Author Topic: Contraption 4: The Software Suite (Read 22139 times)

Francois · « **on:** December 08, 2009, 05:17:33 PM »

Well... this one's a bit out of category as it isn't something you can hold in your hands. This project was started a very long time ago and has seen many mutations in the past. And now, I feel I've slaved long enough over it to show it out.

For years, I've been struggling with the little things that make the lab run. Simple things like adjusting the exposure for larger prints, calculating filter factors for the enlarger (I use a color enlarger for B&W), calculating the proper dilution for chemicals, hunting for development time charts (and figuring out how to process adequately film for which the processing information is anything but descriptive), dodging and burning without looking at the timer, figuring out when it's time to dump the fixer, checking out negatives without a lightbox and so on. I even struggled crunching the numbers for cutting mat boards to the proper size (there's a big gap between the blade and the edge of the tool on my mat cutter).

As usual I went into the "if you can't find it build it" mode. So, I started figuring out how to make these things automatic and simple... something which was anything but. And now, with the way the economy is going (days are hard), I feel like sharing a bit with my fellow filmwasters.

I've also included an "integrator" program and something special I call "Shot On Film". This is an EXIF & IPTC tag editor which I designed specifically to give an EXIF tag to scanned images. I think all those of us who are on Flickr will appreciate (since the site checks these tags automatically).

Anyways, here is the link to the goodies

Darkroom Lab FW Edition.zip - 1.80MB

The program will run on just about any version of Windows (it was built on XP). The zip archive requires no password.

I would love to have your comments on it

Here are a few screen shots to make you salivate.

Enjoy!

[Sorry, image deleted during forum software upgrade. Please re-upload if so inclined.]

sapata · « **Reply #1 on:** December 08, 2009, 07:16:18 PM »

WOW !
Just downloaded and it seems to be really good ! Well done ! I love the mix chemical tool

Stu · « **Reply #2 on:** December 09, 2009, 11:40:10 AM »

Bloody hell. You made this?

This looks great.
I'm going to give it a go soon. Thanks.

Francois · « **Reply #3 on:** December 09, 2009, 04:53:17 PM »

Thanks Mauricio, WOW really is the word.

And yes Stu, I made this.

This project is something which had a long evolution over time. It all started with an old book containing Apple ][ programs for photographers (I should have photocopied it) that was made in the days where you had to type your own programs. I ripped a few programs which I had ported to Quick Basic (Ahh! those old DOS days). Then, a friend gave me a copy of Visual Basic and I started to convert the few programs I had made from the top-down programing of older language to the fully object-oriented code of Visual Basic (not easy when all you have to go by is the included help file...).

Then, I started re-designing interfaces, adding features, creating other programs from scratch (like the mat board cutting program and the f/stop calculator). All in all, there's about 15 years of evolution in these programs (from ugly to quite useful).

Happy to see you enjoy it

Everything is written in clean Visual Basic. The Shot On Film program is a front-end for the EXIV2 program which is entirely written in C and is open source. I use an older version which I compressed using UPX so it is much smaller (original was over 2mb).

Anyways... enough tech talk for now... I feel like I've lost half the group by now

Thanks

Townheadbluesboy · « **Reply #4 on:** December 09, 2009, 09:37:09 PM »

For those who don't use Windows I have got it to work using Wine in Linux

Francois · « **Reply #5 on:** December 09, 2009, 10:16:22 PM »

Was it hard to configure under Wine?

I also just looked around for those using Macs and there's a program called WineBottler which should allow the suite to run on Intel Macs without the need to run Bootcamp to install a copy of Windows.

Townheadbluesboy · « **Reply #6 on:** December 10, 2009, 08:22:44 AM »

I just installed the VB6 and C runtime libraries and it worked fine - anything that can mimic .net would probably work too.

Francois · « **Reply #7 on:** December 10, 2009, 04:16:21 PM »

You're lucky since I never use .net in my programs

For this package, I voluntarily left out all the libraries which come pre-packaged in Windows... I might add components to make it easier for others and release a new installer.

Francois · « **Reply #8 on:** December 10, 2009, 05:14:51 PM »

OK, for those who plan on installing it into Linux or OS X using WINE, here is a re-compiled version with full libraries.

Darkroom Lab FW Edition Full.zip - 2.95MB

It includes probably everything you should need. As you can see, it's much bigger than the original.

<Edit>

I had to modify the installer because it caused a few problems (it deleted the Wingdings font on removal... it's fixed now. Shot On Film also doesn't contain graphic elements anymore so it shouldn't cause problems with WINE...

Nigel · « **Reply #9 on:** December 10, 2009, 08:50:24 PM »

Francois - that really is amazing, I haven't had a chance to run it yet (I'm on a mac but I can install on my work windows machine). There is a serious amount of work that goes into that - well done!

Francois · « **Reply #10 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:10:17 PM »

Thanks Nigel.

As I found out, the program does run on Wine, something I think all Mac users should consider installing on their machine (called WineBottler). This programs is a bit like Parallels... only free.

I installed it on Puppy Linux (which I have installed on a USB stick) and it does run (all except the shot on film part which gives me a strange error)... and I haven't tweaked the installation in any way!

<Edit>
I also forgot to say, the Shot on film program contains some easter eggs

Think of the inventors of photography to find them

TheLearsFool · « **Reply #11 on:** June 01, 2010, 10:56:10 AM »

Hello.
you can help me?
I lost this file and I want to use it again.
can someone send me by mail or tell me where I can get it?
greetings and thanks

Francois · « **Reply #12 on:** June 01, 2010, 04:36:15 PM »

Quote from: TheLearsFool on June 01, 2010, 10:56:10 AM

Hello.
you can help me?
I lost this file and I want to use it again.
can someone send me by mail or tell me where I can get it?
greetings and thanks

My hosting site keeps files for only a short period. So I posted it again.
Setup Darkroom Lab FW Edition Full.exe - 2.80MB

I was wondering what are your favorite parts about the program?

Ken B: eyes, I just do eyes. · « **Reply #13 on:** June 08, 2010, 11:16:45 AM »

Far Quin brilliant stuff Francois.

This rivals the the big dev table

truly inspirational stuff

Francois · « **Reply #14 on:** June 08, 2010, 04:10:57 PM »

I actually included an older version of the big dev table inside this program. I had to reorder the 1200+ entries found in the big dev table and sort everything according to film, format, developer, type, etc...

When you look at all the files I dump in the My Documents\My Darkroom Lab Data folder, you'll see what I mean!

All the files are comma separated value... so they can be opened in any spreadsheet program.
I follow a self made convention:
.35mm.csv for 35mm film
.120.csv for 120 film
.sheet.csv for sheet film
.chemistry.csv for the developer dilutions
.paper.csv for the enlarger-paper combinations (for grade and exposure compensations)

I also use only .ini files to store program information (I hate Windows Registry Hive)...
This makes it easy to fix, maintain, remove...

Anyways... enough geekiness for now.

Thanks for your appreciation.

LT · « **Reply #15 on:** June 08, 2010, 04:57:35 PM »

Quote from: Francois on June 08, 2010, 04:10:57 PM

I actually included an older version of the big dev table inside this program. I had to reorder the 1200+ entries found in the big dev table and sort everything according to film, format, developer, type, etc...

When you look at all the files I dump in the My Documents\My Darkroom Lab Data folder, you'll see what I mean!

All the files are comma separated value... so they can be opened in any spreadsheet program.
I follow a self made convention:
.35mm.csv for 35mm film
.120.csv for 120 film
.sheet.csv for sheet film
.chemistry.csv for the developer dilutions
.paper.csv for the enlarger-paper combinations (for grade and exposure compensations)

I also use only .ini files to store program information (I hate Windows Registry Hive)...
This makes it easy to fix, maintain, remove...

Anyways... enough geekiness for now.

Thanks for your appreciation.

erm, yeah. what he said.

Francois · « **Reply #16 on:** June 08, 2010, 06:25:41 PM »

Come on, Leon. It ain't that bad!
It even duplicates what your nice enlarger timer does!
A wizard like you has to try it

Nigel · « **Reply #17 on:** June 08, 2010, 08:56:08 PM »

Francois - I've just downloaded but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. But I know I'm going to be impressed.

For your hosting can I recommend Dropbox, it's so easy you have a public folder where you can share files. If you have more than one PC (or Mac) everything gets synced across. I'm a big fan.

https://www.dropbox.com/

LT · « **Reply #18 on:** June 08, 2010, 09:11:23 PM »

Quote from: Francois on June 08, 2010, 06:25:41 PM

Come on, Leon. It ain't that bad!
It even duplicates what your nice enlarger timer does!
A wizard like you has to try it

hey Francois - I wasn't commenting on your amazing achievement here. It is a great contraption indeed. I am in awe of it - truly. I was just having a little joke about your techo-speak in the post I've quoted. all those .extensions and whatnot. I wouldn't have a clue where to start with something like this.

Francois · « **Reply #19 on:** June 08, 2010, 10:09:18 PM »

No offense there Leon!
I'm so used to techno geek talk I sometimes get carried away... and I did get the humor

I must say that it's one of the projects I'm most proud of... especially since it's the only one I can truly share with you guys. All my contraptions are nice in some way, but this one holds a special place in my heart.

This is actually only one of a large number of versions that started way back in the early 90's before computers even had a cursor

(well, there was something called Windows 3.1...

)

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #20 on:** June 09, 2010, 09:58:46 AM »

This is indeed a fascinating project and hats off to M. Laverdure for getting this far. I've emailed Francois off-forum to offer hosting facilities for this application on Filmwasters....hopefully he'll take me up on it.

LT · « **Reply #21 on:** June 09, 2010, 11:39:44 AM »

superb idea ed. Hope Francois agrees.

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #22 on:** June 09, 2010, 10:26:06 PM »

I thought it an amazing achievement. I hope he does also, Ed.

original_ann · « **Reply #23 on:** June 15, 2010, 01:20:43 PM »

What an amazing talent you are, Francois! I am just now seeing this and cannot wait to look through it (don't really have time at work).

Francois · « **Reply #24 on:** June 15, 2010, 03:45:13 PM »

Oh gosh!
Thanks for the nice comments.
Ann - Thanks. I'm not an incredible programmer, I just like to keep things simple and have perseverance.
I always loved little tools that take the drudgery out or simple but boring tasks... and it just so happens that many of the things that have to be done in the darkroom fall under this category...

Skorj · « **Reply #25 on:** July 02, 2010, 11:11:44 AM »

Makes me want to get back into the darkroom to try it! Nice work. I think we need this pinned somewhere or plonked on Video Cast page or something (if not already)? Skj.

Francois · « **Reply #26 on:** July 02, 2010, 04:44:54 PM »

Ed's offered me a bit of hosting space for it... I think I'll give him a go for a simple HTML page and a bit of space to hold the file. That way, it won't make the SQL database grow needlessly.

Francois · « **Reply #27 on:** September 10, 2010, 05:04:26 PM »

By popular demand, I've re-uploaded the file.
Here's the link.
Darkroom Lab FW Edition Full.zip - 2.95MB

No changes have been made to the file so far. I do have a few additions planned but I'll probably do it this fall when it gets cold.