[Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I've written (in C/gtk+) a simple little app I call maeFat, which is intended to help you keep track of how your weight is changing. It is currently in the Extras-devel repository, but I plan to push it into Extras-tesing in about a week.

maeFat is similar to the Hacker Diet tools, but it is optimized for the N900. It uses Hildon widgets, and the keyboard is not needed to enter daily weight data.

Documentation for the app is available in the Maemo wiki:

http://wiki.maemo.org/MaeFat

I hope this app is useful to someone besides me. If you use it and want some changes implemented, please let me know!

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Mee-fat for Meego. lol

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Hi,
thank you very much for this application, I'm currently using WeightJinni but yours seems a bit more user friendly :)
I noticed two things:
1) in the Settings screen there are some problems editing values of height and target weight using hardware kbd (you have to enter data "from right to left" pointing the caret on the left of the last digit, otherwise current digits are overwritten by the new ones entered);
2) after closing and reopening (I entered only the settings and my current weight) the application doesn't do anything (only black screen, no graph display and it doesn't react to any input);
Keep up the good work :)
bye!

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Yes, unfortunately this is a bug with the gtk widgets running on Maemo 5. I don't think I can fix it. Luckily, the on-screen keyboard works properly, and even if you must struggle with the hardware keyboard, you normally will not need to re-enter your height and traget weight very often.

Hmmm - I've not seen that. Could you email me the contents of the settings file and data file (orrery.moko@gmail.com) so I can try to reproduce the bug and fix it (feel free to change the weight and height data!) ?

Also, if you can dump your data from WeightJinni, I can convert it to the format that maeFat uses, and send it back to you.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Why don't you use Hildon widgets instead of plain GTK widgets? I think the former should integrate better with the whole system. I'll download the source code and in my spare time (very low ATM) I could try to help you contributing some sources (I don't have the build system so I'll try to send some "blind" patches ;) )


Well, I think I have found the problem: enetering only ONE weight data (just one row in the data file) the program doesn't start correctly, I entered 2 or more items and everything worked well.
I noticed there could be two problems:
1) it seems if you don't enter any comment some char pointer goes in buffer overflow because all the other comments in the graph become crap strings (and the data file will be corrupted in strings);
2) there is a strange behaviour with weight amounts, I entered 4 values in 4 different dates but when I reopen the program these values are rounded or something else (i.e I entered 69,5 Kg on February 9th but when I reopen the program, the data chart and the log show only 69 Kg, the same for other values in other days so the log and the chart show uncorrect values);

Don't mind about my current data, I started my weight control program last month and I have only 4 samples :)
Thank you in advance, bye! :)

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I use Hildon widgets for everything except the height and target weight. The problem with Hildon widgets for entering a floating point value is that you must anticipate the full range of permissible values, and the granularity with which one might want to enter the data, and then populate an enormous scrolling widget with every possible value. For the daily weight, I can use the last weight as a guess. But I have no initial guess for the height and target weight.


I don't see that behavior - I only have a few comments in my table, and it works properly. Could you email me an example of a table that exibits the bad behavior?

Thanks for the detailed error report. I don't use metric units myself, so there may be bugs I have not tracked down. I'll try to find the rounding problem you mentioned. I found another couple of very minor bugs, so I'll be uploading a new version in a few days.

Thanks again for giving the app a try. I hope I can whip it into good enough shape for it to be useful to at least one other person.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I had the same problem and I think changing the decimal mark of the data from comma to point has solved it.

EDIT: Hmm, It seems that it did not entirely solve the problem. Is it possible that maefat uses only point when parsing the data and writing data with regional standard decimal mark? I've changed my regional settings to a country in which point is a standard and now it seems to be fine.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I've uploaded a new version with some bug fixes.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Couple of bugs I've found:
* If I add weight points in non-chronological order, for example a data point today then a data point from week back, the graph becomes messy zig-zag. The program does not sort the data timewise before drawing the graph?
* If I try to delete the last data point from log-screen, the program just shuts down and does not remove the selected data point. Could this possibly be related to a comma/dot separator problem?

Also the two bugs already mentioned seems to be still present in the latest version:
* When using SI-units (kg's, cm's) and/or comma as a separator, the entered weights get rounded into full integers.
* Setting the height and target weight is a pain with the physical keyboard. I prefer to have the on-screen keyboard disabled.

Thanks anyway for the good work! I'll be waiting for the next version.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Hi,

Do you have plans to add translations to maeFat ? If so, I could do a french translation (my gf has a N900 too but doesn't read english, and this app would be interesting for her).

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I'd certainly be interested in trying to "internationalize" the app. I had better fix the bugs that others have pointed out first, so that I have a solid app that's worth translating. I've never internationalized a program before, and this one is so simple it might be a good one to start with. Je parle un tres petit peu de francais, so I might be able to make a start on a french version (which a real french speaker will no doubt find laughable).

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

OK, your priority in fixing first the bugs is well understandable.

When you start internationalizing your app, if you need some help to write/correct french translation, don't hesitate to send me a private message.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Nice and useful app.

I have a feature request: would it be possible to track also the circumference of the belly? I find this value to be a useful tool.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I will add that as an option.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I have a bug in mine, often the data entries get changed, I enetered a weight today of 78.2 and it shows now 78,0 and this is often, I keep having to delete an re enter weights

also what is and why is there 2 colonnes blue and yellow in the log window

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I'm sorry, the first version I pushed into Extras-Devel was very buggy. I should have tested it more exhaustively before suggesting that anyone else try it. I will upload a new version soon, with all reported bugs corrected, and some new features added. I believe the problem you are seeing with the weights being rounded off is related to the use of a coma being used for a decimal separator (pi = 3,1415 ...) rather than a period (pi = 3.1415 ...). I'll have that issue fixed in the next version. Thanks for the bug report.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

The green values in the log window are the data values that you enterred. The yellow values are the trend values calculated for those days.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I've uploaded a new version of maeFat. It has many bugs fixed, and now will estimate when you will reach your weight goal. One change is bound to cause confusion, I'm afraid. The logic on the data entry page has been changed. There used to be a button allowing you to exit that page without entering a new data point. The data point was entered if you exited the page with the curved arrow on the upper right of the page. Now, there is a button to push if you want the data entered. If you use the arrow in the upper right to exit, the data is NOT entered. This change was made at the suggestion of another user. I'm sorry for the confusing change, but this logic does seem more natural.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

I believe the problem with floats being rounded when the device regional settings use a comma as the decimal separator has been fixed. Since that was the last show-stopper bug I knew about, I have promoted the package (version 1.5.0-1) to Extras-Testing.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

hi, love this app!

but i have a simple request, i'm trying to gain weight, and the trend tool shows colours fine (yellow for moderately underweight) but for everything else it says weightgain is bad, and i'm eating too many calories.

i hope it's not too difficult, but could you implement a "gain" or "lose" switch?
would make this app less demoralising/confusing for those trying to gain weight :P

oh, and the method for seeing your log is very confusing. would you be able to implement a "see log" button underneath your selected month rather then having to press the back button?
(in people's minds, that should take them back to the homescreen)

thanks!

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

i find weight graph much better, but even that app has its annoyances

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Thanks for the suggestions. I have made the changes that you recommended above, and have uploaded the new version to Extras-Devel.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Are there any changes I could make to maeFat which would make the program useful to you?

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Hi,

Good work, nice to have a native implementation of the Hacker's Diet.

However, this program crashed for me on entering my weight on the third day, ie the third value. It now also hangs on start-up.

I think I'm running the latest version - there was one update via application manager, which I installed.

Cheers.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Thanks for the bug report. I'm sorry it isn't working for you, and I'll try to fix the problem. Could I get you to email me the files .maeFat/settings and .maeFat/data ? If I have those files, I should be able to get my version to crash in the way yours does, and fix it more quickly. My address is orrery.moko@gmail.com.

Thanks again for trying my app!

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Hi,

I took a look at the data file. Not much to see, as only three time/weight entries.

However, the time given for the third entry was 6:60! (The reading was actually taken before 7am).

Changing this to 6:59 means that the program now starts up fine.

Cheers.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

OK, I'll put in a trap for that, and upload a fixed version this evening. I get my times from a Hildon time widget - I wonder if the widget itself has a bug. Anyway, sounds like an easy thing to fix. Thanks for the report.

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Hello,

Are you planning to port it for N9? Maefat will be the application that I will certainly miss a lot if not...

Thanks for the maefat,
nibbe

Re: [Announce] maeFat: Weight Tracking Tool
 

Ken, I would like to thank you for your great work.
Maefat helped me control my weight before my wedding and despite I didn't reach my target (it was a very hard mission!) I lost about 4kg in 3 months, which was a great result :)
I use maefat now to maintain my status (and hopefully lose some other kilos ;) ) and I want to donate a little sum to thank you, can you point me at a Paypal account or something similar? :)
Thank you, bye!