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07-09-2005:
The sourcecode has been posted! Check it out on SourceForge.
I am a lawyer by training, not an engineer, so please keep that in mind when you read the code and the thought "wtf were
thinking?!" comes to mind.
06-09-2005:
Here are the promised screenshots:
Nothing too exciting. The first is just the regular dialog, showing the loaded tasks. The second screen shot
shows entering information for a Check POP3 Email task. The third shows the task named "Tumble" running after
hitting "Do Task Now." The fourth shows the green + sign indicating a "positive" (new mail) condition on
task "Rutgers," which happens to be a POP3 email task.
06-07-2005:
Well, the software is moving into the "mostly functional" stage. I will post screen shots soon. You can add,
delete, view, and edit tasks. Currently only two types of tasks are supported: Check POP3 email and check
Yahoo webmail. The program does not run any of the tasks when you first start it up (though I think this will
change, or will be a user option). You can hit "Do task now," which will run the selected task just once.
Or, you can hit "Run," which spawns a worker thread for each task. The threads run their task in an endless loop,
performing the action according to the frequency (in minutes) that you set for the task. I.e., check Yahoo email
every 5 minutes, or every 1 hour, etc. A thread will end if the task encounters errors, like not being able to
connect to the server, and the task's icon changes to the error symbol. It also generates an error log.
If the task finds that you have new unread email, then it changes the task icon to the + symbol, and it sends
the datacode to the transmitter. If the task finds that you do not have new mail, then it changes the icon to
the sleep symbol, and it sends the "anti-code" to the transmitter. The anti-code is the data code plus 8. It is
used to tell the end device to stop showing that you have new mail (because presumably you've retrieved / read
the mail).
05-31-2005:
The software is written in Visual C++, using MFC. So yes, it is for Windows. It is slowing getting duct taped
together. I'm not much of a programmer. I will soon post the code so
that real programmers out there can gasp in horror, and possibly fix / tweak it to their heart's content.
The software is still under development, so it is hardly functional. The goal, however, is this:
- Run in the background, with a tray icon option.
- The tray icon could / should give some visual indication of program status (e.g., running, error, etc.)
- Allow the user to add new tasks, delete tasks, view tasks, and edit tasks.
- A worker thread performs each task according to a user-defined schedule.
- Communicate result of each task to the end device via serial port / RF link.
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