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[blgentry]

I think this is allowed, but let me know if I'm out of line posting it here.

I've written a free Android app that some people will find useful.

Count On Me is an app for counting anything.  Playing a board game with friends?  Use Count On Me to keep track of everyone's wins.  Count your collections of anything you collect (stamps, coffee cups, etc).  There are lots of everyday uses where you just don't want to use paper and pencil to count things up, but you need to count them.  Count On Me makes it easy with multiple counters (unlimited) and individual properties per counter (title, etc).



Count On Me is a free download on the Google Play store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stinkydogsoftware.countonme

I'd enjoy hearing any feedback anyone has to offer.

Thanks,

Brian.

[blgentry]

I realize this isn't a terribly exciting app.    But I think it's useful for a lot of tasks.

Thanks to anyone who downloaded it to try it out.  I don't get anything out of this.  I'd just like to get it into more people's hands to get their impressions, good or bad.  Thanks again.

Brian.

[Awesome Donkey]

Huh, just noticed this. Will come in handy when playing games.

[glynor]

That's pretty cool, Brian!

I use Soulver* on iOS for basically that purpose (works great for playing board/dice games where you have to keep score). But I've often wanted, for things where scores only increment in 1s, something more like this.

Too bad it is on Android (for me). I'd try it out, and I'd have paid $3 or so for it.  

* Soulver, by the way, is about the coolest app you can imagine. It is useful for much, much more than just keeping scores in games (and is available for OSX as well).

[blgentry]

Thanks Glynor.  Soulvr looks sort of like an impromptu, fast spreadsheet.

Count On Me, is more of a counter. Which, BTW, can count in other increments too.  If you want each tap to add 5 to the total, you can do that, individually, per counter.  But back to what it's for:

Let's say you are going to replace all of the light switch covers in your house.  With like a different color, or yours are all broken, or whatever.  You can make a counter for each type of light switch cover: singe, double, triple.  Then just walk around the house, tapping + each time you see a light switch.  Using the appropriate counter of course.  When you see a double light switch, you tap + on the counter that says "double light switch".  When you're done, you'll have a (hopefully) accurate count of all of the different types of light switches (and their cover plates) in your house.  Then just go to the store with the app in your pocket and you know how many of each types of covers to buy.

It's got lots of uses.  You can imagine the possibilities.  I have a pro version planned with more advanced features.  But I'm having a really hard time getting Count On Me noticed at all, so I haven't put any real programming into the pro version just yet.

Thanks for looking.

Brian.

[mwillems]

It's a neat app!  I fiddled with it last night.  I'm the Dungeon Master of a long running D&D campaign and this seems like it would be almost perfect for some of the numbers and running tallies I currently use a scratch pad for.

Three suggestions that would improve my app experience:

1) Maybe a way to turn off the "are you sure" toasts that pop up whenever you press the clear or delete options or allow for a gesture to dismiss a counter? I would be using this app to replace a pencil in my right hand, and I need to be able to work fast and one-handed (I need to roll dice with the other hand).  I found those toasts really slowed me down in testing (which I understand is the point), but an option to just get rid of one or clear it quickly would be nice. The most elegant solution is probably to use gestures to dismiss or clear ala archiving in G-mail (swipe left to dismiss a counter, swipe right to clear, etc.); that would allow for quick use and would allow you to potentially remove some of the "chrome" from the counters.

2) I need to keep about 8 or 9 tallies going at once.  I fiddled with the size settings, but even when set to small the counters are still very large on my Galaxy Note.  I would have no trouble using counters that were half that size, i.e. 8 counters on the screen at once.

3) I noticed that there's an option to set the counter total to a specific number in the "pen" menu; would it make sense to let you set the counter by pressing (short or long) on the number in the counter itself?  In my use case I'm almost never counting up from zero, but rather incrementing down from some number, so diving into the pen menu to do that was definitely a pain point in my testing.

Obviously, mine is an idiosyncratic use case, so take the suggestions in the spirit they're offered  .  I thought I'd provide some feedback regardless as it might prove helpful for other applications as well.  Thanks for making such a neat and nice looking app.

[blgentry]

1) Maybe a way to turn off the "are you sure" toasts that pop up whenever you press the clear or delete options or allow for a gesture to dismiss a counter?

I'm fairly confident I can add that as a settings/option to do away with confirmations.  Would you want all confirmations to go away?  Or just some?  Confirmations exist for:

Clear Counter
Delete Counter
Lock/Unlock Counter
Clear All Counters

I'm guessing you're mostly interested in clear individual counter, but you tell me.

2) I need to keep about 8 or 9 tallies going at once.  I fiddled with the size settings, but even when set to small the counters are still very large on my Galaxy Note.  I would have no trouble using counters that were half that size, i.e. 8 counters on the screen at once.

I've just spent a bit of time adding an "extra small" size.  On my emulator that's 1280 pixels high, I can now fit 6 (and a fraction) counters on the screen.  That's double what my original small setting would do.  But it seems to be making my icons a little ugly.  At least on the screens I have to play with.  I'll see if I can put up a beta version and PM you a link to it... assuming you'd be willing to test it?

3) I noticed that there's an option to set the counter total to a specific number in the "pen" menu; would it make sense to let you set the counter by pressing (short or long) on the number in the counter itself?  In my use case I'm almost never counting up from zero, but rather incrementing down from some number, so diving into the pen menu to do that was definitely a pain point in my testing.

This starts to get a lot more involved.  Let me work on the first two and think about this one.

EDIT:  Would it be helpful if the new counter button opened the edit (pencil) screen automatically when the new counter was created?  That way you could set counter properties right as you made them?  I could make that behavior switchable (on/off) as a setting.

Brian.

[mwillems]

I'm fairly confident I can add that as a settings/option to do away with confirmations.  Would you want all confirmations to go away?  Or just some?  Confirmations exist for:

Clear Counter
Delete Counter
Lock/Unlock Counter
Clear All Counters

I'm guessing you're mostly interested in clear individual counter, but you tell me.

Clear and delete are the one's I'd be most interested in.

I've just spent a bit of time adding an "extra small" size.  On my emulator that's 1280 pixels high, I can now fit 6 (and a fraction) counters on the screen.  That's double what my original small setting would do.  But it seems to be making my icons a little ugly.  At least on the screens I have to play with.  I'll see if I can put up a beta version and PM you a link to it... assuming you'd be willing to test it?

Sure, it might take me a minute due to family responsibilities, but I'll give it a hack.

EDIT:  Would it be helpful if the new counter button opened the edit (pencil) screen automatically when the new counter was created?  That way you could set counter properties right as you made them?  I could make that behavior switchable (on/off) as a setting.

That would be helpful as a setting I think.

[blgentry]

I've made all of the changes above, including several options for disabling confirmations.  Google is currently processing it.  I'll post the link to the newly uploaded Beta once Google says it's available.  Hopefully not more than an hour or two.

Brian.

[blgentry]

That was pretty quick.  The new beta is published.  Anyone can opt in to test the beta by going to this link:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.stinkydogsoftware.countonme

Thanks,

Brian.

[mwillems]

That was pretty quick.  The new beta is published.  Anyone can opt in to test the beta by going to this link:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.stinkydogsoftware.countonme

Thanks,

Brian.

Rad, I'll give it a shot when I get home.

[blgentry]

I'm not sure if you've gotten a chance to test my beta version yet.  But I had another thought or two...

In my use case I'm almost never counting up from zero, but rather incrementing down from some number, so diving into the pen menu to do that was definitely a pain point in my testing.

In the past I had considered a few options:

1.  In the edit menu for each counter, have a "clear to this value" field.  So that clearing the counter, would return it to a specific number.  This could be used as a starting value.  Like if you were counting down from 12, pressing clear would return you to 12 each time.
2.  This same option (the "clear to value") could be settable as as default for all new counters.  This would make all new counters you created start at this value and clear to this value.
3.  I have several "new counter default" fields that are settable in settings.  But what if new counters (optionally) took the last values you gave to a new counter?  This would include all settings including title.  This might help make repetitive counters easier to generate.  I would make this an option that you could turn on or off.

Do any of these sound useful?

Thanks,

Brian.

[DJLegba]

Hi Brian. I downloaded your app and I'm going to give it a try. I have glaucoma and my medication regime has changed from simple (drops before bed) to something more complicated (different drops with different schedules). There may be a "manage your meds" app out there, but yours seems like a pretty simple way of keeping track of daily prescription compliance.

[blgentry]

I certainly did not envision any medical use of my app when I wrote it!  But it's neat that you might get some value from using it that way.  If it ends up working well for you, I would think that was really awesome!  If not, no big deal.  Thanks for trying it out. 

Brian.

[mwillems]

Hey sorry for the slow reply, I got side-tracked and haven't gotten back to the app.  I'll weigh back in once I've had a chance to test more.

[blgentry]

I decided to add the "clear to this count" property and I've published that to the beta test area.  The list of new features in the beta are:

* New extra small size option for counters.  Should fit 6 to 8 counters at once on most screens.  Still defaults to normal size.
* New options to disable different pop up confirmations individually.  Located in Settings.
* When creating new counters, the edit screen is automatically opened.  This can be turned off in Settings.
* Hardware volume keys can be used to count up and down.  Selectable per counter in properties.
* New "clear to this value" property.  If you set this to say, 7, then when you clear the counter it will reset to 7.  This is useful for count downs from some number down to zero.

Anyone can download the beta version from here:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.stinkydogsoftware.countonme

Once I've received some feedback and it seems to be good to go, I'll put it on the public download page.

Thanks,

Brian.

[blgentry]

After testing the beta a bit, I decided to implement a new "compact mode" that takes away all of the title bar buttons on the counters.  It looks pretty decent, so I've published it to the beta site.  See attached screen shots that show the original mode, compact mode with small counters, and compact mode with extra small counters.  Notice that locked counters, now dim to visually indicate their locked status.









Full list of new features in the beta:

* Optional compact mode removes all title bar buttons, replacing them with an overflow menu on each counter.  Note that compact mode is forced for extra small counters, but optional for other sizes.
* New extra small size option for counters.  Should fit 6 to 8 counters at once on most screens.  Still defaults to normal size.
* New options to disable different pop up confirmations individually.  Located in Settings.
* When creating new counters, the edit screen is automatically opened.  This can be turned off in Settings.
* Hardware volume keys can be used to count up and down.  Selectable per counter in properties.
* New "clear to this value" property.  If you set this to say, 7, then when you clear the counter it will reset to 7.  This is useful for count downs from some number down to zero.

The beta is available here for anyone:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.stinkydogsoftware.countonme

Brian.

[mwillems]

Hey Brian,

Sorry for the delay, I got to spend some time with the app this afternoon, and (for my use case) it's much improved.  The smaller counters and the popup to set the starting value are exactly what I needed.  The "clear to" option is particularly useful for my use case (I need certain counters to return to specific numbers with regularity, so that's a nice touch).

It's basically feature complete for my use case; you probably didn't imagine it as a DM tool in the beginning, but it'll be in rotation at my next session!

[blgentry]

MWilliems,

Thanks for taking the time to test the beta.  I'm glad the improvements helped.  Late yesterday I started experimenting with a long press on the count allowing you to set the count value directly.  Same for the title:  Long press to set it directly.  I've got both working, but they aren't exactly as I want them to be.  I'll probably put them in the next beta release.

About the size of the counters in extra small:  Small enough?  Too small?  If they are "just right", I'm going to push this build public today or tomorrow.

Thanks again,

Brian.

[mwillems]

I can get just more than seven counters on my screen with the extra small, which is about as many as I'd want.  I'm not sure I could reliably hit the targets with much smaller buttons in any case, so they're a good size for me.

Long press to set will be rad if you get it going.

[blgentry]

I've added two new minor features:

* Press and hold on counter title to change the title.
* Press and hold number display to change the count.

These features, plus all the ones outlined above are now in the public build on the google play store.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stinkydogsoftware.countonme

Enjoy.

Brian.