The Transform Each Effect: more flexibility is needed please...

Question

Is this really wishful thinking?
Hi,
I was reveiwing recently an episode on AdobeTV with Colin Smith regarding a very neat trick applying a style with Illustrator and repeating business cards on the same page. Very cool idea and way of using that effect indeed. I particularly like the fact that you can store and save that effect as a style so you can use it over and over again.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/no-stupid-questions-with-colin-smith/illustrator-business-cards/
A question came up to my mind about an issue and some possible limitations of this "Effect", since it can only resize objetcs by entering  % values but nowhere can one can enter numeric values instead. Of course you can perform that task with the "Transform Pannel" but you cannot do it with the "Transform Each Effect". Let's say that you have many logos on a page that you would like to reduce/enlarge to a certain width or height for each one as 2" width for example, you would have to do the math first to figure our what would be the % and then transfer this result in % to the "Transform Each Effect" so it can do the task.
In such a case, you cannot use the "Transform Panel"  to reduce all the logos at the same time to a individual width of 2" because Illustrator  then consider the width of all the logos globally or as a "Group" but not each one of them. So you would end up with the wrong result. And, going futher with the math would means further steps and maybe involves then other "Trial an error" tests before acheiving what you are looking for.
For a better understanding, please view the above video where the author explain and debates quite clearly that point::
http://youtu.be/V4-Ee9mJAOA
Like the author says at the end of in his video, you can always make a small "Action Script" but it involves more steps andfurther testings. So more flexibility is needed here from the "Transform Each Effect" and I tend to agree with the gentlemen on that matter. As you may know, many of us who are involved in production the simple task of rearranging/transforming logos is performed many times for certain projects. By adding this feature to the "Transform Each Panel" would be a great help to us all. Also, just imagine if that feature could then be save as a "Style", what a great time saver it would be for all of us!
I know that you can first rezise one object with the "transform Panel" an then use the the "Transform again" command  in order to apply it to the others. But you cannot do it to all at the same time because Illustrator apply that transformation then globally. Also, if the some logos are let's say of various sizes it does not work at all.
Is there another way some of you may know how to do it simpler? Is there a special "Plugin" available with Illustrator that you may know who could perform that type of task?
May I finally point out that i'ts not a matter of doing that small task but the pain rather resides in doing it over and over again. So I do beleive that flexibility is needed here for us all...
Thanking you in advance and looking forward to read you,
Robert Marchand
P.S.:
Sorry, but English is a "Work in progress" in my case...

Answer 1

oh yeah. sorry. Two new errors were generated (same
type). ...Yeah, sorry I didn't look closely enough.
May I suggest a different approach? This is far from perfect, but is a big improvement of your current code:public class Inventory
    public static void main( String args[] )
        Iteminfo[] myItems = new Iteminfo[3];
        myItems[0] = new Iteminfo( 01, "Laptop", 15, 2000 );
        myItems[1] = new Iteminfo( 02, "Desktop", 25, 1500 );
        myItems[2] = new Iteminfo( 03, "Server", 10, 5000 );
        System.out.println("Inventory Program Part 2\n\n");
        displayItems(myItems);
        System.out.printf( "The total of all inventory is: $%.2f. \n\n", getInvTotal(myItems));
        System.out.printf( "The sorted inventory list is: ");
        sortItemInfo(myItems);
        displayItems(myItems);
    static void displayItems(Iteminfo[] myItems)
        for(int i = 0; i < myItems.length; i++)
            System.out.printf("Item "+(i+1)+": \n\n");
            myItems.displayInfo();
static double getInvTotal(Iteminfo[] myItems)
double total = 0.0;
// Do the same thing with the for-statement here as
// well, and add everything to the variable total.
return total;
static void sortItemInfo(Iteminfo[] myItems)
// your sort algorithm here
Try to finish it.
Good luck.