Player Countdown - Format

English General
1

Hi Torben,
I cannot seem to replicate my previous timer formats using the current snapshot release. The Ramp timer only shows the furthest ramp and I cannot set it to .z so it only shows 1/10th sec - it always defaults to 3 decimal places :frowning: The “Show only nearest Ramp” option seems to have no effect.

2

Seems that FormatDateTime cannot output 1/10th seconds, only milliseconds. I will have to introduce my own FormatDateTime function then :-/ (I still like the flexibility of specifying your own format, rather than using the former “show in seconds”, “truncate” etc. options).

I will also investigate the ramp issue.

3

Torben’s right, the 1/10th second problem is a shortcoming in Delphi itself, not the mAirList code!

Also .z in a FormatDateTime string does NOT do what Charlie thinks. For example, .500 formatted with .z will still display as .500; but .005 formatted with .z will display as .5 (geddit?!?!!???!?!). :smiley:

Maybe the easiest solution would be introduce a new mAirList-only formatting string ‘code’ of zz which means ‘leftmost character of the formatted zzz result (aka: tenths of a second, truncated from the mS value).’ That should be reasonably easy for Torben to code for (by using two FormatDateTime calls, or using a single call substituting zzz for zz; then suitably ‘hacking’ the returned result before passing it on to the caller).

Just my suggestion … ;D

BFN
CAD

4

Instead of counting the z’s, I’d better introduce new variables, say “u” for 1/10th and “v” for 1/100th of a second. Here’s my proposed solution:

function MyFormatDateTime(Formatting: string; DateTime: TDateTime): string;
begin
  Formatting := StringReplace(Formatting, 'u', Copy(FormatDateTime('zzz', DateTime), 1, 1), [rfReplaceAll]);
  Formatting := StringReplace(Formatting, 'v', Copy(FormatDateTime('zzz', DateTime), 1, 2), [rfReplaceAll]);
  Result := FormatDateTime(Formatting, DateTime);
end;

It’s important to perform the substitution before the call to FormatDateTime, as the latter might insert any of these characters into the text (“Sunday”).

Would that be ok?

5

Personally, I’d just like them to be similar to the Player timer - Specifically the “Show time in seconds (instead of 1/10th sec)” option :wink: I appreciate that the progress bars offer greater resolution than 1sec but it’d be “nice” if the GUI objects can be configured to mimic the Player/Cartwall countdowns… IMHO, 3 decimal places is a bit “big” and a little too accurate (unless you’re one of Cad’s scripts!). Didn’t know about zzz vs z - never used it but it’s sending me to sleep just thinking about it!

Any practical solution (that keeps everybody happy) would be welcomed :wink:

6

The solution mentioned above seems to work. I’ll upload a new snapshot tommorrow.

7

Build 516 is ready, introducing the “u” and “v” variables mentioned above. Let me know if it works.

8

Torben: nice work! (Any thoughts yet on the ‘shrinking’ duration at EOF in PFL Player? :wink: )

Charlie: it’s because people like Herr Doktor and myself not only aren’t rendered comatose by (for example) the difference between zzz vs. z, but also know, care, and fret about it; that all the software that you really like (such as mAirList) ‘just works.’ ;D

BFN
CAD

9

I can’t get the Intro Timer to display either a u or a v… What I mean is, it DOES display the u or v and not the .x decimal value - the Time Remaining counter is OK. Also, the Intro still does not show all ramps in the ramp1/ramp2/ramp3 format. I’m using Intro: ss.u or nn:ss.u and Remaining: nn:ss.u

Cad - Understand perfectly, appreciate that a hell of a lot of work goes in “behind the scenes” to make certain features work how we want :wink:

10

[quote=“Torben, post:4, topic:5201”]Here’s my proposed solution:

function MyFormatDateTime(Formatting: string; DateTime: TDateTime): string; begin Formatting := StringReplace(Formatting, 'u', Copy(FormatDateTime('zzz', DateTime), 1, 1), [rfReplaceAll]); Formatting := StringReplace(Formatting, 'v', Copy(FormatDateTime('zzz', DateTime), 1, 2), [rfReplaceAll]); Result := FormatDateTime(Formatting, DateTime); end; [/quote]

Er … I understand the idea, but …

I think you need two Booleans to store whether or not the original Formatting contains ‘.u’ and ‘.v’ (respectively); assign the FormatDateTime result to a new temporary string instead of to Result; then use those Booleans to perform the correct right-end truncation before setting Result to the (possibly truncated) temp. string. Don’t you? :wink: Otherwise, you’ll just get milliseconds in the Result, unless I’m missing something glaringly obvious?

BFN
CAD