Weatherspell v0.1.0-alpha.2

A second preview for testing, ahead of 0.1.0. Download Weatherspell.exe and run. Settings and saved locations from alpha.1 should carry over.

New since alpha.1

Added

• A Settings dialog (Settings menu): how often the forecast is refreshed (default 30 minutes), how often every saved location's urgent alerts are checked (default 10), and which new alerts are spoken automatically (all, severe and extreme only, or off). (#6)
• The forecast refreshes itself while the window is open. Text that is 30 minutes old, or that a refresh could not replace, says so on the first line under “Right now”. (#5, #6)
• Offline: each location's last forecast and alerts are cached, so a launch or location switch that cannot reach the weather service still shows data, along with its age. The Alerts section continues to show any alerts that are still in effect. (#7)
• While a location is being fetched the text says so, and automatic announcements are made when the forecast becomes available or there is a problem retrieving it. (#7)

Changed

• Each location's whole text uses consistent units throughout: Canada is metric, as Environment Canada writes it; the United States and everywhere else follow the Windows region, with National Weather Service text requested to match (its API offers both). (#6)

Fixed

• Alert checks could stay off after the first location was added on a first run.
• NVDA said nothing when a combo box was arrowed through without opening its list.
• Screen readers might have read the whole forecast from the top when the mouse pointer moved anywhere across it.
• A weather service that took too long to answer was treated as a cancelled refresh rather than a failed one.

Recap of What’s Already in alpha.1

• Urgent weather alerts for Canada and the United States; Enter on an alert line opens its full text, Ctrl+Shift+A jumps to the Alerts heading. A new alert is (now optionally) spoken as it arrives. (#4)
• Find a place by name or postal code (Ctrl+L) and save it; the last-viewed location is remembered on next launch. Postal codes for the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland are included. (#1)
• In Canada and the United States, the forecast in the words of Environment Canada or the National Weather Service, with current conditions from the nearest station. Everywhere else, a forecast derived and parsed from Open-Meteo data: right now, the rest of today by part of day, each coming day as a day and a night sentence, sun and UV, and details. (#2, #3)
• Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp between sections. (#5)
• Locations’ own times with user’s local time in parentheses when they differ. (#2)
• The window follows the display scale and the Windows Text size setting. (#5)

Still to come before 0.1.0

• Locations: Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 to switch by position, a Coordinates option in Find Location dialog, location nicknames, and a Manage Locations dialog (reorder, rename, remove, and per-location alert notifications). (#1)
• The window remembering its size and position. (#5)
• Further consideration on where Sun and UV and Details should sit in the reading order. (#5)
• Help (F1) with a user guide, an About dialog with licences and attribution, a proper icon, and the first winget submission. (#8)
• Accessibility refinements as needed (feedback and issue reports are welcome!).

Alerts for Europe, an hour-by-hour view, air quality and Check for Updates are planned for future releases beyond 0.1 (#9, #10, #11).

Weatherspell v0.1.0-alpha.1

A first alpha preview for testing, ahead of 0.1.0. Download Weatherspell.exe
and run it; there is nothing else needed to install. Windows 10 (version 1903 or later)
or Windows 11 is recommended.

Implemented thus far:

• Weather alerts for Canada and the United States, first in the text, most
  severe first, each on one line with when it ends and who issued it; Enter
  on the line opens the full text with an Official page button, and
  Ctrl+Shift+A jumps to the Alerts heading. Every saved location is checked
  every ten minutes and a new alert is spoken through the screen reader
  without moving focus ("Peterborough: severe thunderstorm warning until
  6:00 pm today"), once per alert. Elsewhere the text says alerts are not
  available for the region, and a source that cannot be reached is stated,
  never shown as a quiet day.
• Find a place by name or postal code (Ctrl+L) and save it; the location
  last viewed comes back on the next launch. Postal codes for Canada, the
  UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland come from a GeoNames table built
  into the exe (Open-Meteo's search has none for them), each resolving to
  its area (the first three characters of a Canadian or Irish code, the UK
  outward code) named after the area's largest place.
• In Canada and the United States, the forecast in the words of Environment
  Canada or the National Weather Service: each period as the service wrote
  it ("Tonight", "Saturday", "Saturday night"), under the same headings, and
  current conditions from the nearest station with its name and observation
  time. Open-Meteo still supplies the hourly data, sun and UV, and stands in
  when the official text cannot be fetched; the Sources line says which.
• A forecast written in words from Open-Meteo data: right now, the rest of
  today by part of day, each coming day as a daytime and a night sentence
  ("Saturday", "Saturday night"), sun and UV, and details such as humidity
  and pressure. Whole degrees, chances rounded to tens, "kilometres an hour"
  rather than symbols, and the location's own times with yours in brackets
  when they differ. Units follow the Windows region setting.
• Standard Windows menus, so every shortcut is read out where it is shown:
  Ctrl+PageDown and Ctrl+PageUp jump between sections, F5 refreshes.
• The window follows the Windows display scale and the Text size
  accessibility setting, in the system font.

Still in progress prior to official 0.1 release:

• A settings page to manage various options (will be expanded upon in future releases)
• Caching and handling of offline content
• Location management dialog (reorder and delete saved locations)
• Documentation refinement and creation of User Guide