S&T Keys for Streets & Trips 2009

Any news on when S&T Keys will be Streets & Trips 2009-compliant?

Hi jharpur,

Welcome to Laptop GPS World.

I have to admit I haven't yet even attempted to work on it. I'm glad to hear someone is still interested in S&T Keys even for the new Streets & Trips 2009. Perhaps I needed this to motivate me on further development.

I promise I'll try to start working on S&T Keys 2009 tomorrow. I don't think it should take more than a few days to release a somewhat functional new version, unless I run into some issue.

Actually, I noticed a lot of features in the new version incorporate features from Keys, so you may actually be able to pare the code down a bit! Maybe someone at Microsoft's checking Keys out? Hmm?

One thing I have noticed - using the 2008 version of keys (2.54) on S&T09, heh, heh... The plus/minus onscreen zones don't seem to work, and they look to have changed the way waypoints are referenced, so the Home function doesn't work.

Yes, I'm looking forward to removing some of the now obsolete code. I personally don't think Microsoft is copying any features from S&T Keys, they are just responding to the feedback they hear from their customers. For example, for many years Streets & Trips users have been asking for the program to start with GPS enabled. People were asking for it long before even S&T Keys implemented it.

I didn't even bother ever testing S&T Keys 2008 with Streets & Trips 2009. I'm sure most features would not work properly, or they wouldn't work at all.

Marvin,

Count me in as one who is looking forward to the 2009 version of Keys (just in case you need more encouragement). When you have time, of course.

Glenn

Apparently a restart fixed that issue though - they seem to work fine now.

A big advantage Keys gives is that scaling adjustment - I'm using the S&T GPS as realtime navigation on a tablet, which gives me the ability to rotate the screen image 90 degrees from typical - which means when you're rotating the map to follow the direction travelled there's more screen showing your route, assuming a mostly-directly-in-front-of-you route, of course, rather than a lot of screen area off to the sides. And I usually travel with my laptop's screen in tablet mode, meaning no easy access to the keyboard. In S&T that means either no rescaling without exiting fullscreen mode... or coping with the menu bars eating up all that nice realestate.

I just wish I'd found Keys sooner!

I also can't find any info on S&T09's release date - My trial's gonna expire! ...in less than two months now! Um. The Update Now/Register feature bring me to the S&T08 page. Anyone know when it's due to ship?

jharpur and glennw, I started to work on S&T Keys 2009. As long as I'm not doing at only for myself, it may be a worthwhile project .

The new Streets & Trips 2009 has a button in place for the Start/stop GPS tracking function, as opposed to the old check box in previous Streets & Trips versions. This may be difficult (or impossible) for me to use for S&T Keys. But I'm not there yet.

As soon as at least some of the functions of S&T Keys work, I will post it here for download. But it may take more than several days.

As I've mentioned before, I'm toying with Keys 2.54 on S&T09, and several functions seem to work quite well already - the zoom feature alone makes it worthwhile! And although I haven't much experience with Keys, having discovered it for the first time as a result of a google search for S&T09, I'm a longtime S&T/AR user - so I do know a lot of the S&T features [read: shortcomings]. And the 09 upgrade seems to incorporate a few previous feature omissions which were addressed by Keys.

The main feature which I really have noticed being missing from S&T, but rectified with Keys, seems to be the ability to call up favourite waypoints - most dashtop GPS units have that functionality. Keeping that feature, along with the zoom functions, would make me quite happy even if Keys did nothing else. Thanks Marvin!

Martin count me as one the users of KEYS; personnally, I would not even consideer switching to S&T 2009 until Keys 2009 is availaible.

KEYS is a must on the road

Hi flvil2,

Welcome to Laptop GPS World.

I was hoping to release S&T Keys 2009 no later then the end on September. I was procrastinating till the last moment, and today is already the 30th of the month!

I originally though it would not be too difficult to rewrite the old S&T Keys for the new Streets & Trips version, but I'm now stuck on two issues

S&T Keys is a script written in AutoIt (http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/). S&T Keys in some cases just simulates key strokes, and in some other cases it can access buttons, checkboxes, or other controls of S&T directly. My problem is that in the new Streets & Trips 2009 I'm not (yet) able to open/close GPS Task pane and Route Planner the way I used to in S&T Keys 2008 (No, Ctrl+A, and Ctrl+R method is not reliable enough). Neither am I able to use the new button in GPS Task pane to on/off GPS tracking (S&T 08 used to have a check box there instead of the new button, and I was able to use the check box).

I will have to spend some more time trying to figure out alternative ways of doing it, or I may need to remove some features from future version of S&T Keys.

ETA unknown , but I will keep you all posted.

Marvin,

Count me in to help on these issues. I am planning to update/merge your new version with the old one i have made this summer for S&T 2007 and i am expecting to do a french translation also.

Marvin count me in I have been using S&T keys fot the last few years not to mention you are the reason I have joined this fourm.

Thanks for your extra effort

James

Marvin,

This is my simple opinion, but i would prefer not removing a feature because this would make S&T least helpfull to use. Using the Ctrl-A, Ctrl-R method is not as reliable, but would work most of the time. To make it more reliable, maybe a technic would be to try to detect a control that you can see in the window activated by these control keys, so you can confirm that the key was catched correctly. This could eventually allows to do a second trial of sending the ctrl key again in the rare situations where it did not work the first time (a number of trials/timeout delay can be parameters to this technic).

The ON/OFF gps button can easily be used by sending a <space> key after the window has just come up (and it is selected). Using a similar technic as explained above for Ctrl-A, Ctrl-R, by detecting the result of the operation, probably it could be something reliable.

More complicated, but anyway it is a free tool to help gettin S&T better, i could live with some seldom imperfections, better than not having it at all

Hi olo131. Welcome to Laptop GPS World. It's nice to see a long-time S&T Keys user here, James!

MisterMoonlight, I somehow vaguely remember that a couple of years ago I attempted to use some Ctrl-key keyboard shortcuts within S&T Keys, but I had bad results with it. I will try again, though. But it was so much better to use the ControlClick() function of AutoIt. That function doesn't seem to be able to click on some of the menu buttons in the new Streets & Trips 2009, such as GPS Task pane, and Route Planner. But I'll keep on trying other alternatives.