that do not need them. (I hide the Seq column at present as I thought it looked strange to have two blank columns.) The user could then adjust the widths of both panels and the visible columns to suit their needs.

Graham

[mathdon]

Second correction to IR 8.00 Beta

More apologies. I was too hasty in posting the correction concerning multi-line notes. Beta 2 made existing multi-line notes read correctly, but they still saved in a weird form. There is now a Beta 3 at the same link, here, which resolves this also.

I have no idea what happened, but the same very strange corruption seemed to have occurred in two distinct places in the source code. If you tried saving a multi-line note with Beta 2 and reading it back, you will see just how strange the corruption was!

There are no other changes. If you don't use multi-line notes then the original beta and the two corrected versions are identical.

[mathdon]

Demo .ir files

I've posted two .ir files for the URC-7781 here, one for the unextended remote and the other for the extender, to help demonstrate the features of IR 8.00 concerned with "soft" device selection. They should be used together with the new RDFs that were included in the IR 8.00 Beta package.

[mdavej]

Pause works great. I also like the addition of the toolbar buttons and RM shortcut. Nice work.

Could you go ahead and post the help file so we can have a look at that too?

[mathdon]

Thanks for the complement, mdavej. The IR Help file isn't mine, it was written by Vicky and has been around for a couple of years, so it won't cover my new features. You can find it here.

[vickyg2003]

that help file was never really finished. It was just something that I started to help me get back into the game. Do you want that help file updated? Did you want context sensitive help spots?

[mathdon]

Vicky, your first question is simple enough. Yes, it would be very nice if it were updated. I think it's really good, it helped me a lot when I first found the IR website and I like the presentation of .hlp files even if Microsoft now thinks they are obsolete. The thing that puzzled me at that time was why I couldn't find it under the Help menu in IR.exe, and I've now put that right!

Delphi seems to support context-sensitive help, so the second answer is probably also yes, but I need to look into that a bit more.

[unclemiltie]

Bill, I'm so glad you agree with my philosophy about what an RDF should do, but it is the "soft" device selection of these remotes that makes things easy. There are no default device codes as there are no default devices! The number of installed devices is anything between 0 and 12 (the design limit) and in a 981 reset the remote returns it to 0. So the device codes, user device labels and default device labels are all filled with $FF. This is the IR.exe default fill value so $FF goes in automatically if the RDF tells it nothing different.
Graham

I guess this is where I get "hurt" by the structure of the JP1.3 remotes. They REALLY don't like it when the setup codes aren't present in the remote (in the ROM area or as an upgrade) and will do all kind of bad things (depending on remote, erasing the advance code area, erasing the upgrades, and other mean stuff)

So starting with a blank IR file will cause havoc unless those values are defined.

I was actually thinking at one point of finding a way to put the entire extender into the RDF so that when someone did a "new" for an extended remote, the code would be there. but that's another topic.


-bill