Customize date/time formats (1 Viewer)

[rsbrux]

Linking units and languages wouldn't be matter of preferences, would be simply wrong.

To take the matter right you have to look at the international settings here

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International

Where you can use a lot of data to decide, IMO the best one to use is iMeasure (where 0 is metric, 1 is Harry Potter style )

Amen to that. MP2.1.1 region settings don't give me a choice of region, only a choice of long or short date and time formats. The date and time formats are based on the language setting (US English), which I assume MP took over from my Windows 7 settings. Unfortunately, MP did not respect my Windows region settings (de-CH or Swiss German). This would be no problem if Settings-System-Regional really offered region settings and not just language settings. I live in Switzerland, but my mother tongue is English. However, I prefer Swiss date (dd.mm.yyyy) and time (24 hr) conventions as well as metric units.
My suggestion would be to

1. Eliminate Settings-System-Regional, since the relevant preferences are already in Windows settings.
2. Take all of the needed information for language, region, units, and date and time formats from Windows.
3. Offer the choice of long or short date and time formats (both of which are already defined in Windows settings) under Settings-Appearance.

 

[The Solutor]

1. Eliminate Settings-System-Regional, since the relevant preferences are already in Windows settings.
2. Take all of the needed information for language, region, units, and date and time formats from Windows.
3. Offer the choice of long or short date and time formats (both of which are already defined in Windows settings) under Settings-Appearance.

Sure, that's the way to manage the matter.

Even better

#1 follow any regional setting provided by the OS
#2 eventually offer a selection of overrides. Starting from the general language which is essential for translators, technicians working in another country, hotels and so on.
#3 eventually provide a fair selection of command line switches to quickly and temporally override one or more settings

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Even better

read the Wiki, follow links, read expanations, understand them and use a custom format. For example:

dd.MM.yy -> 05.08.17
dd. MMM yyyy -> 05. Aug 2017

The .Net time class is extremely powerful and allows customization in all circumstances - even in situations where admins have blocked acces to Region settings in Windows. In short a user can set the time and date format to exactly what he wants, regardless of any Windows settings.

Amen to that. MP2.1.1 region settings don't give me a choice of region, only a choice of long or short date and time formats.

A quick search in the WIki and/or a simple short question in the forum can yield the desired answers

 

[rsbrux]

I did look at this wiki page:
Regional - MediaPortal 2 - MediaPortal Wiki
and found nothing useful: no explanation like yours above, no links.
Where should I have looked in the wiki, or what should I have searched for?
The GUI does not hint at any such possibility:

IAC, thanks for your quick answer
By extrapolation I figured out that "HH:mm" would give me 24 hr. time.

P.S. Sorry, there was a link I could have followed: 2 steps to the .NET docs :-}
(eating crow)

 

[The Solutor]

read the Wiki, follow links, read expanations, understand them and use a custom format.

Again. No need to be so defensive in any every replies.

People here (including me) is trying to suggest improvements to "your" program AND/OR providing general suggestions.

And good suggestions remains good even if you don't like who suggested them (which is clearly the case here)

That said, I was speaking in general and I was suggesting the obvious place where to get the international settings.

As an enthusiast/power user I may be interested in .net internals and/or features, but you have to put yourself in average user's shoes and provide meaningful and easy to guess options.

That is.

Here I was talking in general, and I replied to another user. When and if I will need a custom setting, I will read the wiki, if needed.

For now I don't need to read any wiki to understand how the settings of any internationalized program should work.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

And good suggestions remains good even if you don't like who suggested them (which is clearly the case here)

I could argue about your suggestions being good or not. I do however, argue about what is important or not. We have had ten thousands of downloads of MP 2, yet nobody ever asked to achieve what @rsbrux wanted. Therefore I dare say that this is an extraordinary scenario and we don't want to spend time and effort on exceptions while there are so many other things (see Jira) that affect every user of MediaPortal 2.

For now I don't need to read any wiki to understand how the settings of any internationalized program should work.

Don't you think that such statements are perceived as pretty bumptious? Particularly because the software does exactly what you suggest:

#1 follow any regional setting provided by the OS
#2 eventually offer a selection of overrides. Starting from the general language which is essential for translators, technicians working in another country, hotels and so on.

#1 is already the case
#2 is exactly what happens when you can set a different language in MP2 compared to the OS language

#3 eventually provide a fair selection of command line switches to quickly and temporally override one or more settings

Command line switches for somebody "in average user's shoes" aren't "meaningful and easy to guess options" - to use your own words. Instead there is the much more powerful and easier to use possibility to finetune the time and date display, which we consider as a superior solution rather than your suggestion.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

P.S. Sorry, there was a link I could have followed: 2 steps to the .NET docs :-}

No need to apologize. Again, your scenario is exceptional and we can't possibily describe every possible case in depth. In case of doubt it is probably faster to just ask in the forum to get an explanation of what is possible.

I've now added an additional section about customization to the Wiki. But now that you've read the link, you may understand why I had initially keept the Wiki short in this respect.

 

[The Solutor]

I could argue about your suggestions being good or not.

You should. That's the purpose of a forum. Exchange ideas, explain decisions, suggest better ways to do something, or so...

We have had ten thousands of downloads of MP 2, yet nobody ever asked to achieve what @rsbrux wanted.

Not sure why, but the "asked argument" seems especially weak on MPx case, unless you explain to me how is possible that that a program meant mainly to watch the TV still lacks the CH+ CH- buttons, except for WMC skin (which is something I asked), and nobody else asked before (in a decade) !?

Maybe newcomers are scared by the average replies' tone here?

Don't you think that such statements are perceived as pretty bumptious?

I think my messages are perceived wrongly by you. That's all

Particularly because the software does exactly what you suggest:

The sw does a subsection of what I suggested

#1 is already the case

Ok. So why you are discussing the Fahrenheit/Celsius matter?

#2 is exactly what happens when you can set a different language in MP2 compared to the OS language

No is not.

I suggested a fair set of overrides, the program offers just three (date/time/language).

Keylayout, for example.

It can be essential in some scenarios (think to one of such (US) qwerty remotes used on a setup where the default keyboard is QZERTY.)

Just the first random example that came to my mind. There are hundreds.

Command line switches for somebody "in average user's shoes" aren't "meaningful and easy to guess options" - to use your own words. Instead there is the much more powerful and easier to use possibility to finetune the time and date display, which we consider as a superior solution rather than your suggestion.

I' sure you understood exactly what I said .

Average user != dumb ignorant user

A great subsection of windows users knows how to get the list of switches with something like Mediaportal.exe /?

No one is ever died launching Vivaldi or WMC with a switch say:

vivaldi.exe --lang=it --disk-cache-dir="R:\Vivaldicache"

or ehome.exe /widescreen

Isn't even needed to understand those switches, but they are a quick way to suggest an option workaround on forums and wikis

All you have to do is to listen what other users have to say, and possibly any superior solution you may have in mind starts to look less superior.

 

[rsbrux]

Thanks for splitting of the thread; we were digressing a bit from the original subject. Please change the title to "Regional Settings" however, as the issue goes beyond date and time.

The .Net time class is extremely powerful and allows customization in all circumstances - even in situations where admins have blocked access to Region settings in Windows. In short a user can set the time and date format to exactly what he wants, regardless of any Windows settings.

I doubt that any system so locked down that a user could not change Windows regional settings would allow installation of MP. Even if it did, I would not recommend installing MP on any system over which one did not have full administrative control.

Therefore I dare say that this is an extraordinary scenario and we don't want to spend time and effort on exceptions while there are so many other things (see Jira) that affect every user of MediaPortal 2.

It is indeed an unusual situation, but I'll wager that it is less so than the hypothetical situation you described above. To save unnecessary effort, wouldn't it be wise not to duplicate functionality which is already built in to the OS?

#1 is already the case

I must disagree. As Solutor ponted out, this is a conflation of language settings and regional settings. MP2 does not respect my regional settings.

I've now added an additional section about customization to the Wiki. But now that you've read the link, you may understand why I had initially keept the Wiki short in this respect.

Thanks for the quick, clear and thorough revisIon!
Unfortunately, I am now having problems with MP2 that go beyond the cosmetic, but, as you have made clear by splitting off this thread, that is something for another thread (or two).

 

[HTPCSourcer]

My final point and positng on this is that this kind of nitty-critty is something that the team may look at once we have have tackled the really important stuff.