Toes to the Edge

The holidays were insanely busy and lately I’ve been working on a talk for Code Mash, so I haven’t had much time to devote to ErgMate since the last update. Today I was able to spend some time on it and accomplished the following:

o on clicking the erg-icon it will scan the network for ergs and connect to the first one found
o ErgMate now waits for the user to begin rowing before starting – it used to start as soon as it connected to the erg
o added two new clips: Estimated Meters at Finish (for fixed time rows) and Estimated Time at Finish (for fixed distance rows)

The first beta release won’t be long.

ErgMate is coming along nicely. The two biggest changes are the new ‘Power 10′ clip. This clip calls a build-up over 2 strokes then calls a power 10. It adjusts the timing so that the number is called just before you take the catch.

How do you prefer your coxswains to call a power 10? Specifically, what timing do you like of the stroke number call-out and the catch?

The second major change is that now preferences, such as window sizes and positions are automatically saved and restored for you. It is probably something that you won’t notice in an obvious way. Instead, the program will just ‘fit’ better.

Since 11/18:
o the simulated erg now contains number of strokes and it simulates the stroke-state (drive-recovery-drive..)
o preferences are automatically saved and restored
o new clip – Power 10

It’s been some time since I last reported the state of ErgMate. It is coming along very well. I had hoped to release the beta this weekend, but there is still some work to do before it’s ready for initial testing. ErgMate has a simulated erg screen so you can test the sequences. This week involved a lot of work on making the user-interface work well as well as some refactoring of the erg simulator classes. You’ll like it when you see it!

Since 10/26:
o tweaked slide ratio voice
o added slideRatio to simulated erg
o added popup menus
o refactored drag and drop
o added split clip
o added cut-n-paste
o refactored simulated erg – now supports set distance and set time rows

o cleaned up the gui
o added slideRatio to simulated erg
o looked into auto-connect to the Erg
o added popup menus
o started refactoring of drag and drop

Robin Dunn’s book wxPython in Action has already paid for itself in time savings. I can not recommend it enough. I was having trouble activiating the pop-up menus correctly today. They would only activate on a double-right-click instead of a single-click. Robin’s book demonstrated how I needed to change the event handling with a concise example ( I was using the right-click event instead of the context menu event).

I’ve been making great progress on ErgMate

10/25/2006
o sorted out bug lists – I found I had a Palm memo, Progect file, and spreadsheet all with defects and notes in them. Finalized on an Open Office spreadsheet for defect tracking, a palm memo for the work log, and a pdesk/progect file for structured notes.
o added preview and save of music/cox clips from ClipsDialog
o cleaned up mp3 tag info not present bug

10/26/2006
o moved slideRatio calculator from python prototype to C++ wrapper. I had forgotten just how much quicker it is to code in Python. It would be better to leave higher-level calculations in Python, especially if they are not ocurring on every update.
o added new coaching clip ‘Slide Ratio’

Ambient Pink-Floyd mixes are wonderful background music for early morning coding sessions.