Winamp Info Tool (v6.3.1 available, released on 19-12-2022)

[MrSinatra]

if you don't want to do it, thats one thing, and certainly your right. but to say that there is no reason or advantage to doing so, is just flat out wrong. if it makes coding difficult, and its not worth the trouble, then i totally understand, but if you don't do it "just because" well thats annoying.

and yes, i know i could generate a report, but if a user wants to say, just copy their ATF string to post online, why force those steps? ease of use is a valid reason imo. (and again, i understand choosing not to IF its a lot of work, but only in that case frankly)

as to the links, i was thinking that if a winamp version was not the latest, you'd have a link to get the latest version. so i should have been clearer about that... the tool could do a version check to let the user know if its the latest version or not, and if not, in that context a link makes sense.

[Koopa]

MrSinatra:

we all have different opinions. 'Person A' thinks, that feature X would be a killer feature, while 'Person B' does not think so. That's how real life works and it would be crazy, if we'd all have the same opinions.

I accept, that you want this feature, that's your opinion (and others may agree with you). But on the other hand you must accept, that I don't see any advantage (and Pawel seems to agree with me) and this independent of the amount of work/time, which is needed to change the labels to tedit boxes.

But saying, that the only valid reason for me not to do it, would be tons of work isn't fair. Do I have no right to simply tell you my own opinion? Do I just have the right for an own opinion, if it requires too many code changes? Most programs I tried, don't use Tlabels and when I think about it it makes sense. The aim is just a visual presentation of the infos. For more things you can create reports, or use the 'Open' buttons to directly access the folders from within the tool

But lets make a vote, if anyone else wants to see it too, I may try to change it. So does anyone else want to see the ability to select e.g. the ATF string directly in the tool or are the reports enough?

As for the links, I misunderstood you. I already thought about 'Check for Update' buttons for Winamp and BT Tool, but I don't know what url Winamp uses for the update check and if AOL would give me the link. So it's possible that I'm just able to hold a version file on my own website and I cannot guarantee if this would be up to date. Would it make sense, to provide an ownWinamp update check? I'm just not sure, tbh.

Pawel:

You really don't like the image, huh? I spent 3 hours to get it to that stage and I think it looks ok. If you can do a better image feel free to make one, you'll get full credits for it. But I hate image manipulation and am done with graphics, hehe.

-Chris

[MrSinatra]

MrSinatra:

we all have different opinions. 'Person A' thinks, that feature X would be a killer feature, while 'Person B' does not think so. That's how real life works and it would be crazy, if we'd all have the same opinions.

I accept, that you want this feature, that's your opinion (and others may agree with you). But on the other hand you must accept, that I don't see any advantage (and Pawel seems to agree with me) and this independent of the amount of work/time, which is needed to change the labels to tedit boxes.

But saying, that the only valid reason for me not to do it, would be tons of work isn't fair.

honestly, i'm not trying to argue with either of you, but you guys were the ones saying there was no reason to do it. i merely pointed out that there in fact IS reason to do it. you said no advantage to it, so i have now pointed out the advantage to it.

Do I have no right to simply tell you my own opinion? Do I just have the right for an own opinion, if it requires too many code changes? Most programs I tried, don't use Tlabels and when I think about it it makes sense. The aim is just a visual presentation of the infos. For more things you can create reports, or use the 'Open' buttons to directly access the folders from within the tool

everyone has a right to any opinion they want, but any opinion isn't always right or valid.

again, not trying to pick a fight, but for me its just a matter of logic. if it can be done, and has utility, and is not difficult to do, then my Q is why not?

But lets make a vote, if anyone else wants to see it too, I may try to change it. So does anyone else want to see the ability to select e.g. the ATF string directly in the tool or are the reports enough?

i'm guessing you know my vote. again, no wish to argue, just stating my case. i think its great you've made this tool, its very useful.

a couple of other suggestions:

1. can it remember the language? i always have to reselect english.
2. can an "open" link point directly to the winamp ini file?

As for the links, I misunderstood you. I already thought about 'Check for Update' buttons for Winamp and BT Tool, but I don't know what url Winamp uses for the update check and if AOL would give me the link. So it's possible that I'm just able to hold a version file on my own website and I cannot guarantee if this would be up to date. Would it make sense, to provide an ownWinamp update check? I'm just not sure, tbh.

again, my fault for lack of clarity. AOL should certainly trust you with that link. but maybe just a straight link to the wiki, where the version changes are listed makes more sense?

i guess this also ties in to the idea of reporting the date of the exe. if that could be done, it could be compared to whats online somehow...?

[MrSinatra]

i feel i have been bad at communicating "what i mean" regarding the links/updates.

basically, i think a really cool feature of W.I.T., would be that when you run it, it would be "smart enough" to know if your winamp is the latest. if not, you could have a link to DL the newest one, and / or a link to the wiki showing the versions. sorry for the confusion.

and also, thx again for coding the useful utility.

[Koopa]

everyone has a right to any opinion they want, but any opinion isn't always right or valid.

True that, neither you're right, that the feature would be useful, nor am I right that it's useless

again, not trying to pick a fight, but for me its just a matter of logic. if it can be done, and has utility, and is not difficult to do, then my Q is why not?

1. None of the most common programs I've seen, have it
2. Personally I prefer labels instead of TEdits
3. It would require massive code changes

But 3. shouldn't matter, since 1. and 2. are already my opinion and should be accepted.

But lets stop talking about it, as soon as other people vote for it too, I may change my opinion.

i'm guessing you know my vote.

Yup, as well as my own and Pawel's

i think its great you've made this tool, its very useful.

Thanks, I'm really glad that you like it.

a couple of other suggestions:

1. can it remember the language? i always have to reselect english.
2. can an "open" link point directly to the winamp ini file?

1. Yes, I'll add code for that, so v 2.01 will remember the selected language.
2. If you can tell me where to place it, yes. Dunno where this could fit. "Directories' tab maybe?

again, my fault for lack of clarity. AOL should certainly trust you with that link. but maybe just a straight link to the wiki, where the version changes are listed makes more sense?

I have no idea, if they share the link or not, I try to contact Nullsoft and ask them, but tbh, i doubt that they'll give me the link. A link in the Wiki wouldn't work, I need an ini, xml or txt file hosted on a server to do the check.

i guess this also ties in to the idea of reporting the date of the exe. if that could be done, it could be compared to whats online somehow...?

The main problem is, that the exe file holds no real date. There is no resource in the file, where the date saved. What you see under 'About Winamp' is an internal date, which only Winamp itself can access. That's the reason, why i haven't implemented an exe date detection into the tool yet.

-Chris

[MrSinatra]

True that, neither you're right, that the feature would be useful, nor am I right that it's useless

1. None of the most common programs I've seen, have it
2. Personally I prefer labels instead of TEdits
3. It would require massive code changes

But 3. shouldn't matter, since 1. and 2. are already my opinion and should be accepted.

But lets stop talking about it, as soon as other people vote for it too, I may change my opinion.

Yup, as well as my own and Pawel's

Thanks, I'm really glad that you like it.

well, given #3, i withdraw the request. in that case, i don't think its worth it. i'll only add though that following the example of other apps is often not desirable.

1. Yes, I'll add code for that, so v 2.01 will remember the selected language.
2. If you can tell me where to place it, yes. Dunno where this could fit. "Directories' tab maybe?

1. thx.
2. yes, i think so. maybe its possible to delineate between directories and files, but i think people will get it either way.

I have no idea, if they share the link or not, I try to contact Nullsoft and ask them, but tbh, i doubt that they'll give me the link. A link in the Wiki wouldn't work, I need an ini, xml or txt file hosted on a server to do the check.

right. i guess you could host it, but then you'd have to update it too. so not the best solution. hopefully aol shares. the wiki link though might be parsed, and/or just supplied as a straight, direct link to the user regardless of update status. i think its unfortunate that winamp the app doesn't have any in app links to its own wiki, but thats "info" the info tool could make the user aware of.

The main problem is, that the exe file holds no real date. There is no resource in the file, where the date saved. What you see under About Winamp is an intenral date, which only Winamp itself can access. that's the reason, why i haven't implemented an exe date into the tool yet.

-Chris

right, i know thats problematic. maybe there is a way of examining the created date of the hosted setup install file at the aol site?

[Koopa]

v2.01 is now available, it has a French language file, big thanks to Veekee.

The tool now remembers your selected language and I've added a few hidden ini settings.

Note: the Classic SHOUTcast and Classic Winamp HTML Stylesheets still need some fine tuning, and I may add some community created stylesheets in future too.

Here you can see the stylesheets in action:

OldSchool SHOUTcast style:

http://meggamusic.co.uk/shup/1304394029/Winamp_Info_Report.html

Winamp Classic style:

http://meggamusic.co.uk/shup/1304394062/Winamp_Info_Report.html

The hidden excluding settings were a side effect from my dev work. I have tons of skins and creating the HTML report on first start needs an age on my system.

All of these hidden options will be added to the GUI in an upcoming major release.

Mr.Sinatra: Update check or the ability to open Winamp.ini from within the tool requires language updates. I will for sure add your requests, but you have to wait for the next beta release, because I cannot force the translators to do daily updates. And a mix between English and localized strings is a no go. But no worries, the 2.1 beta period will start soon.

right, i know thats problematic. maybe there is a way of examining the created date of the hosted setup install file at the aol site?

Problematic too, they could host an installer which ships a winamp.exe with older date in 'About Winamp'. I must think a bit, how to resolve the issue.

-Chris

[Koopa]

v2.02 is now available.

I've changed my point of view and added MrSinatra's feature request. All right labels where changed to (read only) text edit boxes. This allows you to select the text and copy it to the clipboard. take a look at the attached image for an example.

Big thanks to DrO for teaching me, how to hide the borders of the text edit controls.

I was also finally able to find the bug with the stretched header image.

-Chris

[Koopa]

v2.1 Beta is now available. I've added a few things I missed, like Skin/Language pack Font detection and Metadata reading settings detection. Registered File Types are now, like in the old 1.x builds available in the GUI again too.

The DirectX detection is experimental. Under Windows XP I can read the version from the registry and can compare the version number with a list, so that I can say, if you're using DirectX 8 or 9.0c. For DirectX 10+, the infos are no longer part of the registry, neither hold any of the DirectX files on the system the valid version string. (all DirectX files have the same version number like Windows, so I have no idea, where dxdiag gets the infos from). So I was forced to use my own detection method for Vista+ systems.

I need some Vista users, who can confirm, if the detected DirectX version is correct or not.

A nice side effect of the DirectX detection is, that the 'Open DirectX diagnostic program' returned in form of the new 'Info' button.

Some screenshots of the DX detection will follow soon.

-Chris

[Sabine Klare]

Hello everyone,
I want to be the first person with the feedback.
I have Windows Vista 32-bit and DirectX 11 (more details in some of my earlier posts). And this new "Winamp Info Tool"-Version does also say "DirectX 11" on my computer.
The "Info" for "Installed DirectX Version" opens the same "DirectX-Diagnoseprogramm" (sorry, I don't know the exact English word for this now), that I had found and opened on another way some weeks ago, when I had looked for some more details of my computer.
Greetings from Sabine Klare Aka Sternenmaschinebine

[Koopa]

Sabine Klare:

thanks for confirmation, that DirectX detection worked for you, much appreciated. I hope more Windows Vista/7 users can give feedback.

2.1 Beta 2 is now available.

Changelog:

- [HTML/TXT Generator] added file count statistics at bottom of reports (shows the amount of installed Skins, Plugins etc)
- [HTML/TXT Generator] added optional detection of MilkDrop and AVS presets (set ReportVis=1 in Winamp_Info_Tool.ini)

Because tons of Vis presets could slow down report creation, it's disabled by default. To enable it, simply set the settings to 1 in your ini file:



Forgot to note, that all the new stuff isn't localizable yet, a newer language file will be released, when I'm done with 2.1.

-Chris

[T-Matsuo]

Thank you for a good tool.
I made Japanese language file.

[Koopa]

Thanks, I've added Japanese.

Here you can find a test build:

LINK REMOVED

Note that some newer strings of 2.1 Beta are not localizable yet, I'll release a newer example file as soon as time allows.

2.1 Final will be the last version for a while then.

-Chris

[Koopa]

v2.1 Beta 3 is available, which adds detection for the new Nullsoft enc_fhgaac encoders from Winamp 5.62.

-Chris

[OlexijL]

Great piece of work Chris,

May i ask how many beta releases do you plan? When the betas will be over?