Questions about Extender-Code-Calc v3.00

[ElizabethD]

Mike,
My version is from 3/5/2004 from yahoo, as is readme. I see that one is posted here with the same date. Even though it’s beta version, I have few questions:
1. In the dropdown for selecting RDF, there are two identical items for 8910. May I assume they refer to the same thing?
2. [breakdown] may report ??? I’m not attaching examples on purpose, as at this time, I just want to get a general feeling what things mean and what to expect.
3. Are the sheets other than [Calculator] meant to be locked down ?
4. If not, on [keymoves calc] what is supposed to be the effect of pushing the “hex>> buttons” control? I can’t get it to do anything, it just stares at me. Please help, as this is a wonderful utility, and I’d love to use more features.
Oh, my RDFs are v117.

I hope none of this causes major development effort this time

[ElizabethD]

Day-later note:
Clarification of item 2: what user errors are likely to report ???
Please, ignore item 4, I know why it's like that and I have a workaround.

[mr_d_p_gumby]

1. In the dropdown for selecting RDF, there are two identical items for 8910. May I assume they refer to the same thing?

That would tend to indicate that you have more than one RDF file for the 8910 in your RDF folder. The list of remotes is derived from the RDF filenames, and is not checked for duplicates. In your case, I suspect each entry refers to a different RDF file.

2. [breakdown] may report ??? I’m not attaching examples on purpose, as at this time, I just want to get a general feeling what things mean and what to expect.

'???' is an error display, and might be due to any number of reasons, so without an example, it's hard to say why you encountered this.

3. Are the sheets other than [Calculator] meant to be locked down ?

I'm not clear on what you mean by locked down. All three sheets have protection turned on to prevent formulas and formats from being accidentally modified. The scroll area is locked to the active area of the sheet to keep you from getting lost. Other than that, there's nothing special going on. You can turn off the protection (there's no password) if you want.

4. If not, on [keymoves calc] what is supposed to be the effect of pushing the “hex>> buttons” control? I can’t get it to do anything, it just stares at me.

Mark could probably answer this better than I can, since he's the orginator of the ECC spreadsheet (and these buttons ). As I recall, the Hex Cmd >> Buttons button reads the data in the Hex Cmd column, decodes it, and fills in the correct data in the Button Strokes column. The Hex Cmd << Buttons button does the reverse. They're mainly useful if you are typing the data in manually, rather than pasting it from IR.

Oh, my RDFs are v117.

The RDFs need to have an [Extender] section to give full benefit to ECC. These were added in v1.15, so later versions are fine.

[Mark Pierson]

Mark could probably answer this better than I can, since he's the orginator of the ECC spreadsheet (and these buttons ).

Actually, you need to blame Hal for them! He added the KeyMove Calc sheet and all its functionality.

As I recall, the Hex Cmd >> Buttons button reads the data in the Hex Cmd column, decodes it, and fills in the correct data in the Button Strokes column. The Hex Cmd << Buttons button does the reverse.

I believe this is correct.

[ElizabethD]

First of all, this is a fabulous addition to KM and IR, so big thanks for providing it.
Bottom line regarding my sad story is that all issues, except part of the last one, are now resolved, as most were due to my errors.

One comment and follow up question about #4 - conversions:
No problem with conversions, it's a small thing: Due to the structure of what’s on the clipboard coming from IR, ExtCalc aborts and does not translate anything. Remove couple rows and EC works great .
I have a question regarding this:

The Hex Cmd << Buttons button does the reverse. They're mainly useful if you are typing the data in manually, rather than pasting it from IR

I must be misinterpreting something because readme suggests this use:

3. 'KeyMove Calc' sheet
This is the expert bulk mode KeyMove code calculator. You can convert
a KeyMove list copied from IR to button strokes, make changes with
Excel's find & replace command or a text editor of your choice, and
then convert them back to KeyMove codes that you can import back into IR.

I can see that what you’re suggesting can actually be done in IR anyway. But the big-list handling while setting up a remote for the first time, is fabulous. The list does get translated so you can actually know, quickly, what you coded previously. I haven’t looked into the effect of/on the notes field in IR yet, that comes next.

Several responses to your kind answers are in order:
Re #1 – yes. I had two RDFs, oops. The one in RDF directory plus a leftover from, I think, extinstall run in IR directory.
Re #2 – was my error and EC couldn’t decode some wrong hex numbers. Simple.
Re #3 – Yes, I was refering to ‘protected’ and did get in without a password, so this no longer is a problem. Also, I must have been using it with my eyes closed and tried to paste hex codes without using the button and excel didn’t think kindly of that idea. Thing is my mouse has been trained by Mark He drilled into the poor thing to do paste special/values always. Now when excel is anywhere near jp1 that’s the only thing the mouse does . Sorry for the alarm.

[Mark Pierson]

Thing is my mouse has been trained by Mark He drilled into the poor thing to do paste special/values always. Now when excel is anywhere near jp1 that’s the only thing the mouse does

If only I could have that same power over my kids!

[ElizabethD]

If only I could have that same power over my kids!

No way. Don't even dream about it. It just doesn't work that way

[mr_d_p_gumby]

Due to the structure of what’s on the clipboard coming from IR, ExtCalc aborts and does not translate anything. Remove couple rows and EC works great

ECC was written before IR v5.xx was released, so some of the latest changes to IR may have impacted what gets copied to the clipboard. (It was tested to work with IR v4.xx.)

I must be misinterpreting something because readme suggests this use:

3. 'KeyMove Calc' sheet
This is the expert bulk mode KeyMove code calculator. You can convert
a KeyMove list copied from IR to button strokes, make changes with
Excel's find & replace command or a text editor of your choice, and
then convert them back to KeyMove codes that you can import back into IR.

I can see that what you’re suggesting can actually be done in IR anyway. But the big-list handling while setting up a remote for the first time, is fabulous. The list does get translated so you can actually know, quickly, what you coded previously.

As Mark said above, Hal was the one who created the KeyMove sheet, and I'm sure he supplied the instructions in the readme file as well. It probably does what he says. As for Mark and myself, about all we've done with it is to make sure any changes we made to the spreadsheet don't stop it from doing what it was doing before.

Also, I must have been using it with my eyes closed and tried to paste hex codes without using the button and excel didn’t think kindly of that idea.

This is one case where you really do need to use the button; it does more than just pasting the data into the sheet. On the other hand, Excel seldom takes kindly to any attempt to take a shortcut method...

If only I could have that same power over my kids!

No way. Don't even dream about it. It just doesn't work that way

Now, if only the kids would come equipped with USB ports...

[ElizabethD]

Once more, many thanks. Chronology helps me understand a bit.

As for Mark and myself, about all we've done with it is to make sure any changes we made to the spreadsheet don't stop it from doing what it was doing before.

Regression tests make sense to me.

Also, I must have been using it with my eyes closed and tried to paste hex codes without using the button and excel didn’t think kindly of that idea.

This is one case where you really do need to use the button; it does more than just pasting the data into the sheet. On the other hand, Excel seldom takes kindly to any attempt to take a shortcut method...

Actually I described this too generally. Clarification: This one occured in [breakdown]. Attempt to paste without using the button caused Excel to complain that you can't paste into merged cells, then about protection. My initial alternative was to unprotect, unmerge and paste. It was this that made me ask about the whole thing being protected. So on this sheet at least, the button should be used.

Regarding the ever important issue of kids - I've accepted the fact that the training goes the other way, from kids to you, in most non-life-threatning situations . I mean, who can REALLY program a VCR in the house?