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[Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

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SilverAzide
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[Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

Post by SilverAzide »

Hello,

Just a minor feature request. Since Day 1 of discovering Rainmeter, I've been constantly getting confused about how to use UpdateDivider, and I'm sure other folks and newbies have been too. The problem is that UpdateDivider doesn't divide -- it multiplies.

In fact, the user manual says:
Frequency at which the measure value is updated. The Update option in the [Rainmeter] section of the skin is multiplied by the specified value to determine how often the measure is updated.
I know the Rainmeter team wants to maintain backward compatibility, which I agree with, so my suggestion is not to change anything, but instead can we have an 'alias' for the UpdateDivider option, and have an UpdateMultiplier? The two terms would be interchangeable and do the exact same thing, except going forward UpdateMultiplier would be the preferred term. (I presume this would mean needing an alias for DefaultUpdateDivider as well.)

Attempts to reprogram my brain to remember that UpdateDivider multiplies have so far proven fruitless. I kind of almost maybe get why this thing is called a "divider". Like in the docs for DefaultUpdateDivider, it says "Default number of updates at which skin measure and meter values are updated"... to which my brain is like, "Oh yeah... Wait, whaaat???" :) Then the next sentence clears things up (for my brain, anyway) by saying it's actually a multiplier. :confused:

Maybe I'm just being pedantic; I'll accept that, LOL! Anyway, thanks for listening!
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Yincognito
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Re: [Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

Post by Yincognito »

SilverAzide wrote: July 18th, 2021, 1:24 amSince Day 1 of discovering Rainmeter, I've been constantly getting confused about how to use UpdateDivider, and I'm sure other folks and newbies have been too. The problem is that UpdateDivider doesn't divide -- it multiplies.
I wasn't confused, but that's probably because I didn't mind or wonder about the meaning and just took it as an option name like any other (similar to the syntax of a programming language). Now that you mentioned it though, I thought why it would have such a name as well, and I might have a possible explanation: it probably refers to the ACTUAL rate of updating of a particular measure/meter/whatever, which is "divided" to get to either the value of the "divider" or the value of [Rainmeter] section's Update option.

For example, you have:

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=2000
...
...
[SomeMeasure]
...
UpdateDivider=3
...
SomeMeasure's actual update rate is 6000 milliseconds (more or less). This "real" update "divided" by 3 yields the value of the skin Update (the latter not being an actual update rate for skin elements, since those rates are always Update x UpdateDivider, even if UpdateDivider is 1). I don't know if this makes sense, but that's the only explanation I could think of.

Or, it might be something else entirely and I just wrote nonsense above, LMAO...

P.S. I'll let the devs answer the suggestion.
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SilverAzide
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Re: [Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

Post by SilverAzide »

Yes, I think you are correct. However, my brain refuses to learn this for some reason. I keep having to re-read the manual pages every time I see UpdateDivider. I even built a whole skin backwards, then sat puzzling and puzzling over why things were updating so s.l.o.w.l.y... :oops:
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Yincognito
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Re: [Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

Post by Yincognito »

SilverAzide wrote: July 19th, 2021, 6:14 pm Yes, I think you are correct. However, my brain refuses to learn this for some reason. I keep having to re-read the manual pages every time I see UpdateDivider. I even built a whole skin backwards, then sat puzzling and puzzling over why things were updating so s.l.o.w.l.y... :oops:
Yep, indeed. :lol: Well, it would be interesting to find out what the devs have to say about this, for sure.
That being said, I wonder how a WebParser's UpdateRate should be called, can't settle between UpdateMultiplierMultiplier and UpdateDividerDivider (since it's basically a 2nd "update divider" and all). :???:
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jsmorley
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Re: [Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

Post by jsmorley »

Yincognito wrote: July 19th, 2021, 8:21 pm Yep, indeed. :lol: Well, it would be interesting to find out what the devs have to say about this, for sure.
That being said, I wonder how a WebParser's UpdateRate should be called, can't settle between UpdateMultiplierMultiplier and UpdateDividerDivider (since it's basically a 2nd "update divider" and all). :???:
It's for the same reason that we have jumbo shrimp.
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Yincognito
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Re: [Suggestion] Can UpdateDivider be aliased?

Post by Yincognito »

jsmorley wrote: July 19th, 2021, 8:26 pm It's for the same reason that we have jumbo shrimp.
I see what both of you did there... :D
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