scarebear
Member
OP
That your vote? ;)
It´s just a patch!
By grimspoon
1,820 views
82 replies
integer
Member
Thanks Paxx, guess Im just feeling a bit paranoid of late :) <BR>I understand what you´re saying, I suppose I´m kinda leaning more towards the developer rather than the end-user. Im thinking more of helping the developer for his unpaid contributions rather than helping users get apps for free, although the two go hand in hand. I´m not thinking exclusively XP, but freeware apps in general, XP has just kinda triggered my thoughts on how things used to be. If someone has worked an a freeware app for XP, they deserve as much credit as someone who has developed an app for Win98 or any other OS. I do understand where your coming from however, and thanks for the input :)
chichigirl46
Member
Great discusion in here, it should be like this on all message boards, I enjoyed reading the view points and learned some things too :-)
elwin
Member
Sure, redllar. But no rocks, brass knuckles, and break clean when you hear the bell... {:p
redllar
Member
Hey all. Mind if I jump in here with a thought or two; from a dev´s point of view? I promise to keep it short.
craeonics
Member
/me knows php, but is lazy and slow <BR> <BR>What do you need? I think J(umbles) knows php too.
redllar
Member
Tutes I can´t do. Too much writing. But I have tons of C/C++ code I´m willing to make available.
elwin
Member
As a matter of fact, I´m planning on trying my hand at coding a skinnable app in VB6. <BR>I may be biting off more than I can chew, since the last time I wrote anything, it was on an Amiga. :) <BR>But we´ll see... <BR>{:p
integer
Member
Thats exactly what we´re after Redlar - thanks. Im thinking maybe tutes for people who wanna get into coding skinnable apps too? <BR>First things first though - we´re on the lookout for a php guru. If anyone can help, or knows someone who could, I´d appreciate it
redllar
Member
redllar had another system crash and just got back online :p <BR> <BR>And now he´s forgotten what he was about to say - pointy shorts will do that to ya. ;) <BR> <BR>integer - I´m willing to upload skinning-related code/projects, if that´s the kind of thing you´re looking for. Might also help to post a link on dev MBs where skinning questions pop up on occasion.
integer
Member
Well, things are coming along. Looks like the kind folks at shellfront may be able to offer some hosting. Domains taken care of. Not sure if we´re gonna have a skin archive to start with - we just want a place for skinners and dev`s to get together. Would appreciate any suggestions, offers of help etc...
craeonics
Member
Well, redllar kept his points short. Very short.
integer
Member
Grim - what can I say? Looks like my multi-user scam has been rumbled...:) <BR> <BR>You´re right, SB - we are getting somewhere. I just wish I hadn´t given up learning php, as that´s the main stumbling block at the moment. I´ve been in touch with various people and we are throwing some idea´s about - I´d like to hear some more idea´s from dev´s and skinners though, so speak up :)
scarebear
Member
I too would love to see a developer´s point of view. So far this actually seems to be getting somewhere. some really good points raised here that make you think.
grimspoon
Member
JAfoo!?! 🌙
grimspoon
Member
Integer, isn´t it true that you have the highest rated wallpaper on skinbase, 10001% to be exact. What have you got to say in your defense lady? (see Profile) <BR> <BR>.. hehe, good to see ya around here bro ;) <BR> <BR>And paxx, we all get a feeling you wont talk to us sometimes, you just watch guys.. he will not say a word for ages!
integer
Member
Redlar - your thoughts would be appreciated :)
frogboy
Member
Far be it for me to praise msstyles but it does have some key advantages depending on your point of view. <BR> <BR>Sure, you can´t do very much in your skin but there´s a reason - the user can set the title bar height and such (something you can´t do with WB). With WindowBlinds, you pick the skin you want and can tweak fonts and colors usually but not the title bar height. <BR> <BR>In XP, if you find LUna´s title bar too big, you can just go into display properties and make it smaller. That kind of flexibility comes at a cost - the skins have to be really really basic. So there´s no need to figure out how to make smaller caption buttons because you, the user, can set them in display properties, you odn´t need to make a skin for that. There was a method to their madness. <BR> <BR>Early on in the XP beta, someone asked why they didn´t call visual styles "skins". The Microsoftee on hand said that visual styles are kind of "proto skins" and noted that they call them skins in Windows Media PLayer because they could do so much. Whereas visual styles are really just meant to stylize the GUI. <BR> <BR>But as a user, I can definitely appreciate being able to just change my title bar height to any size. But that´s on reason they kept what msstyles can do very limited.
scarebear
Member
I have to make an image in photoshop (assignment #1) that will be related to my interactive CD I will make (assignment #3). I plan on making a CD that has some of my own skins in it (of course I have to make new ones so it´s all new work for my assignment) and the CD cover will be showing some of the sort of stuff that you can expect to find on the CD. <BR> <BR>So I get to skin again and make some cool university assignments based on them :) Life is good :)
elwin
Member
Hmmm... if I put 15 skins on a screen shot that would be... <BR>{:p <BR>But seriously, I want to hear the story on that assignment, SB! <BR>
integer
Member
Well, Ive started one and it seems to be going ok at the moment - and its not just a recolour :)
scarebear
Member
Elwin - post screenshots of all them eFX skins ;) I wanna see :) I just made a new one though seriously :D I´m using it for my next 2 university assignments believe it or not! <BR> <BR>And zathrus (having tested the styles thing out) has pretty much explained what I thought I´d observed. Nothing really new out yet. But by the sounds of it, plastic may change that. I would love to see what sort of NEW look is possible.
plastic
Member
Anything out right now can´t almost be anyhting but a recoloring or an easy cut and paste job, it´s a massive job to get this done. I´m at a point I´m not even sure it´s possible to do the stuff I want. Only good theme out there is whistler theme by binary. OS port and possible because he had them graphics in the right format (from the first beta´s, looks much easier on the eyes). I´m doubting theme format is as flexible as needed. For instance, I´m running a theme with smaller captionbutttons right now, but I don´t seem to be able to change alignment of those completely ?! Heh, off to the messy boards at neowin.net, see if there´s some help...
zathrus
Member
Back to the topic: <BR>Being the curious dude that I am, I just had to check this thing out for myself.. Well the patch worked as I expected. So I head over to deviant art to get some styles and... they are all, (save one), just recolourations of the default luna look.. hmmmm. ok so I search: the result? more default (dif colours) looks and some Alexandrie rips.. ´tis sad indeed. <BR>Well no one can say I do things out of prejudice, maybe oneday someone in the tgt crowd will come up with some thing original.. Until then, I don´t have the time for it. <BR>My 2 cents.
elwin
Member
I have 310 in my collection. (I´m sure Snowman has more... {:p ) <BR>And a large collection of oldies is still available on Custo...
integer
Member
There are two enlightment eFX skins - DC.09 and DC.14 (I think). These both have the buttons outset to the left. <BR> <BR>/me agrees with everyone about the "maturity" of this board :)
frogboy
Member
Yea. You know what´s a real shame is that there isn´t a full collection of eFX skins available. I wonder if Mian saved those skins. There were some really neat ones from the early days.
elwin
Member
Brad: Hand of God (blue)?
frogboy
Member
What was the name of that famous eFX skin where the buttons are off on the left edge of the window? Based on an enlightenment theme I thought.
scarebear
Member
I changed for that reason and also for the FAT32 (or whatever it´s called) so my PC would recognise my new hard drive :) <BR> <BR>And I still love the old eFX :)
zathrus
Member
"...actually the only reason I switched from 95 to 98 was gradient titlebars." <BR> <BR>Man I´m glad I wasn´t the only one.
craeonics
Member
Hmm, actually the only reason I switched from 95 to 98 was gradient titlebars. Needless to say, that was a long time ago, I don´t even use the damn gradients.
frogboy
Member
Yea, this message board definitely rules. Plastic, you make very persuassive points, I salute you. It´s not that TGTSoft just attacked Stardock, that´s all fair play in "Capitalism". But it was out of bounds for them to attack me personally, that´s all I´m saying. <BR> <BR>Scarebear: Yea, think of msstyles as being able to replace every GUI element with a bitmap. In some ways it´s less powerful than eFX but it´s more thorough. <BR> <BR>If msstyles eventually gets accepted by the community, MS approval or no, from a business point we´ll have to support it so that users don´t have to install Style XP (i.e. WindowBlinds would let users use all of them). Though I think we´d attempt to formally license it from Microsoft if we ended up doing that. <BR> <BR>Right now it´s hard to say whether it will get accepted. You could recolor your title bars and buttons with Windows 98. Doing much the same thing with bitmaps is better but not by much. I´d rather (as a skinner, not as a competitor) have seen someone come out with a new GUI skinner that used the XP engine and had their own format. <BR> <BR>But only time will tell.
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