OS2World OLD-STATIC-BACKUP Forum

OS2 World.Com Bounty System => Open Bounties => Topic started by: miturbide on 2007.05.17, 05:07:12

Title: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: miturbide on 2007.05.17, 05:07:12

Supporting thread for the Icon routines in OS/2 (http://www.os2world.com/content/view/331/71/) bounty. The original and old bounty thread can be found here (http://www.os2world.com/cgi-bin/ultraboard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=83&TID=22&SID=).

Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: jep on 2007.11.06, 20:32:06
This bounty mention support for the file format SVG, but wouldn't it be appropriate to consider the newly presented PNG support in this bounty as it add support for large nice graphics?

Mvh / Wkr / MfG
//Jan-Erik
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: warpcafe on 2007.11.07, 10:31:18
Hi gang,

well I think we can give the money to Chris Wohlgemuth! :-)
At Warpstock Europe I enjoyed his presentation
http://www.warpstock.eu/en/agenda/presentation_details.html?no_cache=1&tx_wseevents_pi1%5BshowSessionUid%5D=23&tx_wseevents_pi1%5BbackUid%5D=103&tx_wseevents_pi1%5Bback2list%5D=1

...seems like everything is in it already.
The icons looked AWESOME and the handling is very versatile (on-the-fly transparent overlay of multiple icons to create a new one dynamically, all that stuff... really cool). Requires the new WPS-Wizard - not sure if it's public already... let's wait and see for yourself!

regards,
Thomas
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.08, 02:59:47
I think there is a .6.3 build on netlabs incoming site, but I cant test it on RC3! Classes wont register/deregister :C

How well does this work? I am pretty excited to see eCS with sexy icons :D
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: warpcafe on 2007.11.08, 15:21:43
Hi,

well, it worked like a charm during the prez, even on a virtualized eCS on Chris' quite slow 700Mhz Celeron-based (IIRC) sub-notebook sized portable device.
It might be that the install (with classes etc.) is not updated/finished yet... and of course Chris' notebook is suspected to be biased about having the needed classes to run his own application. :-))

Unfortunately, the session transcript from WSE seems to not be available for public download yet, otherwise I/you/we could have checked for the requirements...

Greetings
Thomas

Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: RobertM on 2007.11.09, 07:30:49
Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.08, 02:59:47
I think there is a .6.3 build on netlabs incoming site, but I cant test it on RC3! Classes wont register/deregister :C

How well does this work? I am pretty excited to see eCS with sexy icons :D

Its not just you, and I dont think its RC3. I am running Warp Server for e-Business and it wont work for me. I have a feeling I have to remove all traces of the previous version (classes and all) and start again...
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.09, 07:39:18
^ .6.3 worked fine for me on eCS RC2, thats the first time I started to use it. Who knows! All I know is that I got the MMAudio pack installed and FINALLY have WPS level playback of audio formats, and its awesome. Show that ubuntu using roomate of mine a thing or two  ;D Now, I just need those nice Cairo icons and eSchemes, and really show him something. He is ALMOST ready to try eCS, especially after I showed him his laptop is supported (bless eCS.ru Hardware database), so maybe this weekend. I think he will like it once its set up and ready to rock.
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Andi710 on 2008.01.07, 00:02:45
Quote from: warpcafe on 2007.11.07, 10:31:18
well I think we can give the money to Chris Wohlgemuth! :-)
Requires the new WPS-Wizard - not sure if it's public already... let's wait and see for yourself!

I think Chris made huge progress into the right direction. Looking at screenshots, I'm really impressed.

However, I'm still hesitant to give my money away for this bounty as it's all bundled into WPS-Wizzard which , IMHO, has some serious issues and therefore got de-installed every time I tried it so far:

- non-standard installation: instead of using eg. WarpIN. So far, every time I remember installing WPS-Wizzard I had to uninstall not only the previous version of the application, but also update the installer, run scripts to clean the ini etc. WarpIN is not perfect, but it is open source and can be extended instead of re-inventing just another installer.

- some features collide with other WPS enhancers: DragText's overdrag for instance cannot be used if WPSWizzard is installed - this can happen and is not a problem in general, but ... (see next point)

- you cannot (easily) disable each feature on a general basis (like folder toolbars), for instance to make WPSWIzzard more compatible - here Styler/2 shines, but also XWP and even the old NPSWPS provide guidance on how one would expect to be able to toggle individual features

Therefore the implementation is REALLY COOL, but, so far, not useful for me. And I'm not ready to spend money on something I cannot use.
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: DavidG on 2008.01.07, 02:59:39
I have WPS WIzard 6.0 installed on eCS 2 rc4.   It works great.  It works so good that I have created 4 dark glass themes and uploaded to Netlabs incoming if anyone is intersted in trying.

I have noticed something and I think it is a WPS bug.  If I restart the WPS around 8 to 10 times without rebooting, the WPS finally hangs requiring a soft reboot. 

I like how easy it is to install a theme.  Just unzip to its own directory and run the set-icon-theme.cmd.  These glass icons looks good a resolutions higher than the standard 40x40.  To change a folder resolution, right click on a folder or desktop, select view, and then icon resize.  Select something larger than the 40x40. The os2.ini accesses the theme.ini for all the necessary changes.  No clutter in the os2.ini

If selecting larger icons for the desktop, a scroll bar may come up on the right hand side of the rescreen after a WPS restart.  However, the next time you reboot, the scroll bar disappears. 

For the themes to show properly on eCenter, one needs to set their screen resolution at 16M or somewhere around there. 

I would recommend making an archive before installing any of the themes.   That way one can always recover.  To uninstall a theme, just move the theme directory to another location.

David
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: DavidG on 2008.01.08, 00:35:09
Hi All

I have just upload versions 1.1 of the 4 dark-glass icon themes to Netlabs incoming.  This replaces versions 1.0.

In version 1.1, more new icons, some icons modified, and some icons replaced.

Just extract to a location of your choosing and run the set-icon-theme.cmd.

Enjoy,

David
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: DavidG on 2008.01.08, 05:33:28
Hi

I had an idea for 3 more icons in the startup folder.  Thus, I uploaded version 1.2 to netlabs incoming.  This will probably be it for new icons.

David
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: chennecke on 2008.01.09, 19:57:15
Quote from: Andi710 on 2008.01.07, 00:02:45
I think Chris made huge progress into the right direction. Looking at screenshots, I'm really impressed.

However, I'm still hesitant to give my money away for this bounty as it's all bundled into WPS-Wizzard which , IMHO, has some serious issues and therefore got de-installed every time I tried it so far:

- non-standard installation: instead of using eg. WarpIN. So far, every time I remember installing WPS-Wizzard I had to uninstall not only the previous version of the application, but also update the installer, run scripts to clean the ini etc. WarpIN is not perfect, but it is open source and can be extended instead of re-inventing just another installer.

You are mistaking WPS Wizard for the CWMM classes here. WPS Wizard installation is just running a REXX script.

Chris did have some very valid reasons for not using WarpIN, as there are some restrictions that make offering different configurations for the same package complicated. Well, he could have chosen to extend WarpIN rather than writing an own installer but that's his decision and since I don't know the internal stuff, I won't comment on that.

Quote
- some features collide with other WPS enhancers: DragText's overdrag for instance cannot be used if WPSWizzard is installed - this can happen and is not a problem in general, but ... (see next point)

Last I heard, Rich Walsh was talking with Chris to solve the problem.

Quote
- you cannot (easily) disable each feature on a general basis (like folder toolbars), for instance to make WPSWIzzard more compatible

That's something I'd also like to see. I'd like to be able to have the tool bars disabled by default and only enable them for specific folders.
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: RobertM on 2008.01.09, 20:31:56
Quote from: chennecke on 2008.01.09, 19:57:15
Quote from: Andi710 on 2008.01.07, 00:02:45
I think Chris made huge progress into the right direction. Looking at screenshots, I'm really impressed.

However, I'm still hesitant to give my money away for this bounty as it's all bundled into WPS-Wizzard which , IMHO, has some serious issues and therefore got de-installed every time I tried it so far:

- non-standard installation: instead of using eg. WarpIN. So far, every time I remember installing WPS-Wizzard I had to uninstall not only the previous version of the application, but also update the installer, run scripts to clean the ini etc. WarpIN is not perfect, but it is open source and can be extended instead of re-inventing just another installer.

You are mistaking WPS Wizard for the CWMM classes here. WPS Wizard installation is just running a REXX script.

Chris did have some very valid reasons for not using WarpIN, as there are some restrictions that make offering different configurations for the same package complicated. Well, he could have chosen to extend WarpIN rather than writing an own installer but that's his decision and since I don't know the internal stuff, I won't comment on that.


In addition, when Chris first started these projects WarpIn either didn't exist, or was in it's infancy. I'd presume it would be far easier for him to continue using his custom installer than re-write the installer as a WarpIn installer, and then try to embed the necessary REXX config stuff into the WarpIn installer to allow for different configurations.
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Andi710 on 2008.01.09, 23:43:00
Quote from: chennecke on 2008.01.09, 19:57:15
You are mistaking WPS Wizard for the CWMM classes here. WPS Wizard installation is just running a REXX script.
Point taken. I was confusing it with the CWMM classes. Sorry for that.
Quote from: chennecke on 2008.01.09, 19:57:15
Last I heard, Rich Walsh was talking with Chris to solve the problem.
Well AFAIK, he contacted him (I bugged Rich quite some times ;o) Not sure if they found out what the problem is already. So far I go with OverDrag functionality instead of a fresh new look. (although I really hope to be able to use both at some point.
Quote from: chennecke on 2008.01.09, 19:57:15
Quote
- you cannot (easily) disable each feature on a general basis (like folder toolbars), for instance to make WPSWIzzard more compatible
That's something I'd also like to see. I'd like to be able to have the tool bars disabled by default and only enable them for specific folders.
Exactly. That's very high on my list as well.
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Criguada on 2008.04.08, 13:59:10
Chris is doing a lot of work with his WPSWizard, and since the other project regarding icons (i.e. PNGDesktop) is commercial, I think we should award the bonus to Chris Wohlgemuth (sp?).

Bye
Cris
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Pete on 2008.04.08, 15:00:56
Quote from: Criguada on 2008.04.08, 13:59:10
Chris is doing a lot of work with his WPSWizard, and since the other project regarding icons (i.e. PNGDesktop) is commercial, I think we should award the bonus to Chris Wohlgemuth (sp?).

Bye
Cris



Hi Cris

Maybe it would be best to wait until WPSWizard actually works?

So far I have tried all the 0.6.1-a* releases and can only say that it has potential but due to the problems of system lockups/crashes that it introduces all releases have been uninstalled rapidly.

Hopefully there will be a usable version of this software sometime...


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: warpcafe on 2008.04.08, 15:28:46
Hi all,

not sure if everybody is following on that - so as a heads-up to everyone not knowing:
From netlabs.org newsletter #58, published today via VOICE:
Quote
24. March - 30. March
* WPS-Wizard
  o Tickets 5 and 7 closed
31. March - 6. April
* WPS-Wizard
  o One update and a new tickets raised

...and for further details, contributions, participations, testing:
http://svn.netlabs.org/wps-wizard/wiki (http://svn.netlabs.org/wps-wizard/wiki)

Cheers, hoping that improvements and fixes will keep coming in...
Thomas
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: wpswizard on 2008.04.09, 19:19:34
Hi all,

Quote from: Pete on 2008.04.08, 15:00:56
Quote from: Criguada on 2008.04.08, 13:59:10
Chris is doing a lot of work with his WPSWizard, and since the other project regarding icons (i.e. PNGDesktop) is commercial, I think we should award the bonus to Chris Wohlgemuth (sp?).

Bye
Cris



Hi Cris

Maybe it would be best to wait until WPSWizard actually works?

So far I have tried all the 0.6.1-a* releases and can only say that it has potential but due to the problems of system lockups/crashes that it introduces all releases have been uninstalled rapidly.

Hopefully there will be a usable version of this software sometime...


Regards

Pete



Just for the record, WPS-Wizard "actually works" for quite a few people. So a "usable version of this software" is available right now.

I won't put my marketing hat on and bend the truth until nobody can recognize it anymore just so everyone can keep a warm and fuzzy feeling. Some will not like the following text and some will label me as an arrogant a**hole. I don't care, it happened before and I'm too old to play those child games.

Pete,

frankly spoken your problem is of no relevance for me for the following reasons.

-First and foremost you are the only one complaining. My time is too valuable to dedicate it to a problem which seldom occurs if at all.
-You fail to provide a ticket in the bug tracker with a usable problem description. Writing of system lockups/crashes in some forum is *not* a proper bug report. I need a crash log or at least a description of the actions you did before a crash happened (which files were involved, which folders, which features were activated etc.). There is quite some debugging support available. Just read the docs.
-You fail to try ideas others suggested to you. For example did you test by now with a non-SMP kernel to see if it's multiprocessor related?

I don't deny your problems but I won't do the tedious debugging for you just because you're not willing or not able to do it (maybe just because you don't have the necessary WPS experience).

Future releases of WPS-Wizard most probably won't fix your problem because I don't work on it. I didn't work on it for the current release, either. The only advice I can give you is trying to find the cause of your crash for yourself by testing, testing, testing with different configurations and issue a bug report afterwards. Yes, this may mean rebooting the system 30 times or more often. I do that, others do that, you can do that. If you don't know how to use a WPS class lister or how to change the install script for customized installs you're simply lost.

There's a commercial product which may be of use for you. Granted this product has it's own fair share of problems and crashes judging from the bug reports I've seen and which is inferior to WPS-wizard.

---

Generally spoken,

- a problem without a ticket in the bug tracker will be ignored
- a problem without an attached description how to see it or without a crash log will be ignored

Regarding the bounty,

everyone can spare his/her breath. I won't claim it for the simple reason the source to WPS-Wizard will not be opened. Some friends have access to it right now but the general public won't. So WPS-Wizard does not qualify anyway.

Why keeping it closed source? Well, something like 11 or 12 years of development went into it (that's longer than some of you are aware of the existence of something like a computer...). It's full of fixes for WPS bugs and I don't intend to disclose this knowledge lightly as it represents a valuable asset. I simply don't like the idea that I will see my own code in some payware a few days after the source is public. In the end it fixes quite a few of the crashes you see in the commercial product.

   Regards 

              Chris

Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: RobertM on 2008.04.09, 19:48:38
The only problems I have (which I have NOT (yet) submitted tickets for) are when opening certain folders with either large PNG files or large numbers of (non-PNG) images - which will cause the WPS to crash and restart without WPSWizard support - and a desire for more elegant handling of selecting/clicking on a broken shortcut (something other than the Rexx error dialog that pops up).

Other than that, I'm quite happy with it. And as for the above one issue and one desire... I've got no reason nor right to complain because I have yet to submit a bug report (I'd rather test WPSWizard on a clean system and try to replicate the situation AND THEN report it so as not to waste anyone's time if it is something weird and flakey with the one system I am testing on).

So... my thanks to Chris and the current WPSWizard team - and my apologies for not yet submitting a bug report.

-Rob
Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: Pete on 2008.04.16, 17:08:49
Hi Chris (aka wpswizard)

I have been doing a little testing to try and establish why WPSWizard does not work here.

I have tried installing WPSizard since upgrading mainboard, cpu, ram and graphics card and updating the acpi driver with the same results as when using the previous hardware and earlier acpi driver.

I have submitted a bug report on the problems encountered and look forward to working with you to rectify whatever the cause(s) of the problems are.

Regards

Pete



Title: Re: Icon routines in OS/2
Post by: miturbide on 2010.11.08, 23:01:28
I good site to get Open Source icons is the Gnome art place. The icons are uploaded in PNG and SVG formats.

http://art.gnome.org/themes/icon (http://art.gnome.org/themes/icon)