LED Counter: A general purpose counter

LED Counter: A general purpose counter

LED Counter is a general purpose counter implemented as a Gnome Applet. It displays the counted number on an old fashion 7 segment or a 5x7 dots display. It can count mail messages or simple display the value written to stdout of any command, making it possible to count almost everything (e.g. to count currently logged in user: 'who|wc'). Displays and digits can be added and removed at any time.

Implementation

The Counter uses two new GTK+ classes which are part of the distribution. The first class implements a single digit, either 7-segment or 5x7 dots and the second one implements a multi digit display. Since this is my first attempt to create a new GTK+ class it may not be perfect.

Features

Counts unread/all mail messages
Displays the integer value written to stdout of a command.
Any number of counters with each up to 10 digits.
Update time, number of digits, colors, ... can be set by user.
Works in both orientations (restart required)
Fixed number of digits and autoranging
Shows overflow of counter
Allows to preset counter
Displays negative numbers

Screenshots

LED Counter integrated into Gnome panel (Version 0.6.1)

Preferences dialog for general configuration (german, Version 0.6.1)

Preferences dialog for single counter configuration (german, Version 0.6.1)

Downloading

The most recent release of LED Counter is version 0.7.0.

To compile this you'll need to have gnome installed.

FAQ

After pressing the command button under the display the applet stops working.: This is probably because you forgot to send the programm into the background. The counter will continue, when you quit the command. Put a & behind the command to execute.
Why does changing the number of counters has no effect?: Currently you will have to restart the applet to alter the number of counters.

Todo

Allow color selection for each display.
Run mail counting as thread.
Change orientation at runtime

recent news

June 10, 2002	Transfer of software to sourceforge
August 29, 2000	version 0.7.0-pre2 -- several bug fixes in display management
August 21, 2000	version 0.7.0-pre1 -- many improvements, like display management, imap support, serveral counter may coexist in one panel, beginning alpha numeric mode
November 25, 1999	version 0.6.1 -- change number of displays at run time, allow negative numbers
October 20, 1999	version 0.5.0 -- preset for counter
September 28, 1999	version 0.4.0
September 24, 1999	version 0.3.1
September 23, 1999	version 0.2
September 22, 1999	version 0.1 -- initial release.

<Uwe.Steinmann@mmk-hagen.de>