Hardware Detection Project

[JustMATT]

Hi, I'm working on a Hardware detection project I call "HWDetCS" because I'm terrible with names,

 

I'm working on it as a way to learn more and gain experience, as well as just to have an excuse to put something on my resume (if it would even count)

 

Anyways, if you have any advice or criticism for me, id be glad if you could tell me, either here or else where!

 

Here's the git repo: https://github.com/JustMATT99/HWDetCS/tree/master

 

I hope this goes without saying (especially considering only 1 of the 3 buttons on the first screen work right now) but its far from done.

 

If you have ideas for what to add, that's awesome too!

 

EDIT: Info on the poll V

 

[Radium_Angel]

16 minutes ago, JustMATT said:

Hi, I'm working on a Hardware detection project I call "HWDetCS" because I'm terrible with names,

 

I'm working on it as a way to learn more and gain experience, as well as just to have an excuse to put something on my resume (if it would even count)

 

Anyways, if you have any advice or criticism for me, id be glad if you could tell me, either here or else where!

 

Here's the git repo: https://github.com/JustMATT99/HWDetCS/tree/master

 

I hope this goes without saying (especially considering only 1 of the 3 buttons on the first screen work right now) but its far from done.

 

If you have ideas for what to add, that's awesome too!

Depending on your POV, a proper hardware lister would be great on linux. There are a number of half-assed programs, but nothing that really ID's the nitty gritty details.

[JustMATT]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Depending on your POV, a proper hardware lister would be great on linux. There are a number of half-assed programs, but nothing that really ID's the nitty gritty details.

1: POV? considering the context I'm guessing you don't mean Point of View, so what do you mean POV?

2: It uses .NET Framework and a bunch of what I am pretty sure (99% since a lot of things have Win32 in the name...) is windows only functions, and the UI uses WPF, I highly doubt that it would work on linux but if it were to work on linux what do you mean by lister? this tells you what hardware you have (currently only does stuff with the CPU) and details about that hardware. linux will definitely be more of a priority though for the other versions that I make (using C++ for one of em and Java for the other, as a way to learn both languages) but for now, if it works, great, but if it doesn't, I'm just trying to get the initial idea to work before I really refine it

[panther420]

1 hour ago, JustMATT said:

Hi, I'm working on a Hardware detection project I call "HWDetCS" because I'm terrible with names,

 

I'm working on it as a way to learn more and gain experience, as well as just to have an excuse to put something on my resume (if it would even count)

 

Anyways, if you have any advice or criticism for me, id be glad if you could tell me, either here or else where!

 

Here's the git repo: https://github.com/JustMATT99/HWDetCS/tree/master

 

I hope this goes without saying (especially considering only 1 of the 3 buttons on the first screen work right now) but its far from done.

 

If you have ideas for what to add, that's awesome too!

Nice project! I just downloaded on my machine and caught a small bug while running it. Check your github for more details, I made a pull request.

 

I'd like to see where you take this in the future especially when adding new features like the GPU and RAM section. Otherwise, my only suggestion is to have more helpful comments (maybe a little less profane too? :P) and modernize the UI a little bit.

[JustMATT]

8 minutes ago, panther420 said:

Nice project! I just downloaded on my machine and caught a small bug while running it. Check your github for more details, I made a pull request.

 

I'd like to see where you take this in the future especially when adding new features like the GPU and RAM section. Otherwise, my only suggestion is to have more helpful comments (maybe a little less profane too? :P) and modernize the UI a little bit.

Thanks, I kinda like being a bit immature in my comments but ill try and keep them more helpful, and I do want to make the UI better, just haven't really gotten any ideas yet, but I will say that i like the little blue blur around the edge of the Wallpaper Engine window, adding that to the buttons might look nice.... maybe different colours like with the text for windows 10 users.... idk, I want to make the UI better, I'll come up with some ideas

Also, thanks for telling me about the bug, I'll check it out!

EDIT: Merged it, thanks!

Edited May 12, 2018 by JustMATT
look at the bottom? it says "EDIT:" cant really make it much clearer...

[JustMATT]

Got a commit pushed before midnight... so yeet!

https://github.com/JustMATT99/HWDetCS/commit/981bd9b145b80bfdc854170563d15edb6fa9df29

[Radium_Angel]

7 hours ago, JustMATT said:

1: POV? considering the context I'm guessing you don't mean Point of View, so what do you mean POV?

Point of View...some people won't program for linux, and/or hate the platform.

[JustMATT]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

Point of View...some people won't program for linux, and/or hate the platform.

Ah, I don’t hate Linux, just don’t know anyone who can reliably test for it and for this project in particular it’s not really an option/priority right now, if you want something that works on Linux rn for basic stuff I made something more basic like this in unity a while ago, if you want a download link for the Linux build of that DM me and I’ll try and find the link for ya

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, JustMATT said:

Ah, I don’t hate Linux, just don’t know anyone who can reliably test for it and for this project in particular it’s not really an option/priority right now, if you want something that works on Linux rn for basic stuff I made something more basic like this in unity a while ago, if you want a download link for the Linux build of that DM me and I’ll try and find the link for ya

I'm a big linux fan, but there are plenty of basic hardware listers/program with surface details, I was looking for something like CPU-Z/GPU-Z, something that can really sink it's teeth into the guts of the box and pull out all the details.

Anyway, in the future, if you need a linux tester, happy to volunteer.

 

[JustMATT]

10 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I'm a big linux fan, but there are plenty of basic hardware listers/program with surface details, I was looking for something like CPU-Z/GPU-Z, something that can really sink it's teeth into the guts of the box and pull out all the details.

Anyway, in the future, if you need a linux tester, happy to volunteer.

 

Awesome, thanks! When I do the Java version Linux/OSX will be a much bigger priority, not sure about the C++ version though, I’ll have to see what framework/API I end up using (right now I’m using WMI for C# which is only on the .NET Framework which is windows only, but WMI is based on something a lot closer to the metal so I might use that for the C++ version)

[WiiManic]

Had a quick look and it looks good!

One comment I've made on a bunch of these sorts of projects is knowing when comments are needed vs not. That is, for :

// This handles the Text Color
Brush color;
public Brush OSColor

If instead the variables were just called "textColour" etc you wouldn't need a comment to explain it was the text colour.

Similarly, function names like "detectCPUProperties" just make your code easier to read etc.

 

I know for ages I was fixated on tiny variable names and I'm not fully sure why....now I've embraced the fact my names can be a bit longer if they are more expressive.

That said, for learning/demonstration purposes having a bunch of extra comments isn't necessarily a bad thing, and can help you/other people out a bit.

 

Oh and be careful about the comments etc. I think its totally fine to do it in your personal learning projects etc, just if you did put it on your resume you'd want to have removed them first I think! May not give an employer the best impression.

[JustMATT]

2 hours ago, WiiManic said:

Had a quick look and it looks good!

One comment I've made on a bunch of these sorts of projects is knowing when comments are needed vs not. That is, for :

// This handles the Text Color
Brush color;
public Brush OSColor

If instead the variables were just called "textColour" etc you wouldn't need a comment to explain it was the text colour.

Similarly, function names like "detectCPUProperties" just make your code easier to read etc.

 

I know for ages I was fixated on tiny variable names and I'm not fully sure why....now I've embraced the fact my names can be a bit longer if they are more expressive.

That said, for learning/demonstration purposes having a bunch of extra comments isn't necessarily a bad thing, and can help you/other people out a bit.

 

Oh and be careful about the comments etc. I think its totally fine to do it in your personal learning projects etc, just if you did put it on your resume you'd want to have removed them first I think! May not give an employer the best impression.

Thanks for all the advice!

[wasab]

20 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Depending on your POV, a proper hardware lister would be great on linux. There are a number of half-assed programs, but nothing that really ID's the nitty gritty details.

Linux already has serveral built in. 

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, wasab said:

Linux already has serveral built in. 

True, but IMO lshw and lspci are hardly user friendly.

[wasab]

46 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

True, but IMO lshw and lspci are hardly user friendly.

Inxi  is very user friendly. Try it

inxi -F lists all the hardware info in a easily readable format

[JustMATT]

Welp, right now I'm at a point where I have to make a decision regarding the project, I'm not ending it, I just need some advice.

Right now I want to implement the ability to detect the CPU's (and other hardware later) Temperature, so far from my searches the easiest way to do this would be to use OpenHardwareMonitor's system for temperature, rather than WMI (what is currently being used), I could also use it for just about everything else if that proves to be better than just WMI. This would introduce a few complications and most likely shorten how long I can actually support this project (It will most likely break fairly soon) and (as far as I can tell, [I'm not a lawyer so I got no clue]) It would also require a change in license to Mozilla Public License 2.0 rather than using the MIT license like I always use, which would absolutely do my head in trying to figure out what the ramifications of doing so are. Anyways, onto the options going forward:

1: Use OpenHardwareMonitor's system

    - This would involve changing license (Most likely, someone please help me)

    - The project would likely not support any Hardware released after 2016 (definitely no support for Zen, and what is Coffee Lake?) as that's when the system was last updated

    - We would POSSIBLY get the ability to detect CPU Temperature (although already I'm questioning the accuracy since it somehow thinks my RX470 is running at 0.001V on the core somehow?)

    - Would most likely require Administrator privileges to run (Currently the project runs on "as Invoker")

    - Would possibly be usable on Linux with Mono with WinForms (I have no clue about this tho)

2: Continue using WMI and just not support Temperature on the CPU (might be possible for GPU but it isnt looking good)

    - No license change

    - Virtually all hardware that can run it is supported (I can't guarantee that as I can't test on every piece/combination of hardware ever)

    - Absolutely no chance (Unless Microsoft updates WMI which is gonna happen when flying pigs land on the frozen plains of hell [never]) of getting the Temperature of the CPU

    - No changes to UAC requirements (yet, might change later, idk tho)

    - If its able to run on Linux already, that won't change, however, neither will my lack of support for Linux, back up whatever builds work because I cant guarantee Linux compatibility as I have no clue how to do that and MS doesn't really make that very clear

3: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ doesn't look like there is a 3rd option, sorry about that

[wasab]

On 5/15/2018 at 7:04 PM, JustMATT said:

Welp, right now I'm at a point where I have to make a decision regarding the project, I'm not ending it, I just need some advice.

Right now I want to implement the ability to detect the CPU's (and other hardware later) Temperature, so far from my searches the easiest way to do this would be to use OpenHardwareMonitor's system for temperature, rather than WMI (what is currently being used), I could also use it for just about everything else if that proves to be better than just WMI. This would introduce a few complications and most likely shorten how long I can actually support this project (It will most likely break fairly soon) and (as far as I can tell, [I'm not a lawyer so I got no clue]) It would also require a change in license to Mozilla Public License 2.0 rather than using the MIT license like I always use, which would absolutely do my head in trying to figure out what the ramifications of doing so are. Anyways, onto the options going forward:

1: Use OpenHardwareMonitor's system

    - This would involve changing license (Most likely, someone please help me)

    - The project would likely not support any Hardware released after 2016 (definitely no support for Zen, and what is Coffee Lake?) as that's when the system was last updated

    - We would POSSIBLY get the ability to detect CPU Temperature (although already I'm questioning the accuracy since it somehow thinks my RX470 is running at 0.001V on the core somehow?)

    - Would most likely require Administrator privileges to run (Currently the project runs on "as Invoker")

    - Would possibly be usable on Linux with Mono with WinForms (I have no clue about this tho)

2: Continue using WMI and just not support Temperature on the CPU (might be possible for GPU but it isnt looking good)

    - No license change

    - Virtually all hardware that can run it is supported (I can't guarantee that as I can't test on every piece/combination of hardware ever)

    - Absolutely no chance (Unless Microsoft updates WMI which is gonna happen when flying pigs land on the frozen plains of hell [never]) of getting the Temperature of the CPU

    - No changes to UAC requirements (yet, might change later, idk tho)

    - If its able to run on Linux already, that won't change, however, neither will my lack of support for Linux, back up whatever builds work because I cant guarantee Linux compatibility as I have no clue how to do that and MS doesn't really make that very clear

3: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ doesn't look like there is a 3rd option, sorry about that

on Linux, you can simply write a script and display all of this info in a nice looking gui. All the software tools to detect these things are already there. Just use them to get the data and display the result. 

[JustMATT]

On 5/18/2018 at 12:39 PM, wasab said:

on Linux, you can simply write a script and display all of this info in a nice looking gui. All the software tools to detect these things are already there. Just use them to get the data and display the result. 

That would defeat 2 of the main reasons for doing this project.... I don't learn anything, and I don't gain much experience. Also linux Isn't a priority, I only mentioned it because someone asked about it.

Anyways, I have an update on whats going on, as I write this, I'm almost fully recovered from my drive failure (Which is why I haven't pushed anything to the repo)

• Once I'm done moving everything I can to my new external drive, I can work on stuff again!
• I decided to stick to WMI, as the OpenHardwareMonitor system would not support much newer hardware, and would be almost instantly obsolete.
• OpenHardwareMonitor is also not accurate enough for me to put faith in it.
• I will not be adding Temperature detection in the foresee-able future (If I can find a way that works, I will look into using it)
• I'm not actually dead, so, that's cool, I guess.
• Expect a commit later tonight, maybe? I don't really know how to end this..