# Zabotio's text based timer V2.0



## zabotio (Jun 24, 2013)

Geetings Speedcubing communty!

Here I'm going to present to you an update, with a couple of improvements, to the timer that i uploaded some time ago.

So, what I'll do is that I'll say some things about the program and then I'll give a step-by-step walkthrough of the program followed by a download link at the end.

This is a peice of code that I've written using C++.
The first thing you probably note about it is that it is entirely text based and that it, to be honest, doesn't look as flashy as most other timers out there.
I myself really like the text based appeal, the other big reasons for making it such a lightweight program is efficiency and size.
This program takes vitually no space at all compared to most other timers out there. The fact that it is very light also makes it able to be more precise
since it doesn't have to focus on so many things at once, it really only has to focus on one thing, and that's timing.

Regarding the updates, here's what's new:

- You can now edit the scramble lenght to be any number of moves you desire. In other words, you can set it to be one move long. Also, if you would like to set it to a million it will give you a scramble that's one million moves long, so you can play around with it as much as you want. I applied this change due to feedback saying that the 40 move long scrables in the previous verson were too long.

- You can now Save aswell as Loas you times. When you save times the program will create a file and save the times into it, you can access this file through any standard text editor.

- You are now able to delete times from the session.

- Now, the timer will start upon the release of spacebar instead of the initial input, making the timer even more precise.

- Now you can create new sessions without having to restart the program.

- And last but not least; the methods system has been removed. I decided to remove this function due to it feeling unneccesary and kind of "in the way" after a while.


Starting off with the walkthrough.

First off i would like to note that i would use pictures to help describe better, but for some reason it's not letting me upload images. 

When starting the program you will be faced with a menu giving you three options:
--------------------------------
- Edit scramble lenght
- Load times from file
- Continue to timing
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When you continue (don't worry, I'll cover scrambles and loading later) you arrive at a screen looking as follows:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
D2 L' B U R U F D R D2 R B' U F D2 B D B2 L U2
Enter space to start the timer 
<The timer will start upon release> 

Current time: 0 seconds 

Average: 0 seconds 

All times: 
Time 1: 0 seconds 


Enter <o> to access options 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
With a pseudo-randomly generated scramble up first, and the rest is rather self-explanatory

When you hit space and start the timer all you will see is: <Enter space to stop the clock>
Just like in the previous version you cant see the time ticking away. This is, again, because I personally find seeing the time stressfull, And as you know stress causes wrong turns and occasionally lock-ups.

After you have stopped the timer you will be sent back to the same screen you saw before you started the timer except that now, you will have a new scramble and your time will have been registered.

Now, if you enter o, instead of space to start the timer, this will add on to the screen:
----------------------------------------------------------
What would you like to do?
Enter <s> to save session to a file
Enter <i> to save individual times
Enter <l> to load times from a file
Enter <d> to delete a time
Enter <n> to start a new session
Enter <c> to edit scramble length
Enter <q> to exit program
Enter any other key to continue session
----------------------------------------------------------
Both the upper and lower case version of the letter will work.

So, lets get to all these options:

The S option will prompt you for a filename and then it will save all your times to that file, if the file does not already exist, it will create it automatically.

The I option will allow you to input the numbers of selected times to save (enter a 0 after you're done to stop inputting), then it will prompt you for a filename followed by saving selected times.

The L option will prompt you for a filename to load from, then it will load times into the program from that file. (this is the same option for loading as you saw on the first menu)

The D option will promt you for the number of a time wich it will delete from the session.

The N option will delete all times and let you "start off fresh" with a whole new session.

The C option will prompt you for how many moves long you'd like the scrambles to be. (this is the same option for scramble length as you saw on the first menu)

The Q option does what it says and exits the program for you, nice and simple.

If you enter any other key it will just take you back to timing.


So that's it folks! Hope you will enjoy it, here's the link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/t4pugjyze0buaa8

I'd appreciate any feedback on this to help me improve and make an even better new one. 

/
Simon A.K.A Zabotio


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