I wrote this to display weather info and to alert me when it rains and such.
Let me know what you think of it, and if you have any problems; I've tested it
on 2K & XP, but I've no 98 boxes so I've not tested it on that. It works
outside the US too (try putting in your city name).
Note that you need the .NET Framework 2.0 for it to run.
Download .NET Framework Here (x86)
I had originally decided to write it when I neglected to realize it was raining
and went to class, only to get soaked because I didn't have time to go back up
and get my jacket.
I figured it'd be handy to have balloon tips when it rains and such; ironically
it took me forever to get that to work, because of the way that the .net
framework handles tray icons; you can't just use the standard Win API stuff and
send your window handle, because the tray icons have their own hidden windows.
Anyway it was originally written in VB, then I rewrote it in C# for the hell of
it, and made the UI much more efficient (it used to be a lot bigger, although
the weather.com links sort of negated my improvements in that area); then I
figured, since most of my college goes home for the weekend, it'd be pretty
handy to have the weather information for both locations (home & school).
It's the first actual application I've written, and the first time I'd used
.NET, C#, and full-fledged Visual Basic (I'd previously used the latter with
scripting and ASP, which is why I originally started writing it in VB, a
decision which I later regretted, since I didn't realize that C# was just as
easy but without the handholding...all I'd written before were QBASIC programs
(I had some pretty kick-ass QB stuff back in the day), and then console
programs in C++ and Java, as well as a Java app (both for CS class))...for
everything else, I figured "why reinvent the wheel"...but I'm pretty sure this
is the only weather program that displays balloon tip alerts when it starts
raining (and so on), and I think they're pretty damn cool. Plus the interface
is nice and efficient, and it's not riddled with banner ads and all sorts of
other clutter.
I know it appears to take up a lot of memory when it's not minimized; that's
just how the framework works. C# was easy enough to pick up, but muddling
through full-fledged C++ for something like this is sorta overkill (but I may
end up doing it anyway :-D). If the memory is required by other programs
it will be relinquished, and when you minimize it, Windows will trim the
working set. But I think of it this way: when you're looking at the full
weather information, it's probably not going to be when you're in the middle of
playing a game or things like that; you'll have it minimized when you're doing
intensive stuff, and when it's minimized it takes up very little memory.
Remember: free RAM is wasted RAM. If the RAM used by WeathAlert is needed
elsewhere, it will be given where it is needed. Windows takes care of it
so you don't need to worry.
The program has an automatic updates feature now, so when I do release updates
(other than test releases) you can get them simply by clicking a button in the
program.
Download now!
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