New variable requested: RANDOM

Mike_Price · #1 11-01-2005, 02:29 PM

OK, 4.4 is in beta and will soon be GA.

Time to resume the future feature suggestions <grin>.

Could you please add a random number variable to the variable list?

I create slide shows from large blocks of images and would like to scramble the order instead of presenting them in the order in which I shot them (or how I stored them). The simplest implementation would be to return an 8-digit pseudo-randomly generated number. For my purposes, I would be able to preface the image filenames with this and then sort on filename to scramble the order of the images.

Anyone else other there want to endorse this suggestion as being useful to them as well?

-Mike
Fairfield Photography

Nick_McGowan_Lowe · #2 11-01-2005, 02:41 PM

Are you using the slideshow in PM ? If so, check "randomly shuffle playback".

~ Nick

Mike_Price · #3 11-01-2005, 03:15 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Nick. When I do computer-driven slide shows, I will use that feature.

Many of my slideshows though are burned onto a DVD using a product called "Memories on TV" which takes a slide show and turns it into an MPEG video with music and transitions. A regular DVD-player can then be used to play the slide-show. The randomization would let me scramble the order of images being prepared for that format.

Thanks again for the tip on the shuffle feature of PM.

-Mike

Kirk_Baker · #4 11-01-2005, 03:51 PM

Could you please add a random number variable to the variable list?

I've put it on the wish list.

Thanks for the feedback,

-Kirk

DouglasUrner · #5 11-01-2005, 06:20 PM

It would be a real simple perl script to generate the random names and then rename (or copy) a set of files with the new names.

Kirk, is this kind of operation something that can be done with PM's droplets? I haven't really looked into them. If it isn't a nice feature would be the ability to hand a list of file names from PM to an external application for some kind of processing.

Doug

Kirk_Baker · #6 11-01-2005, 07:08 PM

It would be a real simple perl script to generate the random names and then rename (or copy) a set of files with the new names.

Kirk, is this kind of operation something that can be done with PM's droplets? I haven't really looked into them. If it isn't a nice feature would be the ability to hand a list of file names from PM to an external application for some kind of processing.

Sure, you could create a droplet (by create I mean to write your own app) but it would be much easier for me to add {random}...

-Kirk

DouglasUrner · #7 11-01-2005, 08:12 PM

If you're willing that's great! I was just thinking of the more general case and also of how to do something like this in the interval between releases.

Thanks, Doug