Handifast HHX v3

[headhawg]

As usual, Handi has inspired me to write code.

I am making progress on HHX v3. It will be essentially use the same calculations as before but the program will have some added features like the numbers from Doug's RCV program, the ability to autoscratch, up to 12 tracks, and some other formatting changes. I've posted a screen shot of the main window. The toolbar buttons will change from what you see now to ones that represent the main functions of HHX. That way users will be able to either click on those or use the menu. The completed program is at least two months away, but I wanted to let users know that I was getting to it. If you care.

BTW, the big blank section below the toolbar will be where the data output is. The output files will be in html format and will be displayed within HHX in that spot, or you will be able to open them in the browser of your choice so that you can take advantage of the tabs. That's the plan anyway.

[headhawg]

Just a second shot with the track/date listed in the combobox. Sorry for the big pix; they didn't look too good in a smaller size.

[headhawg]

I wanted to mention that some other features will include batch processing and having multiple weight files per track if needed. I am not sure if the weight feature will be simple, like track/sprint-route/surface, or something more elaborate to include distance specific settings (6F,7F,9F, etc.). These will be included in a later release of HHX.

Long term plans include a database feature. But considering Handi's struggles with that it may be a while before I attempt it.

[Handiman]

Very awesome Head. Can't wait to see what you come up with...


Handi

[lsosa54]

Nice to see you back in business HH!

[headhawg]

Just a little update. I always felt that the loading of the data files took longer than I wanted, about three seconds per file. A fellow handicapper and LB coder told me that his load times were closer to 10 seconds per file. Most of that is because of his older 'puter but I still felt that I could get files to load faster.

(Just as a side note the problem really is with some data formatting with Bris in fields 376-385 and 496-505. For some inexplicable reason there can be commas in those fields which are part of the text data and therefore not being used as delimiters. Of course that's just dumb, so I wrote a routine to correct that, but that slows down the file loading process.) The new procedure loads files in about 1.8 seconds on my computer so I'm pretty happy with that (even though I think I can get it faster still).

I am working on the autoscratch feature now. I hate parsing XML/HTML, but thankfully I have some previous code written from my harness results downloader which should help save some time and effort.

If anyone has a suggestion or two I'll be happy to listen. I can't make promises as this takes a lot of time to implement, but I'd rather have some input now and then some feedback on the release later.

[ronestes]

Just wondering what are the best settings to use with the program (routes,sprints,dirt,turf) Thanks Ron

[headhawg]

HHX v3 isn't available yet and I don't have any of the formulas/calculations done so I really can't answer that. You might want to take a look at some threads from last year discussing Handifast for some ideas about what people were doing. Handi's new version has the ability to save the weights so playing around with different settings is your best best, especially if you specialize in a particular race type. Someone who is using Handi's version may also chime in what they are using.

[headhawg]

I got the autoscratch feature to work. Well, the XML parser part of it anyway. As long as Equibase doesn't change the schema it should work fine.

A question that I have for users has to do with doing scratches manually. The typical way to do scratches is to present a screen that lists the horses for each race and then selecting the ones to scratch. However, I am partial to the idea of presenting all of the races at once for each track and allowing the users to do all needed scratches, much like the way Nathan designed it in EquiSim. The HHX scratch screen will look different from ES (I am planning on using checkboxes and strikeout text) but you get the idea. See attachment for two screenshots showing the different design concepts.

The scratch screen is more of a design issue than a coding one. I am planning to run all of the race calculations in one fell swoop as opposed to each race individually as the Handifast programs do now. So that means when the reports are output to the screen you will be able to scroll and see all of the races as one report. Thus it makes sense to provide the user with the opportunity to do all of the scratches at once. If the users prefer individual races to be displayed then that will change the design fairly substantially.

Anyway, I thought that I would just throw the question out there.

[lsosa54]

Never been a fan of the Race Prophet scratch screen. Equisim looks much better plus it looks like you could mark a non contender as well.

[douglasw32]

WOW, I can not wait to see this !

[headhawg]

Funny that you say that Doug because I can't wait to be finished with it.

Being a gifted coder is something that I wish that I was but I'm plugging along doing what I can. Parsing the XML file shouldn't have taken me as long as it did (I almost gave up on it), but it seems to work fine. Too many big sections of code left to do as this is pretty much a complete rewrite of HHX. I am still hopeful I can release it in a couple of months, but I get the feeling that everytime I post a progress update I'll be saying the same thing.

[headhawg]

I got to the scratch screen section and got a little frustrated with the results so I took some time off from coding. I will get back to it soon and hopefully will have the new version out in a reasonable amount of time.

[headhawg]

Wow. My last post was over a year ago. Damn scratch screen. Anyway, change of plans. My original idea was to go with a scratch screen like the one in Equisim but that proved to be too difficult for my skill level. I went in a different direction but I think it will work out ok. As you can see from the screen shot, you select the race with the buttons at the top. (The program will disable any invalid race numbers so you can't click on a race that doesn't exist.) The >>> button will be enabled if there are more than 10 races, and you would click on that to show them. You scratch horses by clicking the checkbox to the left which then "crosses out" the horse.

Don't mind the color scheme or the fonts. They are definitely not finalized.

[douglasw32]

Very Impressive