Messages

Hi all
I'm not at home and I have many problems with internet, so I don't help...since august. Now I download the snapshot if it is there as exe file... an awful thing for me ;-)
I saw there is only the tgz. A good news  

Please consider an alternative arrangement of constraints menu entries:
in teachers, students and activities constraints it could to separate global actions from local ones: ex. for teachers a global action is one about all teachers a local action is one about a teacher.
I think that separating the global constraints from local ones can help to
think and speed up the settings.

Of course you are right... using hg command in a separate console window is pretty confortable for me (I like very much the command line and the free composition of different utilities that characterize Unix systems), in win, via hgturtle, mercurial is integrated with contextual menu (right click) on fet data dir (that where you have created the hg repository), so his use is straightforward.
The idea however remains, FET could be easily integrated with a cvs system, I use Mercurial because I love it, but it is not the only choise.  
I just experimenting with it and I think it is great (no too difficult to install and learn, really easy). Try to believe  8-)

[REQUIREMENTS:]

Hi all,
this is a little suggestion about  an undo mechanism for fet data file and for all files created by fet . Really it is much more of this: a real, effective version control system. I describe how to implement it  supposing you are linux users   , if you are win users   , don't worry,  the procedure is almost identical  

REQUIREMENTS: my solution is based on Mercurial, a magic, open source, cvs system written in python (but don't worry about that), you find it here: http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/Download (check the packages of your distribution first!, in this site you find also a complete solution for win users)

USE: suppose you have all your timetables in default dir fet-result (this is a convention, you can have your files anywhere you want); you have to do only few simple things to put your fet_directory and his content under the permanent control of Mercurial.

Open a terminal in your home directory and issue the following commands:

1. cd fet_results (enter your fet directory)
2. hg init (initialize a new mercurial repository, hg is the mercurial main command)
3. hg add * (add to repository ALL the file in fet_results, a this time you don't have any reason to not include some files)
4. hg commit (freeze the current status of your file). COMMIT is the key command!!! Commit take a snapshot of you current files.

5. now, you do what you want in fet.... (leave open the terminal)
6. save fet_file (save, generate timetables, export csv, etc.)

Go in the terminal and...

7. hg commit -m "put here some comment about your work"  (this freeze the current version of the existing files, those you have added yet to repository)

8. if you have new files in your work directory you can add them to repository before commit the current version, so...

9. hg add * ; hg commit -m "some new comment"

that's all!!! Now you can use mercurial to view the complete history of your work (hg log), to view the difference between two version of your work (hg diff ver1 ver2), to revert current status to an old one... and so on. In general you don't need to change file name, you can work with only one fet data file, Mercurial will never forget the changes you have made (IF YOU HAVE COMMITTED THEM, of course, any COMMIT is a checkpoint of all your work)

Of course with mercurial you can centralize your fet files on a server and have more timetablers working on them...

I hope this can help someone...

PS.
If Liviu add a new Advanced option to exec a shell command without leave FET...  

Hi all,
is the FET interface too poor (as Liviu sometimes tell us)? I think basically no. The FET interface is simple but for the real work of a real timetabler it is quick and sufficient, most of the times.
What I find annoying are the strings that summarize the data of activities and constraints in left frame: too long, with too many fixed redundand parts that hide (imho) the infos I would see at a glance.  It is not only a translation problem but rather a problem of string format (the ideal would be that it can be configurable). See the example:

This is the resume of some activities (in italian translation)

Att: I:CONF, M:FIS,St:GEO_1 B, Id:40, AGld:40, D:2,Dt:4, A:Si
 Att: I:CONF, M:FIS,St:GEO_1 B, Id:41, AGld:40, D:1,Dt:4, A:Si
 Att: I:CONF, M:FIS,St:GEO_1 B, Id:42, AGld:40, D:1,Dt:4, A:Si
Att: I:CONF, M:FIS,St:GEO_1 C, Id:46, AGld:46, D:2,Dt:4, A:Si
 Att: I:CONF, M:FIS,St:GEO_1 C, Id:47, AGld:46, D:1,Dt:4, A:Si
 Att: I:CONF, M:FIS,St:GEO_1 C, Id:48, AGld:46, D:1,Dt:4, A:Si

I would prefer descriptions like these (first ids, partial and total durations, activation state then subject, teachers and students, the activation state could be easily represented in color (greyed?) or with other font attribute).  The ideal is a configurable format as a new preference.

40.40 - 2/4 - Si - FIS - CONF - GEO_1 B
 41.40 - 1/4 - Si - FIS - CONF - GEO_1 B
 42.40 - 1/4 - Si - FIS - CONF - GEO_1 B
46.46 - 2/4 - Si - FIS - CONF - GEO_1 C
 47.46 - 1/4 - Si - FIS - CONF - GEO_1 C
 48.46 - 1/4 - Si - FIS - CONF - GEO_1 C

which appears more ordered using a fixed font.
About constraints I think abbreviations could be introduced to subtitute the complete description (always visible in the right frame).
A too long description often pull the data out of frame (forcing the use of the scrollbar).  Another solution is header and indentation like this:

from:
Min days between activities. P:95%. NA:4, Id:28,Id:29,Id:30,Id:31,mD:1.ConsSG:Si
Min days between activities. P:95%. NA:4, Id:32,Id:33,Id:34,Id:35,mD:1.ConsSG:Si
Min days between activities. P:95%. NA:3, Id:40,Id:41,Id:42,mD:1.ConsSG:Si
Min days between activities. P:95%. NA:3, Id:43,Id:44,Id:45,mD:1.ConsSG:Si

to:

Min days between activities.
 P:95% mD/Cons:1/Si NA:4, Id:28,29,30,31
 P:95% mD/Cons:1/Si NA:4, Id:32,33,34,35
 P:95% mD/Cons:1/Si NA:3, Id:40,41,42
 P:95% mD/Cons:1/Si NA:3, Id:43,44,45

(also here the string mD/Cons is not necessary)

What your opinion about that?

by the way:
why don't you just style all cells at once by this:
th.xAxis {
/*width: 8em; */
}

Because my knowledge of css is very poor  :-(
Your suggestion fit my needs! Thanks Volker

GOAL: to have html timetable with fixed size column
FILE AFFECTED: ./timetables/fet_name_stylesheet.css
TARGET: td.empty {} and td.notAvailable {}

REQUEST: complete the style above with   min-width: NNpx where NN is a new html option  (a 0 value stay for *not such property* in css)

In my case I obtain a good result with

td.empty {
 border-color:silver;
 border-right-style:none;
 border-bottom-style:none;
 border-left-style:dotted;
 border-top-style:dotted;
 min-width: 70px;
}

td.notAvailable {
 border-color:silver;
 border-right-style:none;
 border-bottom-style:none;
 border-left-style:dotted;
 border-top-style:dotted;
 min-width: 70px;
}

the problem is, of course, the rewrite of stilesheet for each generation

With this post I begin reporting here some bugs (I hope only aestetic).

PROBLEM: Window Exceed Screen Dimension (WESD)
WHERE: add new constraint (max hole number for teacher)
SYMPTOM: the help massage is too long (no automatic word wrapping) and is unformatted. It need to reformat all help message (one line -> multiline) to fit in windows of reasonable size).
GRAVITY: high - it is impossible to resize the window

PROBLEM: general readability
WHERE: in all window with  long explication messages
SYMPTOM: the messages are shown without any enhancing trick (bold to  some reserved/specific words or simple break line would be welcome).
GRAVITY: low
HINT: I think this be resolved changing original messages and translations, embedding bold tag, CR and so on. Isn't it ? I've just made a quick check in qt4-designer.

PROBLEM: insufficent min size for dialog with complex widget in it
WHERE: for example when show timetable of teacher or in add form for avalaible/not avalaible rime constraint
SYMPTOM: it need to manually resize the windows all the times
GRAVITY: nasty

Ok, I've begun to play...

sorry for undiscovered features... but I would appreciate a lot if

1. I could manage the teachers constraints directly from list of Teachers form (add a button from global constraints - all in one form if you can - right click on teacher name for all personal constraints.  

2. I could set Avalaible/Not avalaible  constraints on selection basis also where a selection is possible (example: for not working day of a teacher)

This is a request for a new feature...
For Teachers and Subjects I like to use a brief description (BD), a code,  and I optionally convert it to corresponding long description (LD) in the generated timetables (I refer to my current timetable procedures). So I need to define two new fields. Example:
Theacher:  MANC, MANCINI
Subjects: MAT, MATEMATICA

I think that this can be achieved without any change to current interface, simply using the format above. Of course I want use the BD only in defining activities and when I have to specify subject and Teacher.
I wish to output the breaf (only BD) or complete (LD) timetables ;-)