PLEASE!! add standardized data types

[iisthphir]

Hello, this is a request.
I am enjoying rainmeter greatly and it is a powerfull tool but needs badly one thing:
Standardized data object for all i/o. If you did away with 'measure' and 'meter' values and who knows how many other data types, and just had variables for everything, which can be used anywhere and operated uppon in any possible way, imagine the possibilities! And coding gadgets would become so much simpler and easier to learn.
All i am proposing is the use of globally available standard data variables, of perhaps two types: number and string.
Where 'number' can hold int or float values and is translated to the necessary format by the thing it is being input into.
'Number' could then be used for all values and variables of all measures; percentages and colors and everything.
'String' would be much the same but maybe it could more easily used in operations like various ways to transform it into a number.
This could be dome withougt making much more overhead i think.
I hope it could be done but i realise its probably a significant change to Rainmeters internals.

This would make Rainmeter the ultimate thingo!!! It would be SO much easier to make all kinds of more complex meters possible!

Thanks for your support
Myall

[jsmorley]

Yes, this would be virtually a re-write of Rainmeter. It is always tempting, when struggling with creating a skin to wish that Rainmeter was a programming "language", but it isn't. It is an "application" that has the ability to read .ini files to see what it is asked to "measure" and uses "meters" of various types to display the output.

Hard to say what the future holds for Rainmeter in the middle to long term, but certainly in the short term we are not going to throw it all away and start over. Rainmeter can do a lot of very cool things, and is not really hard to get the hang of at all, but it is what it is.

[iisthphir]

Yes I realise that to implement this most efficiently would require a rewrite.
I suppose that was kinda out of line as a feature request though it may be kind of inevitable eventually?
However would it not be quite easy to rewrite a much smaller amount and perhaps add a few things so that this can be functionally implemented at least a lot more than it is currently.
For example some thing that can translate any number from 'variable' to 'value' to matrix or color as the input requires? that would not be too difficult would it? And could be implemented as a separate 'translator' module.
Thanks for the reply
Myall

[jsmorley]

Consider the suggestion made.

[iisthphir]

As I stated in my first post, I appreciate the capabilities of Rainmeter and do put them to use.
However is this not a feature request section of the forum? And although what i first posted is probably beyond the scope of feature request, the latter request is not.
So i ask again; this is a request, is it possible/likely, if not thats ok, if so that would be REEALY great. I think it would be a vast improvement to rainmeters capabilities and not so hard to implement, in fact i will look into the possibilties myself as the source code is available i think.
But i am also working on implementing a dynamic volumetric particle object in the blender game engine and gpu accelerated artificial intelligence pathfinding, collision detection and cluster intelligence, as well as building a portfolio and working on a indie game project at the moment so my time is limited.
Also I have no experience with rainmeter source so if an experienced dev where to look at it that would prob be better.
Anyway thanks for any input.
Cheers
Myall

[JamesAC]

As jsmorley said, your first suggestion would take a complete re-write of the code.if you do look at the code, you will see rainmeter is built around the meter/measure structure and to change that you would almost be better off starting from scratch.

As for your second suggestion, I do not quite understand what you are asking for. I couldn't comment on the feasability or possibility of it without slightly more information as to what it is you want.Possibly an example would be useful in seeing it??

[iisthphir]

I suppose what im talking about is a kind of parser, basically translates any number into a format that can be read by any element eg. variables, values, the numbers for colours. Basically it removes the need for having to write all manners of symbols to identify a number as a variable or some other type, and allows you to use any value as input for any meter that takes any kind of numeric value. This could be implemented as an add on without rewriting i think.
This would be very usefull and could add some extra functionality.
Thanks for the help

[Chewtoy]

The way I'm getting this is that you're suggesting that you just write

Code: Select all

Line
142
53
blue
cpu

And then rainmeter would be able to use that.
This, seems highly unlikely to make it any easier when writing skins.
Could you give more of an example?

[iisthphir]

No! Im not thinking it should all be written differently, just measures that produce any kind of number and meters that can use one, (which is most i think) should be all compatible.
There could be no difference in the code, just that meters automatically recognise any number or value or any variable or measure that contains one, and you can use those values, variables or measures anywhere you need a number. It would be nice if all measures gave out numbers just a straight up floating point number, so their all the same, then you can convert that into a percent, a colour value or what ever format you require afterward. It would make it much easier to keep track of and to make more complex mathematical functions envolving many measures, numbers or variables.
Im not sure what kind of example i could give to show this in full, im also quite new to rainmeter, but it seems that aswell as adding considerable functionality for math operations and making meters more versatile it would make it all much easier to learn.
Thanks for any input, im only doing this because i saw in the forums quite a few people that seemed to think this or something very similar would be a great idea.
So thanks again!
Myall