Revised tutorial for "JP1-Just How Easy Is it?" us

[alex750]

A revised HTML tutorial for RM is now available here. To use it, simply unzip it, and replace the "tutorial" folder in your RemoteMaster directory with this one.

• Updated to match current version of RMIR. Removed all references to IR.exe, except for "Legacy KM/IR version" link at top.
• Links for Java download and assorted VM vendors (Parallels, VMware, Oracle) are now included.
• Instructions for Mac and Linux users have been added. Windows instructions have been updated and expanded.
• Screenshots are from Mac OS X—easier to read and much better looking
• Cleaned up some spelling and punctuation errors.
• Added some brief mentions of advanced topics (phantom buttons, extenders).
• Added a "Danger, Will Robinson" warning about messing with raw data.
• Dead links to JP1 cable vendors are now gone; there's also a plug for Tommy's most excellent USB cable.
• Other miscellaneous revisions, including some trivia about a certain Pioneer LaserDisc player...

Note to webmaster: If this revision meets with your approval, please upload it to the main hifi-remote.com site.

EDIT: Release Candidate 2 is now available. Link above points to this.

• Edited some erroneous statements concerning PogoPin sets. (THX Tommy!)

[gfb107]

Thanks Alex.

There are now multiple versions of this tutorial:

• Alex's updated version of the tutorial bundled with RMIR
• The JP1 version here
• The JP1 Wiki version here
• The RM Wiki version here, hosted on Sourceforge.net

Obviously, there is a lot of duplication of information between these, but some also have some unique information that the others don't. Some also have obsolete information. I think we need to consolidate all of these into a single tutorial and eliminate all the others. To me it makes the most sense to use the JP1 Wiki for this, although I am slightly concerned about users not having access when they are offline. I may be able to write some sort of wiki-scraping-script to create an offline version that is updated to match the wiki at every release.

Is anybody willing to do the work?

[vickyg2003]

Alex, we'd be happy to have you in the wiki forum. We've had some problems with spammers up there so you need to PM the_Robman or me to get a user account set up.

[xnappo]

I may be able to write some sort of wiki-scraping-script to create an offline version that is updated to match the wiki at every release.

Is anybody willing to do the work?

Not a scraper, but going to the Wiki, then 'Printable Version' then doing a Save-as in Firebox makes a complete offline copy.

Obviously, since I did the Wiki version, I think we should merge there I don't think the differences are all that huge - a lot of these edits I made when I ported it over - pretty MacOS excluded

xnappo

[gfb107]

Not a scraper, but going to the Wiki, then 'Printable Version' then doing a Save-as in Firebox makes a complete offline copy.

The printable version might work temporarily, but I really would want to do it in an automated fashion, so it would happen automatically every time I create a new release of RM.

If it's an extra manual step, I can guarantee that I will forget to do it.

Obviously, since I did the Wiki version, I think we should merge there I don't think the differences are all that huge - a lot of these edits I made when I ported it over - pretty MacOS excluded

I think you just volunteered!

I agree that the JP1 wiki version is pretty close. One thing I would like to see included, from the RM wiki version (since I wrote the code and the wiki ), is using the decode ignore, sorting by column, and column reordering features to facilitate copy'n'paste from the learned signals tab to a device upgrade.

I really appreciate the work Alex has done, but given that the vast majority of JP1ers are Windows users, I think it makes the most sense to use screen captures from Windows. It certainly makes sense to point out places where Linux and/or Mac OS/X users will see something significantly different, but I do think the majority of the screen captures should show what Windows users will see.

[vickyg2003]

I agree that the JP1 wiki version is pretty close. One thing I would like to see included, from the RM wiki version (since I wrote the code and the wiki ), is using the decode ignore and column reordering features to facilitate copy'n'paste from the learned signals tab to a device upgrade.

I didn't know you could do that. I'm looking forward to finding out how to use that feature.

[The Robman]

Alex, I have created an account for you on the Wiki site. Your password is your email address.

[eferz]

Alex, I have created an account for you on the Wiki site. Your password is your email address.

What's his email address?

[vickyg2003]

Alex, I have created an account for you on the Wiki site. Your password is your email address.

What's his email address?

If you knew that it wouldn't be a secure password.

[eferz]

Alex, I have created an account for you on the Wiki site. Your password is your email address.

What's his email address?

If you knew that it wouldn't be a secure password.

Hehee. Hopefully, its just a temporary password and he's wasn't born on January 20, 1983

[alex750]

If only I had remembered the wiki, I might have saved myself the trouble of updating all that HTML!

Anyway, I've been to the wiki. The information there is much better; I only had to add a little bit about where to get Java, and how to get RemoteMaster running on various OSes (under the topic "Installing RMIR and preparing it for use"). And I'll concede to gfb107 that recent Windows screenshots (XP or newer) are probably more appropriate, but the HTML tutorial included with RMIR still had screenshots dating from RM 1.00 (and IR 5.x) running on what looked like Windows 95...and I didn't believe screenshots from Ubuntu 11.04 would make much sense, given that that OS is probably even more alien than Mac OS X to most JP1ers.

For the record, I run all three: Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" on my MacBook, and Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" (64 bit) and Windows 2000 SP4 on my 'junk box special' PC. I don't have a Windows screenshot utility.

Hope this helps...

[vickyg2003]

I don't have a Windows screenshot utility.

I use MS paint that came with Windows.

Its nice to have another wiki contributor.

[vickyg2003]

I was looking at the wiki changes and I do have a concern about where you are recommending to install RMIR

For Windows machines, we recommend \Program Files\RemoteMaster, or perhaps \Program Files\JP1\RemoteMaster.

Is the current RMIR windows complaiant and stable enough to be installed in the Program Files area on the newer windows operating system?

For a while there I was strongly recommending against installing RM in the Program Files folder because it was a problem in Vista. Most of the older JP1 programs break "program files" rules, and end up shoving things in hidden virtual stores that are hard to get access to fix.

I don't have access to a Vista or later machine to make sure this has been fixed.

[The Robman]

My recommendation is to save all JP1 stuff under a folder called "JP1".

[The Robman]

.. and Windows 2000 SP4 on my 'junk box special' PC. I don't have a Windows screenshot utility.

To capture a screen shot in Windows, all you need to do is press the "Print Screen" button (to the right of the F12 button), then paste it into whichever photo editing software that you use. Personally, I paste it into Microsoft Photo Editor (which comes free with Office).