Little Alt Code Utility

[Kreij]

I wrote a simple little utility that shows some of the more common alt-codes you may want to put in a forum post. I am forever forgetting these and using the character map is a PITA.

If you hover over a button it shows a tooltip of the alt code and a description.
If you click on a button it copies the alt code character to the clipboard so you can just ctrl-V it into the post editor (or wherever).
After you click a button the status bar tells you what it sent to the clipboard.

If you in another window editing (like a post or whatever) clicking on a button will now automatically put it in the window where your cursor is.

You can put the exe anywhere as it does not use any other files or resources.

I can add more codes if anyone finds this useful and would like a few more added.

Any feedback is appreciated ... even if you feel it's worthless.

 

[theJesus]

This is an awesome app. I have it pinned in my taskbar now.

 

[qubit]

Awesome, it's gonna help with putting in that ™ character.

Here are a few more: ™¢€µ¼•

 

[A Cheese Danish]

Nifty I must say. Helps a lot

 

[Kreij]

For a little 15KB utility it's memory usage (private working set) is a little large at ~5M
I'll see if I can make it's memory footprint smaller.

 

[xbonez]

Interesting about the 5MB memory usage. It's a winform app, right?

 

[Kreij]

Yes it is, xbonez. It is compiled using my default VS settings, so I should be able to do a some bit twiddling to make it smaller.

I wrote this because I got sick of going to sites that listed the codes.
This little app is one of those things that falls under "necessity is the mother of invention."

 

[ctrain]

For a little 15KB utility it's memory usage (private working set) is a little large at ~5M
I'll see if I can make it's memory footprint smaller.

You can call SetProcessWorkingSetSize() to try and go lower yet, but it's pointless really, you will likely damage performance if anything in trying.

It's best to leave the runtime and OS to their own devices really, .NET programs using a "lot" of memory is well known and stripping the working set is a common idea that seems like a good one but is really not.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

How about adding:
Þ = 0222
þ = 0254


You must be feeling better. I can't code when in pain. :þ

 

[Deleted member 3]

What's does it do that a list in notepad won't?

 

[Kreij]

You can call SetProcessWorkingSetSize() to try and go lower yet, but it's pointless really, you will likely damage performance if anything in trying.

It's best to leave the runtime and OS to their own devices really, .NET programs using a "lot" of memory is well known and stripping the working set is a common idea that seems like a good one but is really not.

Not sure how I could reduce performance on an app that does almost nothing.
I was just going to poke around with a few VS settings and not do anything dramatic.

How about adding:
Þ = 0222
þ = 0254


You must be feeling better. I can't code when in pain. :þ

I was thinking of adding the TPU smileys so you could use the little app with "post quick reply" and have them available for copy/pasta. Thoughts?

If the pain gets too bad the coding stops (as I usually lie down), if I take painkillers coding slows down dramatically due to general mental foginess. lol

What's does it do that a list in notepad won't?

Functionally it makes copying to the cliboard a little faster (just click the button). Other than that, not much at the moment.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Functionally it makes copying to the cliboard a little faster (just click the button). Other than that, not much at the moment.

Then, what will it do?

 

[Kreij]

Then, what will it do?

You lost me on that question, Banjo. Probably the painkillers. lol

 

[Deleted member 3]

You lost me on that question, Banjo. Probably the painkillers. lol

You said it does nothing else currently, what features are planned?

 

[Kreij]

Whatever anyone comes up with that they think will make it better.
I'm always open for suggestions. You have any ideas Banjo?

 

[theJesus]

It would be cool if it worked like the on-screed keyboard. Not totally necessary, but if you're bored . . .

 

[Mindweaver]

Nice work kreij! on "The Little Alt Code Utility ® ™" Works great!

 

[Kreij]

It would be cool if it worked like the on-screed keyboard. Not totally necessary, but if you're bored . . .

More info please. Yes, I am bored.

 

[theJesus]

More info please. Yes, I am bored.

Basically, have an option for it stay in the foreground at all times and whenever you click a character in it, then it automatically pastes that into whatever text field your cursor was in.

Open up the onscreen keyboard to see what I mean.

 

[Kreij]

Cool. I never used the OSK before. Will work on that for next version.

 

[ctrain]

Not sure how I could reduce performance on an app that does almost nothing.

You might up causing some page faults as a result of trying to trim the working set, worrisome if you're counting precious milliseconds

What I was getting at is that the seemingly large working set of .NET programs isn't worth playing with. The OS will reclaim the uneeded memory for other use if it really needs to and will not allocate so much "fluff" in the first place if it's scarce to begin with.

 

[Mindweaver]

Kreij why not go ahead and throw in all the forum codes [spoiler}[/spoiler], [B}{/B}, etc.. You could create two windows/Multi Line Textboxes one to type the complete post and the second window to view the post in real time. Once the user is ready to post the response have something like a send button for them to click. You could create a toggle switch to go from thejesus direct imput mode or the multi window method.

 

[Kreij]

That's not as easy as it sounds, MW. It would require a realtime bbcode parser and tokenizer, as well as working with the RTF format for use with a RichTextBox for realtime display. It gets pretty ugly quick. lol

I was working on something like that awhile ago as an offline editor for people writing articles and/or news.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Any chance of a user-defined line of buttons? Set in a .ini or cfg file? I have need for certain character code sets when writing emails, like üöä and čěřňš

Actually; http://www.typeit.org/ is pretty useful

 

[Kreij]

I had originally thought of including all of the characters with accents and a lot of other special punctuation, but I was trying to keep the GUI small.
The intent of this app was for quick characters when forum posting and not a comprehensive list of all the possible alt codes.
I will give it some thought. Maybe a settings option so the GUI only displays the character sets that you need/want.