WinCustomize ForumsI didn't intend to bash anyone, I was merely providing a suggestion for how to fix this issue, as it is something I have had to deal with in my own engine :)
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This is because DesktopX widgets (as in DuroBlend) are made up of individual windows. DesktopX hides the taskbar icons for active desktopX objects/widgets, so once you hide them via Show Desktop, I don't think there is a way to show them. The desktopX dev team could fix this somewhat easily. They could possibly make a shell hook which watches for calls to whatever api/apis Show Desktop uses (probably SetWindowpos()), or they could quickly put together a system within the desktopX object model wh
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There are two ways of looking at your questions, each with their own set of answers: set 1: The learning curve isnt very steep because you can use Visual Basic Express which is probably the easiest IDE/language ever contrived. Microsoft designed it to literally spoon-feed everything. Its probably easier the vb scripting for desktopx, though I'm sure someone would find ways to disagree. A pre-existing background isn't required, per say, but you will have to learn a litt
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and yes, it makes a lot more sense to label DuroBlend as a framework, because thats really what it is at this point.
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Some excellent points, frogboy. If WPF really is going to work on xp, then I don't see how I could compete, though I'm sure I'll find a way. You are correct in your assessment that DuroBlend is a lot more like DirectSkin. I think one way I could survive this is if I made my library cross platform (sigh... more code) Right now, I see DuroBlend as being a sort of "last big bang" for developer-oriented GUI components. While vista is still less popular then xp, there shou
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To the people who feel left out: Visual Basic is really easy to learn (as are most .NET languages). I mean heck I was able to learn it (ask anyone on wc... they can attest to my ... err.. uniqueness) so I'm sure most of the graphic designers here could too if they gave it a try. Microsoft has a free version of Visual Studio available.... Visual Studio Express. I suggest you get the Visual Basic version.
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As for the whole friends thing... if I were talking to people in the programming community right now, I would be talking about how people in the skinning community can't code. So call it what you like... they do like me there more or less. lol..
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Oh and by programmers I really meant software developers.
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no its great they joke about it a lot. I saw one guy who had a program in beta and hadn't found a graphic designer to do the UI yet so he made.... "Crapui"... and it certainly lived up to its name... lets just say I now view Oedipus's decision to blind himself in a whole new light :LOL: You'd be surprised Then again I am speaking mostly of the visual basic community, the story may be quite different in other languages/sects, but my general experience has been that good code =
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IR Brainiac: Well as an artist, lets pretend for a moment you were working for a software company that decides to integrate DuroBlend technology into one of their apps. They would call you up, have you make some psd's and then they would ask you to export everything as a PNG. From there, the programmers would take over and construct your GUI in code. When you think about it, its a lot like web design. Web designers are valuable because of their ability to (generally) understand things f
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c242: You raise a good point. I am aware there is a large market in consumer-tinkering with alphablending (dx), but I think there is a more profitable market in software developers buying UI components. I have seen many components which are really only a single button or something ridiculous like that... sell for hundreds of dollars and actually make a lot of money. Its ridiculous, and I intend to get in on some of it :CONGRAT: From a more general perspective, I think there w
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Yes I'm aware that it uses DirectSkin. Thats sorta the point... its this big expensive skinning thing, but there aren't even any alpha-channels (or at least weren't) The joe-user type you are speaking of is the Skinner. You'll find that in the programming community, everyone is TERRIBLE at graphics but knows how to program. DuroBlend is more suited for programmers (understatement). From the programmer's perspective (I have both perspectives.. having first been a skinner and then a progr
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note: the WindowsControlHost object basically = a .net panel with TransparencyKey enabled. If anyone knows what I am talking about, this should make things easier. For those that don't, it basically means that DuroBlend has 10x better support for integrating existing windows controls (buttons, textboxes, non-alphablended things, groupboxes, etc) then does DesktopX, which I believe still uses activex ( ;p )
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Thanks! btw here is a basic guide for creating a blendform / initializing DuroBlend, because it occured to me I don't have this posted anywhere yet (Visual Basic .NET code): imports DuroBlend imports DuroBlend.Controls dim withevents frm as new BlendForm(My.Resources.SomePng) 'creates a BlendForm from a png resource dim withevents but as new BlendButton ' creates a button to place on the BlendForm Sub FormLoad(byval.....) but.Parent = frm b
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Also I have talked with Brad and he said next week they would probably create a category on wincustomize for DuroBlend Gadgets. If this is the case, I will personally see to it that there are a ton of demo gadgets available within the first week. Additionally I am toying with the idea of creating a community edition, which will be free and allow people to distribute things for free without the messagebox, etc. Feedback?
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btw: ATI was thinking that they could make their control panel actually look graphically appealing... a novel concept... too bad they didn't use DuroBlend
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A lot of you have expressed frustration with how there aren't any demo apps, etc. There will be. The problem is there is just one of me. Although I did spend three years writing this engine, bear in mind I am really only 16 (almost 17). Doing things like writing a complete documentation, creating a strong base of demo apps, etc, etc, takes a lot of time. But I'm doing it... btw don't take my age as any indication that this software is at all insufficient for your needs/poorly programmed
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I would consider being tied to Object Desktop a huge disadvantage. With DuroBlend the way it is, it is ready to be implemented in any .NET software solution. DesktopX is handicap because it could never do something like this. I ran a beta program on several programming websites and literally had 90 signups in the first day. There is more demand then you might think for a usable, developer-friendly GUI engine. Like I said before, no one wants to use a scripting engine. Because o
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stardock should make a game, staring winky
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nice...
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Nope. Not at all. You can run them at the same time. They both operate using API calls so its all good...
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(before he had asked what the personal edition can do for an end user, though he appears to have edited his post)
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Lol yea it was actually Dura-Gloss or something. I guess you could say that was my "black and white" phase. Wow was it pathetic, but meh I was only 13 when I made that. As of now, the personal edition is really only good for getting used to the engine slash playing around with the engine. True, the personal edition has all of the features of the professional edition, but there is an annoying message box that loads every time you open up an app using DuroBlend specifying that this is, in
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Well lets put it this way... I used to be one of the top desktopX themes authors... I got annoyed with how dx was completely boxed into windows script, so I left the community for 2 years working on DuroBlend. Its loaded with marketing terms because in the programming community, thats how people talk.. its actually really funny. Also they have never really even heard of stardock or skinning, but are FASCINATED by it so its really easy to market to them. FYI: frogboy said that DuroBlend
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For a long time, DesktopX was the only full-fledged widget engine for Windows. Then along came the copycats: Konfabulator (eventually Yahoo Widgets), that ugly "dashboard thing" available to Mac users, Google Gadgets (a me-too product in response to Yahoo's purchase of Konfabulator, or the other way around... who knows), and finally, Microsoft Gadgets (an 'all your base actually do belong to us and if you don't like it you might as well go hug penguins' product). Thus it would seem that there
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