Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Great job Sasler!

:D

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I just installed Catorise and there it is correctly under Utilities. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

uninstalled 'my menu' and installed 'catorise'

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

For me Currency converter is under Learn&Science with MyMenu.

Sasler your welcome, as I voted for the app, then thought to do a bit more thorough usability test, including the bells and whistles.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Currency Converter is now available in Extras. Here is the Download page. Please review it. :)

I will start working on the update as soon as possible. In the mean time, please post here any improvement suggestions you may have.

Once again, thank you for your support and votes. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Excellent work on this application. It is easy to use, and does what it is meant to do without too much end-user tweaking. I even found the tip and tax calculator more useful than I thought it would be.

In terms of UI improvement, there really isn't anything I would change--it is clean and functional.

In terms of added functionality, perhaps the addition of alternative currency rate sources could be explored. For example, other applications use sources like the IMF or the Bank of Canada. I think that the available currencies using the ECB source will be adequate for most people (it is for me), but perhaps offering an alternative may improve coverage for users who need a currency not covered by ECB.

Also, you should consider adding some very basic conversions for situations a traveler may encounter: for example, basic imperial to metric measurement, clothing/shoe size, and temperature. I do realize that other applications exist for measurement conversion, but it would be nice to have the basic conversions a traveler would need all in a single application--if simplicity can be maintained. Again, the beauty of your application is its simplicity--if additional conversion capability introduces too much bloat, then it may not be worth it.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Sasler is it possible for a widget on a desktop that displays currencey maybe 3 different ones and updates automatickly?

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

The best so far... Love it!!!

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

This looks great. I don't think I'll bother implementing currency conversions for Gonvert after seeing this.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I did some searching and found Time Genie as possible additional source for exchange rates. They also use Euro as the base currency, which would make my work easier. These are the currencies they have. They are missing some crucial European currencies, but by combining this with ECB should provide a rather good coverage. I will start working on this as soon as I can. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I yet don't know how to make a widget using Qt 4.5. Well, I haven't even tried it, to tell the truth. ;) But if someone would point me to a sample/doc about it, I might consider to do something like this in the future. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I'm already considering something like that. I'm just trying to figure out how to do it while maintaining the UI simple. One possibility is to have a setting page, not unlike the one for currencies, where one would choose the most used unit conversions. In the main window there would be two Conversion buttons (in addition to the existing currency buttons, of course) and an Unit button. By pressing the Unit button, it would change the Units in the Conversion buttons according to selected preferred conversion units.

Well, this is a working progress. But I'm planning to do something... :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Wow, you app has really a lot of units. Well done! :)

Where did you find the conversion values for all those units? Is there a good web page for it?

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Yeah they have VND vietnam Dong ^^

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Yes, I did actually look for it, just see if they had it, because I had this strange feeling that someone had requested it... :rolleyes: :D

BTW, just for curiosity, are you from there? :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I'm happing to announce that a new version (0.6-1) is now available in Extras-testing. It now includes more than 70 currencies. Please vote for it here.


Thanks :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Here is a list of all currencies present. The exchange rates for these will be retrieved from the internet, either form ECB or Time Genie.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Really great app. Thanks!

For tax and tip, I was wondering if you could make the text any smaller ;)... just kidding. It is really hard to read. Could you make it bigger, or better, have a user option to display it to the left or right of the amount in brackets? Something like this perhaps:

[tip:$15.00] $115.00

or $109.75.00 [tax:$9.75]

Other requests:

1. Portrait mode
2. At least one more currency conversion bar on main screen. (Maybe make additional currency bars available in portrait mode main screen only?)
3. "Settings" bar does need to be on the main screen, normally stowed in the menu (as is update). this would free up room on the ladscape main screen.

Voted.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Thanks :)

This might be a bit tricky, given the limited space. But I'll see if I can do something.

1. I might attempt (emphasis on the word "might") this when Qt 4.6 is out of Beta (in PR1.2 most probably), but not before that.
2. I'm working on something that addresses this. What I have in mind, is to have preselected preferred currencies and then a currency cycle button in the main window.
3. Yes, I'm plaining to move them in the next release.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I just uploaded the version 0.8-3 to Extras-devel. It now has basic unit conversion too! :D

I did some major additions/changes to the code. So before I put it to Extras-testing, I would like to get some feedback. It's fully optified and there shouldn't be any major issues. I just need to know how the UI logic (or illogic ;)) works. So if you are willing to help, please install it and provide some feedback to this thread.


Thanks :)

PS. I haven't done anything to the Help files, so there is no info how to use the new things. Then again, this is a good test to see how well the UI works, because if it's good enough, in theory, it won't need any Help. :p However, since it most probably won't be that good, any help with the Help files would be appreciated. ;)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

This is a valid point personally it would be good for the app to have a secondary or third location to pull the currency conversation data incase your main site goes down, so the user seamlessy keeps working on that 2nd/3rd site and you can release an update to fix it (which there would be no real rush since the user is happily working).

Also i agree with the converstions for other measurements, if you built in a whole load of standard converstions like the iphone app "converter" you would have a very powerful all-in-one app.

Great work !!

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

The version 0.6-1 has already two sources for updating exchange rates. It's currently in Extras-testing.

The version 0.8-3, which I just uploaded to Extras-devel, includes the measurements unit conversions. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

0.6-1 is working great for me--I will vote for it on the testing site

I will see if I have some time to play with 0.8-3 this weekend...

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Works well here. Looks like the settings menu has been replaced - is good.

I also like the way you handled additional ("next") currencies. And adding basic unit conversions just swell :D

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I forgot to mention that the latest version will again restore all settings to defaults, so you will lose the custom currencies. Sorry about that.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I just uploaded version 0.8-4 to Extras-devel. I made some changes/additions to the help files compared to 0.8-3. Also the help files are now context sensitive to the window.

As usual, feedback is appreciated. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

The version 0.6-1 in Extras-testing has enough votes now. Thank you for voting. :)

I still need testers for version 0.8-4 that is in Extras-devel. I would be very grateful for any feedback.

Thanks :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

As there has been requests to add some currencies that are pegged to the US Dollar, I made a new version (0.8-5). In this version there is a Pegged to the US Dollar toggle button in Currency Edit. With this feature the exchange rates are calculated automatically during update for custom currencies that are pegged to the US Dollar.

Unfortunately the autobuilder in maemo.org seems to be broken now, so I'm not able to upload it to Extars-devel. I will do it as soon as it works again. I will notify when it is successfully uploaded.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I finally was able to upload the latest version as the autobuilder is working again. The latest version in Extras-devel is 0.8-6. Please test it.

Thanks :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I played around with 0.8-3 a little this weekend. I have to say that I'm pretty impressed by the improvements since the last release. I like how you can save the currencies and unit conversions that you care about the most. The UI is clean and mostly intuitive.

The unit settings page was a little confusing at first, but I got the hang of it just by playing around with it. My sense is that you can probably leave the layout as is and see if the documentation is adequate. But if you are still getting feedback about the settings layout, you should consider adding headers (maybe in smaller font) to delineate the sections on the left-most column on the page.

Categories
Area
Length

Saved Conversions
Fahrenheit-Celsius
Mile per Hour - Kilometre...

I don't think it's necessary, though. As I said, I figured iout the layout just by playing around with it.

One other set of conversions you should consider implementing is clothing and shoe size conversions. I think that the tricky thing with that is that they may not have set conversion factors--I think you would have to rely on conversion tables for those cases.

Otherwise, great job!

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Yes, I thought about something like this, but the screen space is really limited. But I agree, it's fairly crowded. One way would be to change the category from a list to a cycle button, but that would make it slower.The latest version (0.8-6) has proper documentation. Let's see if that is enough.


I thought about adding them, but after reading about it from the internet, I came to the conclusion that it might be really complicated as there are no real fixed standards. The common advice seem to be to try it before you buy it.

I personally have found out that the best practice when travelling, is simply to ask the person working in the store to help me out to find my size. Not only are they usually able to find the correct size, but they are also able to give me valuable advice like: "Sir, you really do not want to wear something like that. Trust me." A program could never be able to do something like that! :D


Thanks :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I'm happy to announce that the version 0.6-1 made it to Extras. Thank you for the votes. :)

The version 0.8-7 is now in Extras-testing. Please test it and vote for it here.

Cheers! :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I've just upgraded to the latest version. Having VND in there by default is especially useful for me now, considering I am in Hanoi :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

I think this all great and will vote, but I still prefer to see the tip/tax amount in a readable font size and/or color. Hope that's coming. Thanks!

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Yeah, I didn't have the time to do that yet. I will see what I can do about it in the next release. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Currency Converter 0.8-7 has enough votes now. Thank you for all who voted. :)

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Sasler,

Great progress on this app. As I've probably mentioned before, it is not only very useful but very polished!

A couple of minor suggestions:
1. On the unit conversion screen, you should swap the positions of the "Currency" and "Next Unit" buttons in order to maintain consistency with the layout on the currency screen
2. Also on the main unit conversion screen, you should grey out the "Tip" and "Tax" buttons. I tried calculating a tip, but pressing the button did not work until I realized that I was on the Unit screen and not the Currency screen. Greying out those buttons on the Unit screen should eliminate confusion
3. You should update the help screens to reflect that you have many more currencies available now

Again, great job!

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Thanks :)

1. There is actually only one main screen. Only the button text is changed when switching between currencies and units. But maybe I could have a dedicated Switch and Next button. I have to think of that.
2. Yes, I agree. Initially I had Tax and Tip buttons functional while in Unit mode, but that was silly. But, if I remember correctly, in Maemo 5 design guidelines it was pointed out that disabling buttons was not supported (or recommended, I can't remember which). But I could just hide them or something.
3. In the main help page it says that there are "more than 70 preset currencies". This was not there originally when there were about 30. But do you think I should have it more visible?

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep them on mind. I also need to figure out something clever for the too small tax and tip text. However, I'm now waiting for the next firmware (PR1.2) version with Qt 4.6 framework as this app is done with the current 4.5. There is a possibility that I need to repack/fix it before it works well (or at all). So that is my priority now. Try to make sure that it works and, if not, release an update as soon as possible.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Great app. Just a couple of suggestions/questions.

1. Any chance of adding the Nigerian currency (Naira)? There are quite a few African countries on there but seems strange to be missing the currency for by far the most populous African country. I know you can add custom currencies and I have added it myself but each time I go back it has disappeared (maybe it only happens after a switch off or hard reset but still frustrating to have to keep readding).

2. On the former version when you add currency you could use any other currency to set the rate. However, on the latest version it has to be either Euro or dollars. Not ideal for me as I need to use Pound to determine Naira rate and this was what I did previously. Of course I can use the Pound to Euro rate to work out the Euro to Naira rate but seems alot of calculation to go into for each new currency and especially since the new currencies seem to disappear from the application.

Re: [Announce] Currency Converter
 

Thanks :)

1. It should retain the custom currencies. However, in the past few updates I had to reset the currencies, so they were lost. But I hope in future updates I don't have to do that any more.
2. No, it used to be Euro only, now it is also US Dollar. Is Naira pegged to the Pound?