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Developed New eScheme for people to try

Started by DavidG, 2008.05.20, 00:58:37

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Saijin_Naib

Ah, another disappointing development. I was hoping that with eSchemes you'd be able to actually "skin" the interface, change the images that would comprise the scrollbars, window frames, window backgrounds, etc. Changing colors is not so much skinning as, well, frankly, something that should have been built into the WPS to begin with.

DavidG

Quote from: David Graser on 2008.06.02, 07:23:15
I have posted a new picture of another escheme I am working on. For lack of a better name I am calling it XP_Clone.  It can be found it the same topic at the Canadian site.

David

I am far enough along that I uploaded the WinXP_Clone eScheme to the Canadian site.

http://ecomstation.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=18&p=32#p32

If I make any additional changes, I can always upload a revised scheme.

David

melf

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2008.06.02, 08:32:48
Changing colors is not so much skinning as, well, frankly, something that should have been built into the WPS to begin with.

Sajin, as a matter of fact, it is built in since at least warp 3. You find it in Appearence>scheme palette. You can do a lot of color changes there. Then just drag the scheme to desktop while pressing Alt - and you get a system change.
/Mikael

Saijin_Naib

Not to the window frames/backgrounds. The are locked at IBM grey, regardless of what color i set them. The color change only shows up in the scheme palette preview (small one, the object you drag) and inbetween the little up/down arrows to adjust the color values.

melf

Yes, there are limitations, which eschemes adress. Anyway, the ability to change colors is since long time built in. This is  my own scheme, inspired by the ecotoys escheme:

http://elfonnet.nu/pics/schemepalette.jpg
/Mikael

DavidG

Quote from: melf on 2008.06.02, 17:17:51
Yes, there are limitations, which eschemes adress. Anyway, the ability to change colors is since long time built in. This is  my own scheme, inspired by the ecotoys escheme:

http://elfonnet.nu/pics/schemepalette.jpg


Looks good melf.  This is another one I was thinking about making an eScheme for. 

What I would like to see is grandient capability for the following items.

SYSCLR_FieldBackround
SYSCLR_DialogBackground

I would like to see the

SYSCLR_ButtonMiddle no longer used for CheckBox and Radio text backgrounds.  Give this background its own setting.

I would like the capability of replacing the actually scroller with a bitmap.  Also the up and down arrows on the scrollbar with bitmaps.

I would like to be able to do use rounded bitmaps.  I know from communicating with Allesandro a few years ago that the problem is a bug in one of the components of the operating system.  He said it could be worked around, but why should he go to all the trouble when IBM should have been the one to fix it.  I believe this was the straw that broke his the camels back and influenced his decision to quite programming for OS/2.

As I stated earlier, you can chnage the window frame colors.  You just have to watch to see if the changes that are applied to the buttons are also what you want.

David



Saijin_Naib

#21
I know that Luna (XP's native skinning engine) makes "rounded" bitmaps and other bitmaps with transparency with standard bitmap files that have a "mask" area of one color. Then, in the .MSSTYLES entry for that object with transparency, a value is set saying make "XXX,XXX,XXX" color be transparent. I think that this method should work for eComStation as well. Or if not, the scheme objects could be comprised of .ico files of whatever size/bit depth that natively support transparency as well. Transparency anti-alias is not really important on things such as window frames or tabs, scroll bars, etc. I will show you an example of what I am talking about below.

DavidG

OK, I have modified the WinXP_Clone a little bit. I changed the window frame controls to a blue color. However, this changes the scroller and some of the pushbutton outline colors. Which do people like better? I kinda like the revision better. The blue goes more with the control colors. The only drawback is the scroller. Unfortunately, it relies on the same window frame controls. Let me know and I will email Eugene the one most liked.  It can be found at the Canadian site.

Saijin

The problem with rounded bitmaps in eCS and OS/2 occurs when a Window is resized.  The larger the window, the more distorted the rounded corners are.  The only controls that can be rouned right now are the titlebar control buttons and the radio and checkbox buttons.  Any other bitmap distorts at the ends.  That is why one cannot use a rounded corner titlebar bitmap in eCS right now.

David

Saijin_Naib

That's very interesting David, I did not know that. Hmm, this poses an interesting question then. I wonder how Luna handles it then? I believe the FRAMECAPTION bitmap is divided into 2 seperate images (top/bottom) as well as left and right. You set these X,Y coordinates in the MSSTYLES. I believe that then, these are drawn static sized on the outside edges of the window (regardless of window size) and then another bitmap is tiled horizontally to fill the gap when the window is resized. For the frames on the vertical edges, the same process must be applied.

What determines how the windows are drawn in OS/2 and can it be modified in such a way that it would work with rounded frames?

Pete

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2008.06.02, 10:19:04
Not to the window frames/backgrounds. The are locked at IBM grey, regardless of what color i set them. The color change only shows up in the scheme palette preview (small one, the object you drag) and inbetween the little up/down arrows to adjust the color values.

Hi Saijin_Naib

As I have Red Active frames and light blue backgrounds it is possible to do.

It seems that you have some sort of problem if they "are locked at IBM grey"... maybe the use of checkini and cleanini or similar tools will help.

Regards

Pete

DavidG

It appears that when applying schemes, it is best to run Cleanini every now and then before applying any new scheme.  Even then, a restart is required.  This is with eCS Window themes, iThemes, and eSchemes.  For some reason some handles get lost.
Unimaint is another good program to run.

I uploaded revision 2 of the WinXP clone to the Canadian site.  I deleted the others because this is the one I settled on.  I also uploaded a new scheme  called PillowTalk.  Thanks melf for nudging me to create a theme out of the white window theme I originally created years ago!

David

Saijin_Naib

I refuse to use eSChemes until such a point as its working properly and doesn't cause me undue strife with PMBIDI.DLL or other garbage. I was talking about how the default OS/2 scheme palette has values you can adjust but have no effect.

DavidG

#27
I run two eCS partitions. One I consider my don't test anything paritition.  However, there comes a point when I do test some things on it.  Just not too often.

The other eCS partition is where I do most of my testing.  If I wreck this partition testing things, I have my good partition to fall back on until I get the partition installed again.

When eCS GA comes out, my test partition will become my good partition and I will make my old good reliable partition my test partition.

I think everyone needs one partition for play without fear of destroying it.

 

melf

Quote from: David Graser on 2008.06.03, 06:25:24
I uploaded revision 2 of the WinXP clone to the Canadian site.  I deleted the others because this is the one I settled on.  I also uploaded a new scheme  called PillowTalk.  Thanks melf for nudging me to create a theme out of the white window theme I originally created years ago!

David
Pillow talk looks cool. I downloaded a bunch of your icon teams some time ago, I really understand you can't remember everything you done, there really is a lot of them!
/Mikael

DavidG

#29
Quote from: melf on 2008.06.03, 10:26:12
Quote from: David Graser on 2008.06.03, 06:25:24
I uploaded revision 2 of the WinXP clone to the Canadian site.  I deleted the others because this is the one I settled on.  I also uploaded a new scheme  called PillowTalk.  Thanks melf for nudging me to create a theme out of the white window theme I originally created years ago!

David
Pillow talk looks cool. I downloaded a bunch of your icon teams some time ago, I really understand you can't remember everything you done, there really is a lot of them!

If anyone sees a windows theme that they want to make an escheme with, have at it.  All you have to do is extract the icons from the themes dll by typing

rdc nameofdll.dll

This extracts the icons from the dll.  Now rename the icons to the names found in the index.sch of an eScheme.  Now set the icon editor to look for bmps

*.bmp

and the location where the bmps are.  Select one and edit the bitmaps to the background color you will be using.  Remember that these are multi-page bitmaps.  You will have to modify both bitmaps inside the bmp file. Save and go to the next one.  For the radio and checkboxes, using bitmap 48, create your own, or extract from another escheme and modify to your needs.  Modify the index.sch in your scheme for the colors you want.  Copy the modified bmps into the nameofescheme.sch you are creating.  It is easy if you start with a *.sch from the scheme palette and modify it to your needs. PillowTalk took me around 3 hours to do modifying the icons from the White Windows theme.  Because I wasn't creating the bmps from scratch, this sped up my development time tremendously.  I figure out of the 130 something window themes I have created, there has bound to be something that appeals to someone.  I also created the WinXP_Clone and MAC_Like themes from other Windows themes I had created years ago.  eSchemes makes it easy to create a theme.  All one needs is a little imagination (which I am greatly lacking in) and a little determination in figuring out what what setting does what in the index.sch.  Through trial and error, I have figured out what most do now.

David