New skin "Mirror, mirror..."

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black
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Posts: 28
Joined: 15 Oct 2004 19:47

New skin "Mirror, mirror..."

Postby black » 08 Oct 2008 06:44

Hey all,

This is something I tried before void was released about 5 years ago, but couldn't make it happen then. This skin has some quirks, not by design but due to the lack (correct me if I'm wrong) of some capabilities in the current skin code. The idea here was to have the playlist window appear part of the main-window, as seamlessly as possible, as opposed to a seperate playlist window. A third window, a "cloak", serves to hide the playlist, on demand.

The obvious eventuality, would be to have all functions, the kitchen sink, everything, available within a single skin, like the default gui is. Functions that I don't currently use or haven't need for, aren't included.

When first loading this skin...recommended:

1) Double-click the main mirror border (any) prior to attempting to move the main gui...this prevents gui seperation when re-positioning.

2) Additionally, click the center of the mirror (playlist or cloak) if the screen gui is open, this prevents "cleavage" of the mirror when dragging past the screen gui. Objective here is to take focus away from the screen/vout gui. The last window activated will usually have the mouse focus.

Try dragging the main control gui without the clicking and you'll see what I mean. Could be a useful feature sometime, but won't speculate as to what feature. More:

3) The "exit" button is the dark grate @ the left center of the main gui. Wierd position for sure, but I'm o.k. with wierd, a balanced appearance was preferable.

4) For those who haven't already noticed, the "playlist window" is scrollable even without the scrollbar (same with void/electix), as long as that window has the mouse focus. Never liked the appearance of the scrollbar anyway, just extra clutter.

5) Resize and close buttons are available on the right border of the screen/vout gui, hidden. No resize of the main-gui.

6) Track duration is now (hover) @ the "seek slider", wouldn't display properly in a normal position on the main gui, would show, but without numbers.

I am a "Linux" user, and thoroughly enjoy creating these skins for VLC use on 'nix, though recently re-installed XP, just to see that my skins work in win32...for obvious reasons. Also, do not have VLC-9.x installed yet, stayed with VLC-8.6, a solid app to say the least, meaning...these skins aren't checked in any VLC version other than 8.6x. Suppose I will head up to version-9.2, soon, and see wassup!

These skins are offered to the VLC community as ideas, not items of metric-ware, to measure up to some arbitrary, socially acceptable, popularity contest, though the download rate and skin rating system used seem fair indicators of acceptability. Impetus here, is user support for VLC, and perhaps influencing more/better skin features for tomorrow.

Seen some really neat stuff from other skin designers here, some of which I've tried/used, so, any stuff from my efforts are freely available, part and parcel, to other skin designers. Grab whatever's of use, I lay no exclusivity claims on any of it. If I didn't want others touching my stuff, I certainly wouldn't release it publicly. They're just ideas after all, available to anyone/everyone!

Feedback please! The above indicators are o.k., but not very specific for problems...this or that sux doesn't cut-it, particulars are required for bug-hunting and design mods.

just upped, for your consideration,

black

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