Themes

[jacco123]

Hello . I found many themes for ecomstation on the internet but how can i use it with arcaos ?
Is there a easy way to install them ?
Must i use a special program ?
Thx

[David Graser]

To my knowledge you cannot.

I am just guessing, but these are two different branches of OS/2.

eComStation had more graphical improvements and adjustments than ArcaOS.  However, something happened and they never fulfilled the expectations of the people that used it and suddenly went dark (quiet).

ArcaNoae licensed from IBM starting with OS/2 and adding some of the graphical upgrades, but not all. It appears they did not or were not able to include a lot of the improvements that eComStation had done for customizaation.

You have to have specially developed themes (BigIcons) for ArcaOS. You cannot customize the OS as easily as ecomstation.

Maybe someone with more knowledge can correct me and descibe in detail what happened.

There was an old program called ColourManager/2 which would have filled in a lot of the gaps, however, it does not work on ArcaOS.  I tried it. 

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

As far as I know there was this software called eSchemes on eComStation.
That uses some schemes that are listed in hobbes. The eSchemes files are SCH, but do not confuse them with the "sound SCH Themes".  jacco123, are those the ones you are talking about?

There is a version available for download of eSchemes (2019-01), but I haven't used in ArcaOS. I don't know if it can be good or bad to use it under ArcaOS, if so, I recommend trying it first on a VM, just to see if you get the results you want.  I don't know if Dmitry A. Steklenev (Glassman) owns that software, and can eventually update it and offer it for ArcaOS.

But, if you only want to customize the icons in ArcaOS, I recommend you checking the "BigIcons thread".

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

I took back some of my words, eScheme installed fine in my ArcaOS 5.1 VM. I haven't seen any conflict with DynamicIcons (bigIcons) yet.  But I think I have some issues with the latest XWP and the new font sizes selection functionality. Use it with caution.

The downloaded eScheme is the full version, but it gives you a screen on each boot saying that to remove that screen you need to buy the NeoWPS from eCo Software.

Regards

[David Graser]

I tried to update my NeoWPS registration from Mensys.  Everytime it said an email was sent, I never received it.  I beginning to wonder if the US government is blocking it.  Buying software from Russia is becoming impossible.

[Ibrahim Hakeem]

I'd just like to comment:

I bought eComstation 2.1 some couple of years before ArcaOS. When I eventually got ArcaOS, the first thing I did was migrate eSchemes and a few other programs that came with ECS - although if I recall correctly, it's called ThemeMGR in the installation files. For any who may be curious, it's worked perfectly for me across multiple releases of 5.0.x and now 5.1.

I believe AN is making use of a restricted version of eSchemes/ThemeMGR in order to get the look and feel that we have in ArcaOS, the dependencies are all there and usage of this program in the ArcaOS environment is way too simple for me to assume otherwise.

With all this being said, I don't think ECS can be bought anymore and even if it could be, it's probably not worth spending upwards of 100USD for a theme manager.

I tried to update my NeoWPS registration from Mensys.  Everytime it said an email was sent, I never received it.  I beginning to wonder if the US government is blocking it.  Buying software from Russia is becoming impossible.

The Mensys website has been gradually decaying for some time, I wouldn't be surprised if their mailer is acting up at this point.

[David Graser]

I'd just like to comment:

I bought eComstation 2.1 before some couple of years before ArcaOS. When I eventually got ArcaOS, the first thing I did was migrate eSchemes and a few other programs that came with ECS - although if I recall correctly, it's called ThemeMGR in the installation files. For any who may be curious, it's worked perfectly for me across multiple releases of 5.0.x and now 5.1.

What were your steps to migrate eSchemes from eCS to ArcaOS?

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

I have some a confusion between eSchemes, eSchemes Deluxe and Imagination from eCo Software.

Regards

[David Graser]

What is needed to extract icons from dll files?   There was one theme I did in 2009, but can not not locate the icons anymore.  It was another very unusual theme, stick figures.

[Pete2]

I've used Resmgr (from Hobbes) in the past - too long ago to recall any details.

[Dave Yeo]

I've used Resmgr (from Hobbes) in the past - too long ago to recall any details.

On AOS, should be installed in X:\sys\bin so on your path.

Code: [Select]

H:\tmp>resmgr
Operating System/2  Resource Manager
Version 0.06.000 Apr 29 2002
(C) Copyright Martin Lafaix 1995-1996, 2002
All rights reserved.

Usage:  resmgr <option> <.RES file> [id.type] [file] [-l1:<error log>] [-l2:<install log>] [-q]
        -a              - Add specified resources
        -d              - Delete specified resources
        -l              - List resources (short format)
        -v              - List resources (long format)
        -x              - Extract specified resources
        -h              - Access Help

        .RES file       = .RES, .EXE or .DLL file name
        file            = Input or output file name
        type            = Resource type or *
        id              = Resource ID or *

Possible type value (with -d, -l, -v or -x):

  Acceltable Bitmap   Chartbl Dialog  Displayinfo  Dlginclude Fd     Fddir
  Fkalong    Fkashort Font    Fontdir Helpsubtable Helptable  Keytbl Menu
  Messagetable        Pointer RCData  Stringtable  Vkeytbl

Optional parameters:
        -l1:<file>      - Log errors to <file>
        -l2:<file>      - Log results to <file>
        -q              - Suppress most results

Environment variables:
        TMP=temporary file path
        TEMP=temporary file path
Exiting - rc = 0


[Alex Taylor]

If you want all the icons in the DLL, easiest way is to use RDC which is included with the RESMGR package.

Code: [Select]

rdc <dllname>But copy the DLL to a temporary directory first, because depending on the DLL this can output a large number of files.

[Ibrahim Hakeem]

What were your steps to migrate eSchemes from eCS to ArcaOS?

Hi David. If I recall correctly, all that I had to do was copy over the eSchemes/ThemeMGR folder from eCS, under the same directory structure as it's found in eCS.