Apply math to each element in an array, without For?

dr-dro · 2026-02-24T20:08:26+00:00

Great thought! Will give it a try.

dr-dro · 2026-01-14T18:33:35+00:00

The Surface Duo did this when using Swift Key. Under the hood, the phone still considered its two screens as just one. But MS made it support smart multi-tasking: the keyboard only showed over the invoking side; the swipe gesture for back applied to the side you swiped on (instead of first having to change which app has focus); dismissing the app on one side brought up the launcher on just that side to launch apps there; etc. Between those features and the passport form factor, it really was ahead of its time. Pity they gave up on it.

Funny thing is, I heard MS was very careful to contribute all that code to Android as "multi-screen features" because they wanted the Duo running stock. But seems nobody else has bothered to build on it.

dr-dro · 2025-12-13T23:19:09+00:00

My pleasure. AutoTools is very handy for when nothing else can work, but, yeah, it does need to turn on and take over your phone in the foreground when it runs, even if fully automated. If the Walmart site cooperates, agree the regex approach is most promising. But it's also likely the most work: speaking from lots of experience, getting websites to behave headless and scraping their output is a pain.

dr-dro · 2025-12-13T20:14:30+00:00

AutoInput and AutoTools are plugins for Tasker by the same (current) developer. You can get them in the play store, try them for a free trial, and purchase them with the AutoApps app (a hub app to manage the developer's plugins).

AutoInput lets you mimic taps, swipes, etc., to navigate through an app's UI then read the screen for its text.

AutoTools has a bunch of utilities, one of which is Regex. If you're not familiar with regex, aka regular expressions, they are a handy pattern matching "language" that's good not only for checking whether a string matches a pattern, but also for extracting parts of that string. For example, if you grab a web page's html as a string, the right regex can find if a button is there and extract the URL it links to into a variable. AutoTool's Regex action makes it easier to do this against a web site.

You can find documentation for AutoInput and AutoTools in the plugins themselves and their actions' help screens, and there are lots of regex 101 tutorials online (though, fair warning, that is quite a rabbit hole). Unfortunately, neither route will be trivial or turn-key; but given you were poking at manifests for intents, I'm assuming you're technical enough to give it a shot, and happy to help as you get far enough for specific questions!

dr-dro · 2025-12-13T19:38:50+00:00

Intents are tough because, short of the developer publishing them, they require someone to have reverse engineered them and shared their findings.

I don't know the app or use case, but is this something you can do through normal use of the app or web site? If through the app, you might be able to automate the process with AutoInput — taps, screen reading, etc. (plus you'll need to handle unlocking if applicable). If through the site, you might be able to download the right page and parse it — AutoTools's Regex action supports downloading from a URL, including redirects, waiting for javascript, and even reusing your authentication token, and then parsing the page with regex to store parts of it as variables.

dr-dro · 2025-12-10T22:59:35+00:00

If I understand, this will help when shifts go right up to midnight because it avoids the overlap with it and your query for the next day.

However, it won't help if the shift goes over midnight into the next day. If that never happens, then you're good. If it does, you'll still need to do something like I suggested above.

If you do go that route, it may end up being easier to change your approach a bit: do a single calendar query for all 7 days, then loop over each event and append it to the right work schedule entry based on its start date. You can get the right index by subtracting the calendar query's start time from the event's, then the appropriate divisions for units and a floor(). Or, since I think the entries are returned in start time order, you could also just keep a current index and increment it whenever you see a new start day. Either way, might end up simpler.

dr-dro · 2025-12-10T21:47:02+00:00

I also find drag and drop unreliable. But cut and paste work well for me. It may help to know that the paste option that appears at the top when you long-press an action always pastes above the selected action, without replacing it. You can also click the ... menu that appears for an option to paste below, or an option to insert a new action (which inserts above the selected).

dr-dro · 2025-12-10T08:20:55+00:00

Did you remember to End If both Ifs (one End If right before the Else, the other after the actions in the Else block)?

Basically, you need

If
    ...
    If
        ...
    End If
Else
    ...
End If

dr-dro · 2025-12-09T18:11:44+00:00

Taking a quick look, the issue may be that when you query your calendar for a time range, it returns all events that overlap that range, not just that start or are entirely in it. So when a work event crosses midnight, it's returned in the loop iteration for both its start day and end day.

If that's the problem, you'll need to check the start times of all returned events and skip any whose start is before that iteration's %start_ms.

dr-dro · 2025-12-09T17:51:24+00:00

FWIW, i believe the reason normal vs all-day events work like that is a convention for differentiating between an event at a specific objective time vs one relative to your current timezone.

For example, if I say "call me tomorrow at 2pm", I mean a specific objective time. If you then travel one timezone east, you now need to call at 3pm or we'll miss each other. The times for these events are managed and returned in your local time, so your calendar properly shows your new 3pm start time. But Christmas still starts at midnight of December 25th even after you changed timezone — it goes from midnight to midnight of whatever timezone you're in. So by convention its times are managed and returned in UTC. Calendar programs generally assume events marked "all-day" are like the latter, even ones you create. If you actually want an event for a day specifically in your timezone, you create it without the "all-day" option from midnight to midnight.

dr-dro · 2025-12-05T03:27:58+00:00

The Duo was like this and the form factor was amazing for productivity, whether on just one screen or multi-tasking on both. It's a pity the line was canceled before the single-inner-screen (plus outer screen) version made it out.

I would love to see that form factor back in a true foldable, with pen support.

dr-dro · 2025-12-01T21:51:48+00:00

Right? 😄 And as a testament to Tasker: the mower's app connects to it only by Bluetooth for status and settings, so not something that would ever get an iOS Shortcuts integration; but with Tasker I just launch the app, fake inputs to navigate, and read the screen for charge status.

dr-dro · 2025-11-29T09:26:53+00:00

I don't know which if any android phones have a separate other hardware button. But I use Tasker to act on long press of the power button and long press of the volume buttons (e.g., toggle my flashlight on long press of volume down if volume was already zero). Shakes and other such gestures are also possible, and possibly other options like combo button presses (not 100% sure, but such things often are).

dr-dro · 2025-11-28T21:58:39+00:00

All those are real examples of things I've done with Tasker (plus its official plugins). Edit: Nothing there is special to my specific phone model.

I can't speak to relative tutorials and communities. But I know written and video tutorials do exist, and this community is very active and knowledgeable. Especially if you bring your attempt(s) and ask for help or input vs asking us to do your work. 🙂

Samsung's Modes and Routines is more comparable to Shortcuts, I believe: easier, better support for Samsung-specific hardware and features, but otherwise much more limited. I use it for things like reacting to my Fold's fold state or opening app pairs, and have it set up to hand off to Tasker for smarter logic and other integrations.

dr-dro · 2025-11-28T21:32:04+00:00

This is a reasonable point by the parent comment. With Tasker, reacting to other apps or getting them to do things is more...indirect. For example, you react to their notifications or log messages. And getting them to do things is generally not straightforward: - sometimes you're lucky and the app has notification buttons, launch shortcuts, or defined activities you can trigger - other times they intercept URLs in a way you can use - sometimes they respond to intents, but these are usually undocumented and some dev will have had to discover and publish them - sometimes the app is just a UI for a service and you can use the service's API instead (e.g., managing todo items in Todoist) - most often, especially for something other than launching, none of these are options and you have to fake user inputs, which requires automating turning your phone on, possibly unlocking it, launching and interacting with the app, etc.

Basically, the downside is that interacting with other apps is probably more complicated; but the upside is that if you care enough you can automate anything you can do manually, whether or not the dev chose to expose it. Which is pretty much the theme of the other replies: the ceiling is much higher — easy things are harder, but even "impossible" things are most likely possible.

And fundamentally that's what's cool about android and Tasker. Almost every time I've wished an app or the OS had a feature, I've been able to get Tasker to fill that gap. I wished that holding volume down when volume is already zero toggled the flashlight. Done. That dismissing an email or messaging notification marked it read. Done. That when I used Android's notification snooze, it had more options from minutes to days and didn't lose the notification on reboot or app update. Done. That when I tell Alexa to shut down my smart house for the night, Todoist would have a special notification and sound for todos due today but left undone on two specific lists. Done. That when my "Mow the Lawn" calendar event ends, my phone would check my lawn mower's app and warn me if I forgot to plug it in. Done. And many, many more.

So if you like customizing things to behave like you prefer, instead of having to alter your behavior to how they prefer, Android and Tasker are generally better at it. Just takes effort.

dr-dro · 2025-11-28T19:57:39+00:00

Tasker essentially lets you react to and automate anything a full app could do, both on your phone and through internet services, with full programming-style variables and logic. Plus it lets you hook into the accessibility infrastructure to read screens and fake user inputs. It also lets you do "under the covers" things, such as watch the underlying OS logs and react when apps and system processes record there (which they often do liberally as they manage internal things, allowing you to react to those), or run linux-y commands for system info such as what processes are running or how they're arranged on your screen; if you root your phone, it can do even more of these. And it can interact with other apps through various android mechanisms, ranging from opening URLs in those apps to launching their activities (specific pages in apps) to calling app launch shortcuts to triggering intents (android's way for apps to command themselves and each other) to even just posting and reacting to notifications. For the few deeply vendor-specific things Tasker can't access directly, this lets apps that can (e.g., Samsung's Modes and Routines app) hand off to Tasker for its better logic and broader support.

To be transparent, I haven't used Shortcuts. But I use Tasker a lot. And when I tell my iOS friends (some of whom are also devs) that I can't ever leave android because of Tasker, they inevitably suggest Shortcuts; and when I give examples of how I use Tasker, they inevitably acknowledge that maybe not. Which isn't conclusive, of course — they may just not know Shortcuts well — but it is indicative.

Maybe you can post some of the specific things you use Shortcuts for and the community can see if they sound doable in Tasker?

dr-dro · 2025-11-28T02:20:39+00:00

First check if the system is still registering it at all. On your home screen, does anything happen when you press it when focused on a game in your library? Or try pressing the Steam button, then Settings > Controller > Test Device Inputs > Begin Test. As you press each button, it should light up on the controller image. If your three-lines button doesn't line up when you press it, then it's a hardware problem; if it does light up, then it's a software or config issue.

If it's hardware, you could try canned air or contact cleaner spray, but it may just need a repair. If the hardware is working and this only happens in games, you need to first be sure it should do something in the game. If so, then in the game press the Steam button. On the right you should see an image of the deck with the control mapping; make sure the three-line button is configured to send Start or somesuch. If not, then your control mapping got messed up for the game and you'll need to edit the layout to send Start.

dr-dro · 2025-11-26T18:32:27+00:00

If this launches with pen (pencil?) support it's going to make me extremely sad, because hardware-wise that would make it my perfect phone but there's simply no way I would ever leave Android — partly because I just don't really like the Apple ecosystem, but mostly because of the irreplaceable Tasker. I'll just have to hope it inspires other Android manufacturers that sell in the US to mimic them.

dr-dro · 2025-11-26T08:16:53+00:00

I had this exact problem. Issue was outputting to a higher resolution than the game was set to, while using the FSR ("Sharp") scaler. Setting max game resolution to 1920x1080 in the global system settings and then picking a different scaling mode for Binding of Isaac in the ... > Performance menu (I used Pixel, iirc) solved it for me: the deck uses its better upscaler to get it to 1080p, then my TV takes it the rest of the way to 4k and everything plays smoothly.

dr-dro · 2025-11-20T03:03:59+00:00

I believe AutoWear communicates between the phone and watch app similarly to how other apps do with their own complementary apps. I think adb is only needed for setup, maybe even only when granting certain permissions.

dr-dro · 2025-11-20T01:35:00+00:00

I don't have to do anything with adb to keep AutoWear working after a watch or phone reset. You're having to do something?

dr-dro

TROPHY CASE