Trader's Little Helper

[roann]

Originally Posted by GregY

TLH 2.0.1 b143 seemed to wreak havoc with my file associations as other people have pointed out.

Besides you up to now it's *only* ezkil (see post above) who has reported this, but for specific reasons I don't believe it's true what (s)he's saying.

Originally Posted by GregY

It took over all .txt file associations.

There can be only *one* file association for file type .txt (you know this if you're familiar with the way Windows handles file associations via the registry). Please don't take this as a offence, but I don't give credit to this take over. Why? The installer will *not* associate .txt files with TLH (it never did).

Originally Posted by GregY

This was on an almost fresh load of Windows XP SP2 with all patches and very few other apps installed. For example, after installing TLH, I went to the Start Menu to open the Change Log ("C:\Program Files\Trader's Little Helper\changelog.txt") - the text file opened using TLH, instead of my default text editor.

As I said above ... TLH is not some kind of text editor. What page TLH was opened with?

Originally Posted by GregY

TLH had associated itself with the .txt extension somehow. I was able to fix it by manually going through and restoring each extension that TLH had taken over.

What other extensions TLH had taken over?

Originally Posted by GregY

Also, in the newest version, when decoding FLAC, it flashes a DOS box for every file it decodes. This box goes right to the front instead of staying behind the active window. Kinda a pain if you're trying to do other tasks while files are decoding. I don't remember seeing the DOS box flash for every file decode in previous versions of TLH - it all seemed to be 'behind the scenes.'

Flashing a DOS box is inevitable the way TLH handles decoding now. *But* it's only a flash because after the box has been created it will be hidden immediately. So you cannot see the box. The only thing I can confirm is that TLH "steals" the focus from another task you're running while decoding each time a new file is processed. This will be fixed with the next release.

Originally Posted by GregY

I never had either of these issues with a previous version of TLH. And I'm not a PC noob either. I'm going to try to find a previous version and hope these kinks can be worked out. TLH is amazing and it's something I 'need' to use everyday.

*Always* get the installer from here, or use TLH via "Help" > "Check for update ...", or get the installer from me (just send me an email, specially if you want an older release). *Never* get TLH from other locations or other people.

Robert

[landesm]

Hi just a quick thanks sent your way. Just what I need.

m

[GregY]

Originally Posted by roann

There can be only *one* file association for file type .txt (you know this if you're familiar with the way Windows handles file associations via the registry). Please don't take this as a offence, but I don't give credit to this take over. Why? The installer will *not* associate .txt files with TLH (it never did).

What other extensions TLH had taken over?

Perhaps it's some sort of mixup between Notepad++ and TLH (?). I had previously installed Notepad++ and associated it with .txt, .log, and .ini files. Once I installed TLH, all of these had their default associations switched to TLH. So when I tried to open the change log file, which is a .txt file, through the start menu, it opened via TLH, which of course had no idea what it was.

I don't know if I have time right now to retry this in order to exactly reproduce my steps. I wish I had a VM install of Windows XP to futz with but I don't. If I have time over the next week or so to try to reproduce this and report more specific steps, I will.

The only thing I can confirm is that TLH "steals" the focus from another task you're running while decoding each time a new file is processed. This will be fixed with the next release.

Awesome!

[roann]

Originally Posted by GregY

Perhaps it's some sort of mixup between Notepad++ and TLH (?). I had previously installed Notepad++ and associated it with .txt, .log, and .ini files. Once I installed TLH, all of these had their default associations switched to TLH.

This *is* really weird As I said earlier the TLH installer isn't "interested" at all in .txt, .log, or .ini file associations ...

Originally Posted by GregY

I don't know if I have time right now to retry this in order to exactly reproduce my steps. I wish I had a VM install of Windows XP to futz with but I don't. If I have time over the next week or so to try to reproduce this and report more specific steps, I will.

If you don't have a VM maybe using system restore points will help. If you retry the installation(s) please do *not* install TLH by double-clicking the installer file. Run the installer with the parameter /LOG via Start > Run instead (command line is something like "YourDrive:\YourDir\tralihxxx.exe /LOG"). This will generate a (very) long installation log in your Documents And Settings folder that may give you a hint where things went wrong.

Robert

[roann]

TLH version 2.1.0 (build 147) has been released. Amongst others it fixes the bugs of the last release (build 143) that were reported by users:

• access violation error messages when testing wav files for mp3
• catching focus from another application each time a new file is processed
• messed up GUI when using Windows font size settings greater than 96 DPI (large fonts)

Many users don't like the way some tasks are pooled in build 143. So I changed things a bit (again) with the new release:

• "Test encoded audio files" has been moved from the decoding section to a new page.
• "Re-encode flac files" has been moved from the wav encoding section to a new page.
• "Checking audio files for SBEs" has been moved from the "Show audio file details" page to new page.
  Note that now there's no SBE related *summary* given anymore on the "Show ... details" page.

The 'Preferences' dialog was updated to reflect the changes described above. Due to lack of space those pages has been removed that don't offer any changeable default settings.

Robert

[GregY]

Originally Posted by roann

TLH version 2.1.0 (build 147) has been released. Amongst others it fixes the bugs of the last release (build 143) that were reported by users:

• catching focus from another application each time a new file is processed

Due to the flashing DOS box, it will still cause a displayed menu (e.g. Start Menu, or a right-click menu) to disappear. The popups caused problems in other areas, for example when I was entering a URL in the Firefox address bar.

I hope my findings above are constructive.

I found that I had an old version on another of my PC's so I've gone back to 1.1.1 b90. I didn't experience any problems with file associations when uninstalled 2.1.0 b147 and installed 1.1.1 b90.

By the way, I tried to run the 2.1.0 b147 installed with the /log parameter but I couldn't find any generated log file.

Thanks.

[tunic]

Hey,

I downloaded this show with Soulseek (I know ...) from someone who was sharing the files in both .wav and .mkw (don't ask me why). When I checked the Audio File Details with TLH build 147, the conclusion was that no errors occurred. But track 4 is corrupt, and the last track has a sector boundary error. See the attached screenshot.

I downloaded the set first as .mkw, then discovered track 4 to be corrupt so downloaded that file in .wav but it's also corrupt. I can't play the track with winamp, nor open it with Audacity. When I opened it with CD Wave editor, I was able to play the first few minutes, the rest is junk.
The other files were transferred to .wav by me.


Thanks Robert for a marvellous program. I hope your house is back in order a bit.

[roann]

Originally Posted by tunic

<snip> When I checked the Audio File Details with TLH build 147, the conclusion was that no errors occurred. But track 4 is corrupt, and the last track has a sector boundary error. See the attached screenshot. </snip>

With build 147 the way TLH handles Show audio file details has changed (see changelog that comes with TLH): Show audio files details now "just" shows you what shntool puts out. Checking for SBEs has been completely removed (now this can be done using the new stand-alone page Check audio files for SBEs).

That's why a) the Fix SBEs button is missing, and b) there's no conclusion There were sector boundary errors or There were no sector boundary errors displayed. The conclusion you get now is No errors occured or There were errors. This tells you whether there were errors processing the source files (the interpretation of the shntool output is up to the user).

In your case shntool was able to process all files (i.e. to read those file parts needed to get all the information displayed) without any error, and so you got a There were no errors conclusion.

Maybe I should change the conclusion to ... processing the files?

Originally Posted by tunic

<snip> I downloaded the set first as .mkw, then discovered track 4 to be corrupt so downloaded that file in .wav but it's also corrupt. I can't play the track with winamp, nor open it with Audacity. When I opened it with CD Wave editor, I was able to play the first few minutes, the rest is junk. </snip>

Encoded files can be tested for corruption using the Test encoded audio files page. For wav files there's no TLH subcomponent that can (completely) handle this. As I said it's up to you to interprete the shntool output. The length and the ratio of track 4 indicate that the file is corrupt.

Maybe I should add a function that checks for zero length and a ratio greater than 1?

Robert

[shadyogrady]

OK, I need help. I've figured out how to take silver CDs, convert to WAV files then convert to FLAC files. I have them placed in a folder on my desktop titled TTD. I have created a text file of show date, lineage, set list, etc. and placed it in the TTD file. I created the checksum file using Fastsum and placed it in the TTD folder. Then I dropped the entire TTD folder on the Drop Torrent shortcut on my desktop and it created the torrent file. I then tried to upload the torrent file to seed. It didn't work. What am I doing wrong? What is the best location (C: drive, Desktop) to save a torrent file that you plan to seed? Where/when do you save the tracker address or link for the torrent? Am I close or do I need to start from scratch? I have a few great boots I'd love to share but can't get over the hump. Anyone who can help this torrently challenged Irishman, it would be much appreciated.

Shady

[roann]

Originally Posted by shadyogrady

OK, I need help. I've figured out how to take silver CDs, convert to WAV files then convert to FLAC files. I have them placed in a folder on my desktop titled TTD. I have created a text file of show date, lineage, set list, etc. and placed it in the TTD file. I created the checksum file using Fastsum and placed it in the TTD folder. Then I dropped the entire TTD folder on the Drop Torrent shortcut on my desktop and it created the torrent file. I then tried to upload the torrent file to seed. It didn't work. What am I doing wrong? What is the best location (C: drive, Desktop) to save a torrent file that you plan to seed? Where/when do you save the tracker address or link for the torrent? Am I close or do I need to start from scratch? I have a few great boots I'd love to share but can't get over the hump. Anyone who can help this torrently challenged Irishman, it would be much appreciated.

Shady, it seems you ended up in the wrong thread. This one is for all issues related to a program called Trader's Little Helper. Please post general question(s) in the Technobabble forum using the New Thread button.

Robert

[macacopowa]

thanks for this excellent program!

[ep620]

Hey Roan. Any chance of getting some kind of batch tagging add on. The whole tag and picture thing seems pretty cool. One again: thanks for the program. Hope the water issues are working out. Don't let the insurance companies bend you over.

[germain]

I've been having a couple of difficulties since I downloaded v 147. First, I'm unable to create checksums for existing files. The window opens to browse and I'm able to select the files, but there is no button that places the selected files in the primary TLH window. The browser window appears truncated across the bottom, possibly cutting off the the add button.

I noticed the new feature that allows one to convert directly from shn to flac without first creating wav files. However, no create checksum files is included in that option. I must continue to go through the wav step in order to create checksums for the flac files.

In the middle of the process of going wav > flac, then creating checksums, error messages begin pile up one on top of another, one error window for each file. The message says something about files out of boundary. I have to click off each window in order to get TLH to begin creating a checksum file.

I've tried completely removing the program and reinstalling but get the same results.

I'd be thankful for any assistance.

[roann]

Originally Posted by germain

I've been having a couple of difficulties since I downloaded v 147. First, I'm unable to create checksums for existing files. The window opens to browse and I'm able to select the files, but there is no button that places the selected files in the primary TLH window.

Select the files in the left-sided window (Folders and files in root directory) and press the Add button. The selected files will be displayed in the right-sided window (Added files). Now press the OK button.

Originally Posted by germain

The browser window appears truncated across the bottom, possibly cutting off the the add button.

??? ... Please provide a screenshot (TLH offers a function for that, see menu Tools.

Originally Posted by germain

I noticed the new feature that allows one to convert directly from shn to flac without first creating wav files. However, no create checksum files is included in that option. I must continue to go through the wav step in order to create checksums for the flac files.

First convert shn to flac. Then go to the Create checksum file page. Load the flac files and create the checksum file. No wav files are needed.

Originally Posted by germain

In the middle of the process of going wav > flac, then creating checksums, error messages begin pile up one on top of another, one error window for each file. The message says something about files out of boundary. I have to click off each window in order to get TLH to begin creating a checksum file.

Hmmm, not on my side ... what OS are you using, how many source files (or is it without reference to the number of source files), what type of checksum (or is it without reference to the type of checksum), exact wording of the error message(s), does error occur when encoding or when creating checksums?

Robert

[roann]

TLH version v2.2.0 (build 150) has been released. Mainly the following was done:

1) A page Strip audio file header was added (see Tools menu). This implements shntool's strip mode (removes extra RIFF chunks and/or rewrites WAVE headers in canonical format).

2) The number of (flashing) console boxes when using functions from the Format section was reduced to the absolute minimum (i.e. one box per task instead of one box per file to process).

3) Newer versions of Winamp register audio file type associations in an unusual way. So if such a version of Winamp was already installed before TLH the radio buttons in the Action to perform dialog (opened when using the context menu of audio files to add them to TLH) may not be correctly en/disabled. TLH now detects this Winamp peculiarity and correctly en/disables the radio buttons in that dialog.

Robert