PPCGEEKS Phone Lock Slider

[andason]

Hey fellers,

I've been in contact with ArianeSoft (forums) regarding some of the issues I was having with the sliding lock and the launcher. I believe I got answers to both for the memory issue and why I couldn't get the launcher to load properly.

Also, I asked them about the possibility of a coupon code for the ppl software which was used by the original author of this sliding lock app.

For those interested you can go to http://www.arianesoft.ca/page.php?1 and download a free trial copy to play with for 30 days i believe?

Afterwards, if you wish to purchase ppl, the prez of arianesoft sent me a coupon code worth 25%. It's valid for only 1 month. I purchased the software with paypal, but I believe other is accepted.

The coupon code # is PPCGEEKS

Now.. understand that I have a big fat zero affliation with arianesoft and I'm only passing this along because their support, so far, has been great and the software is pretty easy to use. The closest I ever came to programming is very little visual basics. Plus, i'd like some help from you all in learning this ; )

I will be playing with the sliding lock and launcher some more this weekend and will try to post what I can do.

[andason]

Oh.. I would recommend buying the pro version.

[blazingwolf]

Thanks for the leg work on this. I have been thinking about buying PPL and you just made it easier.

[angel12]

andason: im with you on the very little programing experience, but this program seems pretty easy to use, so thanks to arianesoft for making such a great app!

As for the memory issues/ speed of the loading, i have both the original locker and ppcgeeks launcher in the same folder, and the gfx folder is the one from the original build, and they still both take forever to load up, but the new one takes at least 4 times as long. So im trying to compare the source code of both the builds to see exactly what could be taking it so long to load.

Could part of it be the time it takes for the app to get the recent calls info and the txt message info? the only thing i cant figure out right now is how you fixed teh clock in your build, the code for the time looks exactly the same in both builds, yet the initial build shows the wrong time (time zone info maybe??)

doing all i can to help!

edit: I am 99.9% sure the slowness of the new launcher is from trying to see the last call and text message and any other things that were added as such. I can run the original "slide" app in the ppcgeeks folder and it uses the same backgrounds and such yet loads 4 times as fast. but the clock is wrong, and i believe i found the issue with that too . now i just need to buy ppl and test them on my apache

[andason]

Any and all help is certainly appreciated, both to get the bugs worked out and just in learning : )

The only change I made to correct the time is on line 85

GetSystemTime(&st$); (original)

GetLocalTime(&st$); (modified)

In regards to the memory load, I was wondering the same about the recent calls and such, but, i believe it started before that. ??

I believe somehow the problem with not being able to maintain the large font of the clock and the memory issue are related - maybe not exact, but related. Ever since I couldn't get the large font, the memory hog started i think.

If you check out the line

font$ = g_loadfont("Arial", 40, RGB(255, 255, 255), NULL);

in the original, you will see my modified is

font$ = g_loadfont("Arial", 14, RGB(255, 255, 255), NULL);


That was the only way I could get it to not give me a font error and actually compile. But I'm totally baffled why the original would work, unless my version of ppl and the one that was used to write this code are the issue.

Also, just to let ya know, the last email I got from arianesoft mentioned something similar after reading this post here at ppcgeeks:

"After reading the thread a bit I can tell you that the memory issue probably has something to do with the g_loadfont, which has been fixed in the latest un-released yet version 1.24."

So, we will see : )

In regards to the launcher app -

I was finally able to get the code to load, but i'm still getting some errors.
(By the way, the time fix should work the same)

Gluck and please share :P

[andason]

By the way.. I agree that the extra code and work for getting the last call, sms and such will increase memory usage, but the amount that 6700yuma reports seems a little much for something as simple - UNLESS my code is incorrect for getting it. : )

p.s.

Here is a post at arianesoft regarding g_font

The reason is because the g_loadfont has to create a surface with all the characters to be displayed. Right now it creates a surface with 4096 characters possible to support unicode character sets. So you definitely run out of memory.

In version 1.24 I am modifying the PPL to have a new function to enable unicode characters. The default will always be 255 characters, this way you won't run into memory problems.

[angel12]

yeah, i just caught the edit you made to the time in the source. Since im unable to compile it (i have no idea what to do with the software to compile it, still on the learning curve.) i am not much use right now. I know some people suggested that the second's countdown could go away, and just leave hours and minutes, that might help (at least i think so) with the loading times

[Perasite]

OK, I've fixed the launcher to show local time (still uses the same graphics as the original iPh... version) It looks like v. 1.23 of the PPL uses a new unicode font process that is causing our errors with the slide lock. v. 1.22 doesn't seem to have that problem, and the developer says 1.24 won't have the problem either. I'm going to try the 1.22 and see if I can get the original slide lock to compile.

Edit: I have fixed the old fish one to show the local time. Load time is now 3-4 seconds (much faster) The TSlauncher.zip now includes the fixed launcher and the fixed fish slide lock.

I also fixed the latest PPCgeeks slide lock. It is attached. 3-4 second load and much smaller memory footprint, about 5.8 MB by my rough measurement.

[mike1224]

could we get a screen shot of the slider please??

[andason]

Thanks 6700yuma.

Did the 1.22 version allow you to fix it? I downloaded two other versions but had errors out of them.

Thanks again!