An incident at work lead to the tale of The little Modal . I was also tempted to create a full blown children's book, with illustrations and page layout, but decided that might be going a little too far.

Sometimes these things just need to be written down to get them out of your head :)

And, no, it wasn't written by AI, but I am sure this page will be scraped at some point and then will be absorbed into the infamous pile .

The little Modal

Once upon a time there was a Modal .

This Modal had an Apply button and for many years people clicked on the button just once.

When they clicked, the Modal would hide and run the expected process.

Then one day a user double clicked on the button and the Modal ran the expected process twice.

The Modal thought they were doing a good job, but was told off for doing things twice.

The bad Modal investigated " Debouncing " and it seemed like a good thing.

But debouncing did not stop users from clicking lots of times.

It sort of worked, as the job of " Debouncing " is to wait until the user stopped clicking.

But how to know when a user had stopped clicking and what if they started clicking again?

So the naughty Modal investigated " Throttling " to make sure a user could only click a certain number of times per time period.

This also sort of worked.

What if the user was having issues that meant that the time period expired and then they clicked again?

The Modal didn't want to be called bad again and time could never be relied upon.

The sad little Modal decided that the very first thing that would happen when a user clicked the button was that the button would become a shade , so it could never ever be clicked again.

This worked perfectly and if the button was needed again the Modal would just recreate it.

Everybody liked this and the Modal was happy again.

The now happy Modal went to tell their friends that there was a simple and reusable code snippet that would make any of their buttons happy from users double clicking and if they really needed it, there was also snippets for " Debouncing " and " Throttling ".

The End

Now it is time for another quick (read: long) 3D printing project.

Gas meter box 3D print handle

The house I moved into was missing the little triangular key mechanism for the Gas meter box outside the front door. The previous occupants had used tape to keep it shut by the looks of the residue. On the whole, it didn't bother me, but every now and then, when the wind really picked up, the door would become conspicuously open.

The patient

Gas meter door sans locking mechanism.

Gas meter inside the door

Gas meter cabinet latch panel

The plan

I could have looked up a replacement lock and printed it, but where is the fun in that?

The locking original purpose is pretty moot. All I needed was for it to not blow open during a storm. I wanted a handle!

The best thing about 3D printing is the iterative nature. So I started with just trying to get the core the right size. Using digital calipers definitely helped and I probably should have done more measuring, but ...

The build

Then I used those same core cylinders and crafted the handle. Finally a back plate that would lock behind the cabinet latch.

First iteration of parts printed

But things didn't quite work out. The Handle broke when I tried to force fit the back plate. Though, it was only printed at 15% fill and not expected to be very strong. I also tried adding a slot in the back plate to allow a small piece of metal to weigh it down when closed. The idea of having the handle horizontal when closed was eventually abandoned.

Second iteration of parts printed and handle broken

A number of iterations later and I had added a nifty clockwise arrow to the handle. But that just made it stupid when I found the size of the handle didn't support rotating that way. The back plate's length was also catching on the side of the cabinet on the inside.

Handle catches on side of cabinet

The designs had changed somewhat by now. The back plate had become considerably smaller and rounded. A new component is included that will stop the handle rotating too far. Also, the arrow symbol has been mirrored to point counter-clockwise.

Final iteration of components

It was just a matter of fitting it. I used a tiny bit of glue to bond the turning plate to the handle and the back plate to the handle.

The installation

Does it work? Oh yes. Took quite a bit longer than I intended, but that is another just job ticked off.

Conclusion

Erm, so I really should have measured two or three times before starting. At least all those spiders are safe.

I am not going to publish these designs. Firstly, they are not that great and secondly, I have just googled 3D printable parts and there are at least two different replacement latch models you can download. They require additional screws or a retaining ring.

I have completed Moss Book II thanks to my VR thumbstick cleaning efforts.

I found all the Energy pick ups and I found all the Scrolls. Though I needed help finding one elusive scroll that was down a hole that I didn't think was navigable.

As well as scroll-holes Moss Book II has expansive environments e.g. a castle in the sky. Vertigo was an issue in places, but thankfully was limited.

and this screenshot just sums up some of the interesting level design.

As I am a pheasant peasant with a 64Gb Quest 2, I immediately had to delete Moss Book II on completion to make room for other experiences.