IE & FireFox

[Bobby Wise]

I always have problems when I try to use IE to print out or preview my finished TTs. FireFox on the other hand works perfectly everytime. Unfortunately most of the schools where I assist with FET don't have FireFox so we have to download it first, install it and then use it to print and preview FET TTs. This isn't a big problem but some school administrators don't understand why FET can't print directly.

I would like to make a suggestion that at some point you consider printouts directly from FET. This I feel would make it the unltimate TT generator in the world.

Cheers & thanks for a great program.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I have no experience in this field, and also not much time to work on that. So, I leave it for someone else :-)

[Garouda]

Hello,
I don't know if this is the problem you have...
I noticed that there was a problem with printing a document, there were no page breaks, so I added the following line at the beginning of each table:
<p style="page-break-before: always">
Am I wrong doing so?
:question

[Volker Dirr]

There is already always a page break in the documents, so there is no need to add them.
compare this:
http://www.timetabling.de/manual/FET-manual.en.html#id_43

There is only no page break, if you select html level < 2.
Also if you forget to copy the css file there will be now pagebreak. but forgetting to copy that file is pretty flashy, because the whole style of the table change.
But maybe you have a brower that doesn't support css (correct)? (But i don't belive that, because nearly every page use css in the internet).  What brwoser do you use?

[Volker Dirr]

I forgot to say:
You style is not valide.

1. You fogot to close the p-Elemet. There must be also a closing </p>.
2. It is not good to do it in a p Element, because that mean the broser will use some space for a not visible border for that element. that will be critical if you have a table that fill exacly one page. it is much better if you add that pagebreak just in the existing tabel elements (because no extra space needed and also closing table element exist), but like i told it is unneded if you use html level > 1 (compare fet settings and css file)

[Bobby Wise]

You see all these posts reitterate my point about printing the generated solution directly from FET.

How do you explain to an end user all of these different parameters?

If you can 'View' the generated timetable either by teacher or by student group, would it not also be send that same information directly to a printer?

If a users then also requires more layouts then they can use the HTML generated output to achieve that.

Sorry to keep on about this but I have schools all over Namibia in very remote regions and support to these school is very difficult. The direct print option swould make life so much easier.

Unfortuantely I am not capable of modifying the software myself. That is way above my capabilities so I have to rely on people like Liviu.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I am so sorry, but this is not in my expertise. There are many improvements possible, but time is so limited. The algorithm of FET is a nice thing, and for making good algorithms one needs to read books and solve problems. This leaves no time for simpler things, like interface or other convenience functions. There are more alternatives:

1) Poor algorithm in a very nice interface.
2) Good algorithm in a poor interface (FET)
3) Nice algorithm, nice interface (this requires more developers).

:-)

I'll try to think of your proposal, but I don't think I'll be able to do that.

PS: Please try the new 5.12.0 (and report any problems).

[Bobby Wise]

Thanks Liviu,

I have already tested 5.12 on most of my files and it works great. I also like the fact that it requires less memory to run. Most of the schools in Namibia have very limited hardware resources so this can make the difference. Also whether the the program takes 10 minutes or 10 hours to generate a successful timetable, is of no consequence, as long as it eventually works. Which FET does every time.

Really FET is a fantatics program.

Cheers and Season Greetings!

[Liviu Lalescu]

Thank you! Greetings to you too, from snowy Romania :-)