XML Tree Editor

I published a new small project recently called XML Tree Editor. It's an utility, which represents an XML file in a treeview and allows creating and editing it in this mode, without dealing with XML syntax.
The screenshot below shows the main screen with the tree view and preview pane at the bottom, Edit node window and multi-line editor on the foreground.

The list of commands includes Add Child Node (as reference to the selected node on the tree), Add Above and Add Below, Add Comment, Edit Node (which applies to both XML tags and comments) and Delete Node. There is also commands to move node with all its child nodes to a new position and to replicate (clone) nodes.

The second XML file can be opened in read-only mode in the separate window at the same time; it's called Reference File. The whole node (with all its children) can be copied from this file into main editable XML document.

This is an open source free software, hosted at SourceForge.net. The application is developed in Lazarus Free Pascal, the source codes are available for download along with installation packages for Windows and Linux (GTK2+).

Starting a new project at work I became the active user of XML Tree Editor myself. So I discovered some areas of improvement. The proposed changes in the emerging new version 0.1.0.15, apart from minor bug fixes, will include:

• show all parents of the selected node mode
• options window
• keyboard shortcuts for all actions

XML Tree Editor available for download from here.

Gnome Debian Package Finder

Gnome Package Finder is my first project in Lazarus released to the public. It is also my first published program for Ubuntu Linux or other distributions, using Debian packages.

Unlike Synaptic Package Manager, which is the main tool in Ubuntu to deal with installed and avaialble from repositories (Software Sources) packages, Gnome Package Finder only provides information about packages, it can neither install nor remove the package, and because of this, it does not require administative rights to work. It also works about twice faster for the same search.

Gnome Package Manager allows to search through package names, their short or long descriptions for the given model. The matching packages are shown in the list, which indicates also the state of the installed packages. Another possibility is to search for a file name inside the packages. This search takes much longer and the output contains package names and the full path to the matching files, in case they were installed.

When one got the list of packages, for every one in the list common information about the package can be obtained, along with its dependencies and the list of files, this package would install.



Keyboard shortcuts provide an easy way to navigate and perform all operations without involving the mouse. The help system covers most of what you may want to know about Gnome Package Finder.

The installation binary package as well as the source files can be downloaded from:
http://www.gtk-apps.org/.

It is released under the terms of Gnu General Public Licence (GPL).

Clock

Here is another program I'd like to share. It seems to be much more useful for Windows users comparing with the screen magnifier.

As you can see on the screen shot it is the clock utility called Ranui Clock. Actually "ranui" means midday in Maori, but I would prefer to separate the word and use it as Ra Nui - The Big Sun, it has the same meaning in most Polynesian languages. Ranui is also the suburb where I am currently living.

Main Features:

• Ranui Clock displays time as an analogue clock with highly customizable appearance. You can select any picture (of the reasonable size) to be used as the clock scale.
• You can adjust almost every parameter of the image - see the options window screen shot.
• Precision - it synchronizes itself over the Internet using Time Servers and may also act as a time server for other computers in the same local network with no direct internet access.
• It can play sounds every second, every half an hour and every hour, as well as when its remainder is showing a message.
• It can work as the remainder or alarm clock. You can save as many as you wish single or regular events.
  

Ranui Clock comes with the set of scale images with predefined options for every image for your convenience. You can change any of these options and use any BMP or PNG (recommended) picture as a scale image. It saves your settings for every used image so you don't have to re-adjust them when calling the image back.

The program was tested with Windows 98 (limited visual features), 2000, XP, and pre-releases of Vista with and without Aero theme.

Ranui Clock is distributed as a self-installing executable file (about 1.5 MB).

Download Ranui Clock

Screen Magnifier

Let start with the simplest applet - a magnifier for your desktop. I use it mainly when I have to adjust the positions of visual components.

Screen Magnifier shows the area around the mouse cursor enlarged by 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 times. Actually it does nothing more.

Features:
1. magnification rates 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 8x
2. semi-transparent mode, so you can see the screen content behind its window
3. can display cross-hair rulers
4. remembers its options when closed, and restores them next start
5. all options are set up via a popup-up menu, which appears when you right-click on the header
6. when the mouse cursor moves inside the program window it becomes completely transparent except for its boundaries and the header. This allows you to work with the applications behind the magnifier's window.

The program was tested with Windows 2000, XP, and pre-releases of Vista with and without Aero theme.

Screen Magnifier is distributed as a self-installing executable file (about 480 kB).

Download Screen Magnifier