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).