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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > GUI Customization > [ANN] Barquee 1.0

[ANN] Barquee 1.0
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foobars
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Jul 13, 2005, 06:16 PM
 
Barquee is a project I've been working on and off with for about a year now. Its a new type of iTunes controller that shows whats currently playing in the menubar.





As you can see its highly themeable and has lots of eye candy, which is why I'm posting about it here. Give it a try and lemme know what you think/how to improve it.

Download: Download
( Last edited by foobars; Jul 13, 2005 at 10:08 PM. )
     
cryer
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Jul 13, 2005, 06:29 PM
 
very cool! i've been using icontroller for some of the same functionality (scrolling song title along with itunes controller), but its not perfect. this looks to be much better

a big thing that ought to be included is to allow a single click to switch to different interactive menu options ala ipod interface
ie. click on the scrolling song title to access progress bar or star rating. both changing song progress and changing song rating should be interactive

i use something called "itunes rating" to display current song rating (interactive as well) in the menu bar along with icontroller. it would be great to just use one program that does both instead of two.

better yet, maybe include a small icon or button that will let users switch between these different modes.

and of course, use as little memory and cpu as possible.

this looks really cool so far, when do you think you'll release it, or at least a beta version?

edit: also, include an option for the user to define the length of the bar displaying text, or spacing/size between buttons, etc. and font as well
( Last edited by cryer; Jul 13, 2005 at 06:36 PM. )
     
mugget
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Jul 13, 2005, 08:08 PM
 
looks interesting.

but i think that foobars left out the download link?

and the most important question (for me at least) - how much CPU does it use? other scrolling menubar extras in the past have used 20-30% CPU, which just isn't worth it for me.
     
TheIceMan
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Jul 13, 2005, 09:23 PM
 
Looks interesting. I've been using Synergy, but hey the more the better.

Download link Barquee.
( Last edited by TheIceMan; Jul 13, 2005 at 09:37 PM. )
     
foobars  (op)
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Jul 13, 2005, 10:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by TheIceMan
Looks interesting. I've been using Synergy, but hey the more the better.

Download link Barquee.
Heh I forgot to put the download link, thanks for catching my mistake.
     
LBoogie
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Jul 13, 2005, 10:21 PM
 
I will definitely give this a try! Thanxx
     
MacDog
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Jul 14, 2005, 02:31 AM
 
Looks very nice, but I'm not willing to part with $10 for software for which there many free alternatives. Perhaps if this wasn't (more or less) a one trick pony I would be willing to spend a few greenbacks.
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Syzygy
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Jul 14, 2005, 05:11 AM
 
I'd love it if you could choose to have two or three lines of text (I use this sometimes to display track info with GeekTool, but it uses a fair amount of CPU to run those applescript)

There should be a 'use all available space' option to accompany Max Width.

Right clicking the buttons should be the same an control clicking.

Very nice job, I've been waiting for something like this
     
siMac
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Jul 14, 2005, 06:35 AM
 
Looks interesting, I will try it out if for no other reason than we share the same tastes in music.

|\|0\/\/ 15 7|-|3 71|\/|3
     
whiteangel
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Jul 14, 2005, 06:58 AM
 
This is cooler than synergy!

However there is a problem with themes, as the areas around the rounded edges are white and not transparent, there will be a ugly white 'rectangle' if the menubar is not white in colour.

Am I the only one with this problem?
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Riff Raff
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Jul 14, 2005, 08:05 AM
 
Nice!

But it seems that Barquee doesn't know german umlauts.
     
MacDog
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Jul 14, 2005, 10:33 AM
 
Originally Posted by whiteangel
there will be a ugly white 'rectangle' if the menubar is not white in colour.

Am I the only one with this problem?
Did you log out and back in after installing this app? Sometimes menu bar apps don't respect a theme until a log out/restart.

I have another app with the same problem, Check Off, which keeps me from using the app at all. I love Check Off for its simplicity, but having a white box in the menu bar is so distracting to me that I can't bring myself to use it.
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whiteangel
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Jul 14, 2005, 01:41 PM
 
I have done a restart, the rectangle is still there, and it won't display song names in other languages (growl can).

When this two are fixed, I'll pay the money. *hint hint*
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MetalSnake
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Jul 14, 2005, 03:44 PM
 
I just installed it, I clicked on the part with the Title, Artist etc. info and got the slider to jump to different positions in the song, but now how do I get the info about the song again?

edit: just found out, I have to carefully click outside of the dark grey but still inside the app, this should be changed!
     
foobars  (op)
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Jul 14, 2005, 05:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by whiteangel
I have done a restart, the rectangle is still there, and it won't display song names in other languages (growl can).

When this two are fixed, I'll pay the money. *hint hint*
Are you running a theme?

Unicode support is coming.
     
Apfhex
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Jul 14, 2005, 05:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by MetalSnake
edit: just found out, I have to carefully click outside of the dark grey but still inside the app, this should be changed!
Strongly agreed! Glad to hear Unicode is coming, that's a major needed feature for me. I also think it should sit in the menu bar a little further away from the next item, it has about half the space everything else up there does, which is really bugging me.

How do I install the themes? EDIT: nevermind, doh. Maybe the Installer should create the folder ~/Libarary/Application Support/Barquee? Double-click to install themes would also be nice. ^_^

I have to say this is pretty neat, I've never seen a better solution to iTunes playing track info (I've been using Dashboard to do iTunes stuff quickly). Looking forward to more themes though.

Oh oh! Also, it'd be great to be able to click and drag on the scrolling info, in order to see the rest of it. I'm demanding aren't I.
( Last edited by Apfhex; Jul 14, 2005 at 06:29 PM. Reason: made my post longer :p)
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whiteangel
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Jul 14, 2005, 06:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by foobars
Are you running a theme?

Unicode support is coming.

I downloaded the matte theme and placed it in the folder stated, but it is not detected by Barquee (not in the dropdown).

And I am running a shapeshifter theme (if that was your question).
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MetalSnake
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Jul 14, 2005, 06:31 PM
 
Didn´t get that matte theme to show in Barquee too, restart Barquee didn´t help…

I never used an iTunes controller before, but I just checked all of those iTunes controllers which sits in the menubar, but they all suck, some of them have only the 3 buttons, some of them show the track info which I want but they are soo small that they show only around 5 letters. Barquee is much bigger which I think is very good. But it should be scalable how big you want it.
Rate the playing song with a few mouse clicks (instead of hotkeys) and change the iTunes volume would be cool.
I think the slider which jumps to different positions in the song should jump only if you drag that square thing around, if you click somewhere else in the slider it should change to rate songs, change volume etc.

edit: doh! Just saw that there is already an option to change the width of Barquee
( Last edited by MetalSnake; Jul 14, 2005 at 06:38 PM. )
     
cloudaj
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Jul 14, 2005, 08:46 PM
 
themes wont work for me, made a Barquee folder in app support and its not appearing. And i better not be supposed to create a folder called libarary just because you can't spell library correctly
     
   
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