CC2 biggest advantages?

[clansley]

I'm the maintainer of LCD smartie and just wanted to know what the biggest advantage CC2 has over LCD Smartie.

Recently we have improved robustness and stablity. And added plugins for iTunes, Winamp spectrum analyzer, Beyond TV, etc

So, what keeps people with CC2...

Chris.
http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net

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[daks001]

I'm the maintainer of LCD smartie and just wanted to know what the biggest advantage CC2 has over LCD Smartie.

Recently we have improved robustness and stablity. And added plugins for iTunes, Winamp spectrum analyzer, Beyond TV, etc

So, what keeps people with CC2...

Chris.
http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net

Once the screen editor is finished CC2 will be alot easier to use (for most people) than it is now but some of the things that cc2 can do that I did not see in LCD Smartie is;

Display Gifs and Gif animations
Perform actions on events
Edit how bargraphs look
Create custom animations and characters
Read live information from a memory address from a running program.
Can't say what the rest is or they'll send the guys with bent noses to my door.

 

[reider]

On the other hand, though a good program in its own right I found LCD Smartie cumbersome looking, overbearing and a tad confusing for new users. Perhaps the fact that CC2 still looks and behaves like a Windows program is to its benefit. No detriment to LCD Smartie, I will still keep this installed on my machine but 'CC2 is and always will be the Daddie!'. CC2 will always be the one to show off to friends.

CC2 Admin/Tech respond to the customers wishes wherever possible with plugins and upgrades, we as enthusiasts cater screens to suit the individuals needs. Adaptability, attending to peoples wishes, a solid product, backup-these are all built up daily. New ideas are put into motion on a regular basis-but most of all I guess-we listen.

Just my opinion,

Steve

 

[CF Tech]

Re: Re: CC2 biggest advantages?

. . .
* Display Gifs and Gif animations
* Perform actions on events
* Edit how bargraphs look
* Create custom animations and characters
* Read live information from a memory address from a running program.
* Can't say what the rest is or they'll send the guys with bent noses to my door . . .

There is the "to do" list for LCD Smartie! Now if we can get CC Admin to add the “tiny graphs” to CC2

No program is going to satisfy every user. Some people will like Smartie, some might like the simplicity of CC1. Plus there are a bunch of others.

I have been very impressed with what clansley has done with Smartie in the short time that it has been under their control. I think the "open" approach is great, and I think it is cool to see more software options opening up.

Since CC2 and LCD Smartie are both "free" to users, I think any "competition" would surely be friendly.

 

[clansley]

Thanks for the replies sent so far! It helps to know what users like/dislike.

There is a lot of LCD software out there, understanding why some users choose one over another is interesting.
As CF Tech said, as both LCD Smartie and CC2 are free there is only friendly competition between them; In the end any improvements/new ideas in one LCD software will benefit all users - because that improvement/new idea is likely to be copied and the whole standard of LCD software will be raised.

It still surprises me how popular LCD Smartie is (it is downloaded over 250 times a day), especially as it was very buggy before I got my hands on it. I just hope I don't "improve" it too much and lose all of my users!


Chris
http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net

 

[dhs]

The reason i don't use LCDSmartie, beside the absurd gui, is that it hits badly the cpu with periodic spikes of about a 6% of usage.
That's the very same reason why i abandoned jaLCDs, wich is imho the most configurable lcd app out there, with the best scripting language.

A very simply test: while i make music, with (for example) Cubase SX i can't run smartie or jalcds, 'cos their spikes prevent the audioapp to behave normally. With CC this problem never happens.

CC and CC2 run smoothly in the background without interfering with th pc in any way.

 

[clansley]

The reason i don't use LCDSmartie, beside the absurd gui, is that it hits badly the cpu with periodic spikes of about a 6% of usage.

Thanks for your feedback.

Does that happen with the new 5.3 builds? I've improved CPU usage in 5.3 - but there are still big improvements I have planned for 6.0 - currently Smartie wastes tons of cpu by re-parsing the screen every refresh cycle!

Chris.

 

[daks001]

Thanks for the replies sent so far! It helps to know what users like/dislike.

There is a lot of LCD software out there, understanding why some users choose one over another is interesting.
As CF Tech said, as both LCD Smartie and CC2 are free there is only friendly competition between them; In the end any improvements/new ideas in one LCD software will benefit all users - because that improvement/new idea is likely to be copied and the whole standard of LCD software will be raised.

It still surprises me how popular LCD Smartie is (it is downloaded over 250 times a day), especially as it was very buggy before I got my hands on it. I just hope I don't "improve" it too much and lose all of my users!


Chris
http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net

Your work is appreciated! And the spirit of opensource/freeware is applauded!!! People like yourself are what has built some of the greatest things available in the computer industry, Linux the internet...