DX is Dead R.I.P.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 by Murex | Discussion: DesktopX

Now that I have your attention!!
 
I would like to discuss DX in general.  With the arrival of windows 7 some parts of DX are really not necessary as a lot of programs that is used often can be pined to the task bar.  So I am wondering what parts of DX are really used by the average user.  Myself and Jim would like to see more skinners making DX themes.  I know a lot of people are saying that DX is broke and to hard to use to make a theme. Well Jim and I both use DX Pro  version 3.5 on windows 7 and for the most part it is pretty stable.  I'm sure standard DX 3.5 will work just a good. At this point V 4 isn't worth installing.
 
Thanks to wonderful people like sViz and RomanDA there are now quite a few really good scripts to work with.  If any one would like to either get back into DX skinning or would like to start skinning I would be happy to help any way that I can and I'm sure Jim would help out also.
 
As a user what  objects do you find most usable?
 
DX Player
Weather
Clock
Calendar
Menus
Meters and Gauges
Do you like animations in the themes?
 
We would like to have your thoughts and comments. Please keep on topic and refrain from telling us how bad or borked  or what a piece of crap DX is. WE already Know what does and does not work in DX. 
First Previous Page 2 of 3 Next Last
ZubaZ
Reply #21 Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:47 AM

I rarely use any of the DX themes.  I never thought they were the point of DX.  They are nice and useful ..  but give me the tools!

RomanDA has made a number of mini-apps that I use every day.  That has been the strength of DX.

  • DX timer is super useful to me.
  • Process Memory Usage - useful
  • Site-checker - not as useful at the moment but very nice.
  • Holiday countdown - Use it daily
  • File transporter - killer app

Littleboy's Volume control is super cool and useful.

CerbrosJD's Pixel ruler is a tool I always keep with me.

Murex
Reply #22 Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:38 AM

Okay, who wants to take a look at OCCAM for me?

 

Sent you a PM PO,  I'll try to help you out.

PoSmedley
Reply #23 Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:58 AM

On the way.

Anakey
Reply #24 Thursday, May 20, 2010 4:51 PM

Even though i have only made 1 dx widget, it gave me hours of fun designing it and making sure all the graphics worked right, that the scripts for visibility etc worked. I wanted to do something different, think out of the box and thats what i did. Its so much easier then doing a blind, and is versatile in its features other then a wb which is just basically a background. I used to use the weather widget a lot before the problems, now i tend not to as its less accurate. It can still be used as a good programing tool.

RedneckDude
Reply #25 Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:16 PM

File transporter - killer app

Littleboy's Volume control is super cool and useful.

CerbrosJD's Pixel ruler is a tool I always keep with me.

OK, the first one, I'm stupid, I guess, can't figure out how to use it...

Second and third.....I need to find these!

RedneckDude
Reply #26 Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:18 PM

PoSmedley

But I have found that if I contact some of the script writers that most of the time if not all the time they will help me out.


Roman had helped me with some, but he is very busy, which I understand. What help he did give me showed me that what I want IS possible.

Okay, who wants to take a look at OCCAM for me?

I would love to have a look, but I can only barely edit script. I can sometimes modify what is alredy there, but nothing from scratch. I'll help in any way I can. Holler back!

PoSmedley
Reply #27 Friday, May 21, 2010 8:59 PM

One down.

WHo wants to be the next to get a headache looking at OCCAM.

RedneckDude
Reply #28 Friday, May 21, 2010 9:05 PM

Have you read the post above you? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

RomanDA
Reply #29 Friday, May 21, 2010 9:53 PM

Hey all

 just saw this.. YEP, I'm a busy bee these days, work has me on the road more than home. But that's not why im not into DX that much any more, As Zubaz can attest to, if you give me a challenge, ill do what i can to make it work.  I still use DX all the time, but now its on work or personal related items.  Drop-Info is used daily for our computers we setup for our systems.  I had to make a simple little delay-loader that loads user-specified programs after a user-defined pause.  We needed this due to the time it takes for a database sync to take place on boot up.

 As for helping, ill do what i can, but that isn't a ton these days.  If you ask, ill do what i can.  My frustrations with DX is more than well documented, and i had high hopes for DX4.  Little bugs that have been part of dx for over 6 years.  I LOVE DX, its the single most versatile program i have ever played with (as the true DX master VAD_M has shown over and over and over).  I so miss working on dx projects, it seems like years since i was "plugged in" to WC and DX.  Life just takes over.  Its May and i have over 300 hrs of OT this year, so my time at home.. is usually spent on Call of Duty (yes I'm RomanDA there as well) taking out some frustrations, or just resting.

 I dont know where im going with all this, its bean a long day, and i fell like crud, sinus infections suk.  I have tried to leave WC a good base of tutorials to start with, to learn with, and i have tried to help where i can, and whomever has asked.  If you have a great idea, let me know, who knows, i might be able to help. (no promises).

PoSmedley
Reply #30 Saturday, May 22, 2010 10:34 PM

YEP, I'm a busy bee these days, work has me on the road more than home.

I figured as much when you didn't get back to me. It's all good. The help you gave me got allowed me to egt further with it than I could have.

 

sViz has worked out the rest. Redneck pointed out I need to bring the bottom icons up a bit. Now I have to try and reassemble the weather object. The one I had was done before the weather stuff got all mucked up.

willistuder
Reply #31 Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:38 AM

PoSmedley

YEP, I'm a busy bee these days, work has me on the road more than home.


I figured as much when you didn't get back to me. It's all good. The help you gave me got allowed me to egt further with it than I could have.

 

sViz has worked out the rest. Redneck pointed out I need to bring the bottom icons up a bit. Now I have to try and reassemble the weather object. The one I had was done before the weather stuff got all mucked up.

I'm glad to hear that you're going to be able to move forward. It'll be great to have another DX artist, especially one of your artistic ability. Occam looks really good.

PoSmedley
Reply #32 Sunday, May 23, 2010 11:35 AM

It'll be great to have another DX artist, especially one of your artistic ability. Occam looks really good.

I've only done three of these things. Don't get your hopes up.

 

I can't move the icons on the bottom 'up' so they aren't off screen. I 'think' I got the weather wroking and managed to get the icons I made into it. Now I am struggling to add just a few more things and keep it all very simple and clean at the same time. Doing things in a minimalistic way has never been my strong suite.

RedneckDude
Reply #33 Sunday, May 23, 2010 4:13 PM

I'm thinking the way to get the bottom icons up into the screen better would be to make the wall an object, and make it the parent of the other things, like the bottom icon mask, etc.

This may help to control positions better. I'm looking into that. Sorry so slow, busy here too. 

sViz
Reply #34 Sunday, May 23, 2010 4:51 PM

The position of the icons at the bottom are controlled by the Bottom_Icons_Mask script. There's two ways to change their top position.

1) Make the mask height larger, which will automatically reposition the icons higher (within the mask.)

2) Move the mask up in the script

To make it easier, replace the line highlighted above with these two:

Object.left = (centerX - (object.width/2))
Object.bottom =  (system.screenheight - 15)

Then, if you want to move it further up, increase the number 15 to increase how far away from the screen bottom the mask sits.

PoSmedley
Reply #35 Sunday, May 23, 2010 7:36 PM

The position of the icons at the bottom are controlled by the Bottom_Icons_Mask script.

Thanks. I knew the answer was there and should have known to resize it.

I may need to go back and redo the icons. Some of the groups aren't centering and it's bugging me. I have to tweak them so ALL of them are uniform...unfortunately I may have 'box' them all which would ruin what I was looking for.

RedneckDude
Reply #36 Sunday, May 23, 2010 8:05 PM

You Go Eve!!!!!   

Murex
Reply #37 Sunday, May 23, 2010 8:09 PM

sViz has worked out the rest. Redneck pointed out I need to bring the bottom icons up a bit. Now I have to try and reassemble the weather object. The one I had was done before the weather stuff got all mucked up.

I'm glad that sViz was able to help you out. She has a heart of gold.

captainmoonlight
Reply #38 Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:33 PM

I migrated over to Winstep, still use Windowblinds & OD tho.
  I no longer use Dx any more most of the Dx will not work in w7  i use  Winstep XTREME  with  my blinds now

Philly0381
Reply #39 Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:46 PM

DX is working fine for me on Win 7 64 bit.

What are you having problems with captinmoonlight?

PoSmedley
Reply #40 Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:48 PM

I might actually be able to finish this now.

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