My problems with WinStyles (long)
Thursday, January 10, 2002 by gorman | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Stardock's new product "WinStyles" has recently come to my attention, and I have some major fundamental problems with it. I am posting this in a public forum so that everyone's thoughts and ideas on this are in one centralized location. To sum up my feelings, before I go into detail, let me put it like this: WinStyles acts as a vending machine for all of your work.
That sounds harsh, I know. However, think about that for a moment, and I believe you will get my point. By simply creating a pack of skins for download, each individual author loses nearly all credit for their work, and they'll lose a good portion of the comments and feedback they might receive due to their skin simply being packaged with 10 others. Their skin is simply part of a group now, and all individuality of it is lost. The user sees the work, uses it, but it all ends here. Thus, WinStyles is a virtual vending machine for skins. This is a big, big problem.
This program hurts everyone, including you. It hurts the artists by eliminating individual feedback from the people who download their work, and as a result stunting their growth as an artist. Many artists are greatly dependent on comments to improve their work, and this is a key point of most skin sites; without these comments, the community will come to a basic stand still. It also hurts the artist by removing the majority of recognition. By looking for skins individually you see the person's name, can easily view their profile and see other skins they have uploaded, and get a much more personal feel of things. Granted the author has to give permission for their work to be in a WinStyles suite, it still does not resolve any of the above issues.
It hurts the skin sites (such as WinCustomize and DeskMod) by reducing the overall interaction, not to mention the page views. Comments will go down, downloads will drop on everything besides the WinStyle suites, and the whole point of the site will slowly crumble. Although something of this catastrophic level is not likely, this program certainly enables the possibility. The whole sense of community greatly deteriorates, and that really will hurt the sites.
In addition to all of that, you are also hurt. No longer are you able to easily view other work by the artists because you do not go directly to the page with their upload. You do not have the opportunity to make contact with the artists, leave your opinions, or further contribute to the community. This really hurts the overall experience of going to a skin site, and being part of the community. Those reading this certainly know that.
Last, but definitely not least, this hurts application developers. All of a sudden, their program loses its identity. No longer do you have to change the skin through the application itself, now you simply use a Stardock program to change it all. Imagine how many people will think to themselves "I made my desktop look pretty with WinStyles", this removes lots of appreciation for the individual applications. This is very similar to the appreciation for the artist that I talked about previously. Although this is probably one of the smaller implications of this type of a program, it is certainly not one to ignore.
Overall, I can understand why Stardock would think this is a good idea, but I personally feel the negatives outweigh the positives. It makes things easy, but it causes many problems while doing so. Granted this is a great way for Stardock to increase awareness of their brand, in return it does the exact opposite for applications that it skins. If this program really gets big, it will ultimately ruin the community.
Thank you,
David Gorman
DeskMod
That sounds harsh, I know. However, think about that for a moment, and I believe you will get my point. By simply creating a pack of skins for download, each individual author loses nearly all credit for their work, and they'll lose a good portion of the comments and feedback they might receive due to their skin simply being packaged with 10 others. Their skin is simply part of a group now, and all individuality of it is lost. The user sees the work, uses it, but it all ends here. Thus, WinStyles is a virtual vending machine for skins. This is a big, big problem.
This program hurts everyone, including you. It hurts the artists by eliminating individual feedback from the people who download their work, and as a result stunting their growth as an artist. Many artists are greatly dependent on comments to improve their work, and this is a key point of most skin sites; without these comments, the community will come to a basic stand still. It also hurts the artist by removing the majority of recognition. By looking for skins individually you see the person's name, can easily view their profile and see other skins they have uploaded, and get a much more personal feel of things. Granted the author has to give permission for their work to be in a WinStyles suite, it still does not resolve any of the above issues.
It hurts the skin sites (such as WinCustomize and DeskMod) by reducing the overall interaction, not to mention the page views. Comments will go down, downloads will drop on everything besides the WinStyle suites, and the whole point of the site will slowly crumble. Although something of this catastrophic level is not likely, this program certainly enables the possibility. The whole sense of community greatly deteriorates, and that really will hurt the sites.
In addition to all of that, you are also hurt. No longer are you able to easily view other work by the artists because you do not go directly to the page with their upload. You do not have the opportunity to make contact with the artists, leave your opinions, or further contribute to the community. This really hurts the overall experience of going to a skin site, and being part of the community. Those reading this certainly know that.
Last, but definitely not least, this hurts application developers. All of a sudden, their program loses its identity. No longer do you have to change the skin through the application itself, now you simply use a Stardock program to change it all. Imagine how many people will think to themselves "I made my desktop look pretty with WinStyles", this removes lots of appreciation for the individual applications. This is very similar to the appreciation for the artist that I talked about previously. Although this is probably one of the smaller implications of this type of a program, it is certainly not one to ignore.
Overall, I can understand why Stardock would think this is a good idea, but I personally feel the negatives outweigh the positives. It makes things easy, but it causes many problems while doing so. Granted this is a great way for Stardock to increase awareness of their brand, in return it does the exact opposite for applications that it skins. If this program really gets big, it will ultimately ruin the community.
Thank you,
David Gorman
DeskMod
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shoggot
Reply #23 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:28 PM
Reply #23 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:28 PM
fair enough - I'll take that as a "we like control", IE, no. nice community support, eloquent response to this supporting app devs 
Frogboy
Reply #24 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:38 PM
Reply #24 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:38 PM
More like a rejection of elitism.
A rejection of "We just spent a year writing this but let's go open source it to make some self-important guy agree that we're not 'evil' even though he has no reason to think we're 'evil' in the first place."
During development, many times, we thought how ironic that a program like WinStyles wasn't done by a certain numerically named team of holier-than-thou coders since it was well within their ability.
I measure people by their deeds, not not warm fuzzy words. WinStyles, today, right now, supports virtually every even remotely popular program out there that's skinnable. It doesn't just support Stardock stuff, it supports things ranging from NeXTSTart to Hoverdesk to Beatnik.
It's easy for a guy who never has to actually put forth WORK behind it words to demand others give up their work.
Stardock isn't "evil" but it IS a business. And I don't consider you to represent any sort of "community" that I would want to be apart at this point.
The "community" I think of isn't made up principally of roughly a dozen self-appointed guys who rarely make skins, barely write code, and when they deem to grace everyone else with their presence tend to sit there and put down what other people do calling them "evil" (the term "Evil" bandied about people who write eye candy software is ridiculous to begin with) or "Nazis" or whatever.
If you actually wrote real code, you might have an understanding why your demand that we just hand over a project we've been working on over a year to other people for no other reason other than satisfy your holier than thou attitude is not likely to have much support with us.
Like I implied earlier, go get your buddies at 545 or whatever to write one of these and release it as open source. It's well within their ability. Or write it yourself and give it away.
A rejection of "We just spent a year writing this but let's go open source it to make some self-important guy agree that we're not 'evil' even though he has no reason to think we're 'evil' in the first place."
During development, many times, we thought how ironic that a program like WinStyles wasn't done by a certain numerically named team of holier-than-thou coders since it was well within their ability.
I measure people by their deeds, not not warm fuzzy words. WinStyles, today, right now, supports virtually every even remotely popular program out there that's skinnable. It doesn't just support Stardock stuff, it supports things ranging from NeXTSTart to Hoverdesk to Beatnik.
It's easy for a guy who never has to actually put forth WORK behind it words to demand others give up their work.
Stardock isn't "evil" but it IS a business. And I don't consider you to represent any sort of "community" that I would want to be apart at this point.
The "community" I think of isn't made up principally of roughly a dozen self-appointed guys who rarely make skins, barely write code, and when they deem to grace everyone else with their presence tend to sit there and put down what other people do calling them "evil" (the term "Evil" bandied about people who write eye candy software is ridiculous to begin with) or "Nazis" or whatever.
If you actually wrote real code, you might have an understanding why your demand that we just hand over a project we've been working on over a year to other people for no other reason other than satisfy your holier than thou attitude is not likely to have much support with us.
Like I implied earlier, go get your buddies at 545 or whatever to write one of these and release it as open source. It's well within their ability. Or write it yourself and give it away.
John Hamp
Reply #25 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:42 PM
Reply #25 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:42 PM
shoggot says:
"fair enough - I'll take that as a "we like control", IE, no. nice community support, eloquent response to this supporting app devs"
Pot to kettle. Pot to kettle.
For a guy who just got done calling people "evil".....
"fair enough - I'll take that as a "we like control", IE, no. nice community support, eloquent response to this supporting app devs"
Pot to kettle. Pot to kettle.
For a guy who just got done calling people "evil".....
shoggot
Reply #26 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:53 PM
Reply #26 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:53 PM
point is, although it supports a few n on-SD apps, it doesn't support -anything- - just what you give it support for. Open-sourcing it would aleviate that problem, take some of the pressure off of you to add support for such (apparently unpopular, or they'd be supported?) apps as litestep...
By all means, don't do it for me - I'm not the developer of an app you've snubbed. Try doing it out of the goodness of your heart. You ascribe to having some of that, I've heard.
From what I see, the only financial boost this can give you is via reputation - so open sourcing it could only improve that aspect.
As for 34i, yes, they aren't doing this. They are, quite honestly, every bit as money-grubbing as you are. And I have no problem with that (with them, or with you - for that). They also aren't trying to get complete control of skinning, and turn it into a saleable product. That's what I see SD doing, currently.
If you honestly believe that this is a good thing for the community, make it a community project. If you don't, I guess your only option is to keep dismissing the issue
Pot, kettle, whatever... this is the3 bed you've made, cake you've baked, you're sizing the shoe for fitness. Let's see what you make of it.
Personally, I'm guessing it'll end up as ammunition.
By all means, don't do it for me - I'm not the developer of an app you've snubbed. Try doing it out of the goodness of your heart. You ascribe to having some of that, I've heard.
From what I see, the only financial boost this can give you is via reputation - so open sourcing it could only improve that aspect.
As for 34i, yes, they aren't doing this. They are, quite honestly, every bit as money-grubbing as you are. And I have no problem with that (with them, or with you - for that). They also aren't trying to get complete control of skinning, and turn it into a saleable product. That's what I see SD doing, currently.
If you honestly believe that this is a good thing for the community, make it a community project. If you don't, I guess your only option is to keep dismissing the issue
Pot, kettle, whatever... this is the3 bed you've made, cake you've baked, you're sizing the shoe for fitness. Let's see what you make of it.
Personally, I'm guessing it'll end up as ammunition.
Istari
Reply #27 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:55 PM
Reply #27 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:55 PM
Shoggot's meglomania aside, let's be constructive. WinStyles is a reality.
If SD didn't make it, someone else would have. Skinning is very popular. People want easy ways to skin their computers. So what features should be added to WinStyles to address the concerns raised?
If SD didn't make it, someone else would have. Skinning is very popular. People want easy ways to skin their computers. So what features should be added to WinStyles to address the concerns raised?
shoggot
Reply #28 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:01 PM
Reply #28 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:01 PM
Make it possible for developers of non-stardock apps to add support.
Not having support for popular apps which directly compete with SD apps (such as litestep, for starters - there's likely over 200 apps which aren't supported) gives it the look of a corporate tool, thus providing ammo for trolling megalomaniacs...
Not having support for popular apps which directly compete with SD apps (such as litestep, for starters - there's likely over 200 apps which aren't supported) gives it the look of a corporate tool, thus providing ammo for trolling megalomaniacs...
Frogboy
Reply #29 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:11 PM
Reply #29 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:11 PM
Shoggot: I wasn't referring to 34i. Mian and Toasty are high on my list of great developers who match words with deeds.
You'll have to forgive me if I don't accept your definition of what support is.
Desktop customization is not some holy thing. It's software that allows you to do neat things on your computer. That's why it is, in my view, very melodramatic for you to ascribe terms like "evil" to it. I mean really, get a life.
The problem is that you and I don't serve the same "communities". The fact WinStyles exists helps hundreds of thousands of people who are just getting into skinning.
Why not get your buddies l0c and Jier to write one of these things. They were the ones I was referring to.
Then when they're done, have them hand it over to a Gorman or Jark or whomever.
Shoggot, to me, you just represent the typical "nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it" type. This whole "taking over skinning" is frankly, just bizarre.
Nothing stopped people from writing their own DesktopX or WindowBlinds or WInStyles or LogonStudio or CursorXP or whatever. They simply didn't do it. You would have people believe that there were all these great programs and then Stardock came around and crowded them all out. The reality is that users would simply have even fewer options.
The purpose of WinStyles is to lift the tied of all boats. If we can come up with an open plugin standard, we will (and we have been saying that for SIX MONTHS if you had bothered to keep up on what's going on).
WinStyles lowers the barrier to entry for new users to get into customization by providing a standard interface and streamlining how one controls their various customization programs.
The good points brought up by Dave Gorman wouldn't even exist if Stardock were "evil" because WinStyles would be totally tied into WinCustomize and only work on Stardock apps which would eliminate most of his concerns. But because we're trying to be nice, and support non-Stardock apps and have .SUITEs support all websites it makes things a little more complicated. Hopefully we can have the best of both worlds, where Dave's concerns are met without having to tighten up what it supports.
You'll have to forgive me if I don't accept your definition of what support is.
Desktop customization is not some holy thing. It's software that allows you to do neat things on your computer. That's why it is, in my view, very melodramatic for you to ascribe terms like "evil" to it. I mean really, get a life.
The problem is that you and I don't serve the same "communities". The fact WinStyles exists helps hundreds of thousands of people who are just getting into skinning.
Why not get your buddies l0c and Jier to write one of these things. They were the ones I was referring to.
Then when they're done, have them hand it over to a Gorman or Jark or whomever.
Shoggot, to me, you just represent the typical "nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it" type. This whole "taking over skinning" is frankly, just bizarre.
Nothing stopped people from writing their own DesktopX or WindowBlinds or WInStyles or LogonStudio or CursorXP or whatever. They simply didn't do it. You would have people believe that there were all these great programs and then Stardock came around and crowded them all out. The reality is that users would simply have even fewer options.
The purpose of WinStyles is to lift the tied of all boats. If we can come up with an open plugin standard, we will (and we have been saying that for SIX MONTHS if you had bothered to keep up on what's going on).
WinStyles lowers the barrier to entry for new users to get into customization by providing a standard interface and streamlining how one controls their various customization programs.
The good points brought up by Dave Gorman wouldn't even exist if Stardock were "evil" because WinStyles would be totally tied into WinCustomize and only work on Stardock apps which would eliminate most of his concerns. But because we're trying to be nice, and support non-Stardock apps and have .SUITEs support all websites it makes things a little more complicated. Hopefully we can have the best of both worlds, where Dave's concerns are met without having to tighten up what it supports.
_Martin_
Reply #30 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:12 PM
Reply #30 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:12 PM
Christ what a drama. It seems to me that some people just want Skinning to be a 'cultish' dark art that only a few geeky people have access to.
Until a couple of years ago I didn't know what skinning was. I found that VDE and then DesktopX offered me something I loved and could get into.
Why anything that makes getting your desktop to look great easier should be slated is beyond me. Why not make it easier for Joe Public.
This appliction is not even at 1.0 yet and Stardock are open to suggestions so lets just be constructive and give it a chance without using it as a weapon in our own private agendas!
Until a couple of years ago I didn't know what skinning was. I found that VDE and then DesktopX offered me something I loved and could get into.
Why anything that makes getting your desktop to look great easier should be slated is beyond me. Why not make it easier for Joe Public.
This appliction is not even at 1.0 yet and Stardock are open to suggestions so lets just be constructive and give it a chance without using it as a weapon in our own private agendas!
shoggot
Reply #31 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:18 PM
Reply #31 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:18 PM
"Nothing stopped people from writing their own DesktopX or WindowBlinds or WInStyles or LogonStudio or CursorXP or whatever."
You're absolutely - w/ the exception of cursorXP (cursorex), all have been made, as freeware, long before SD made 'em.
All of the apps in question can be found at devart. Please don't act like you're the innovator of these things. It -really- makes you sound like an underinformed marketdroid.
You're absolutely - w/ the exception of cursorXP (cursorex), all have been made, as freeware, long before SD made 'em.
All of the apps in question can be found at devart. Please don't act like you're the innovator of these things. It -really- makes you sound like an underinformed marketdroid.
shoggot
Reply #32 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:22 PM
Reply #32 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:22 PM
err - 2nd P, erratta: "You're absolutely correct - ....."
Gandalf0807
Reply #33 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:25 PM
Reply #33 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:25 PM
"This whole "taking over skinning" is frankly, just bizarre.
"
Oh really? Apparently you've forgotten your first line in the news post you submitted Frogboy and I quote...
"One app to rule them all"
http://www.deskmod.com/?show=news&nid=143
"
Oh really? Apparently you've forgotten your first line in the news post you submitted Frogboy and I quote...
"One app to rule them all"
http://www.deskmod.com/?show=news&nid=143
Frogboy
Reply #34 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:31 PM
Reply #34 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:31 PM
Wrong. WindowBlinds existed BEFORE eFX. Do you even know why eFX was called that in the first place (where it got the FX in its title?) There is still, to this day, no equivalent to DesktopX in any form. (Things like Litestep, Talisman, Hoverdesk are akin to ObjectBar which you'll note I didn't list). I suspect you're not even familiar with it beyond screenshots. Here's a hint: You would run DesktopX WITH Litestep or HOverdesk, not instead of it. And if there's a WInStyles equivalent, why are you bitching in the first place?
Like it or not (not in your case) we have innovated. Before there was an eFX or even before there was a Litestep, there was Stardock Object Desktop. I'm sorry this doesn't fit into your romantic view of freeware authors creating great software and then "evil" Stardock comes along and steals their ideas and crowds them out. We've worked hard to make our software very good and how good it is can be debated, the fact that we also did it first cannot be debated, it's a matter of historical fact. You really should have consulted with Mian or Toasty before making your claims.
The fact is, you're not only out of touch with where the software is today, you're out of touch with its history. Then again, you were the one who tried to claim that DesktopX was VDE and that VDE was freeware (which it wasn't).
Like it or not (not in your case) we have innovated. Before there was an eFX or even before there was a Litestep, there was Stardock Object Desktop. I'm sorry this doesn't fit into your romantic view of freeware authors creating great software and then "evil" Stardock comes along and steals their ideas and crowds them out. We've worked hard to make our software very good and how good it is can be debated, the fact that we also did it first cannot be debated, it's a matter of historical fact. You really should have consulted with Mian or Toasty before making your claims.
The fact is, you're not only out of touch with where the software is today, you're out of touch with its history. Then again, you were the one who tried to claim that DesktopX was VDE and that VDE was freeware (which it wasn't).
Frogboy
Reply #35 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:31 PM
Reply #35 Thursday, January 10, 2002 6:31 PM
Gandalf - it was a Lord of the Rings humor reference.
Robohead
Reply #36 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:03 PM
Reply #36 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:03 PM
I see Winstyles as a benefit to the skin user who wants to simplify switching his desktop themes on the fly. However, I don’t necessarily agree that any of these themes should be uploaded to the internet. That is where the problem lies. I already see some Winstyles themes here that were “packaged” and uploaded by someone other than the original skin author/s.
Why condone the inevitable? There will be rips. The very nature of this program assures that. I like the idea of Winstyles, but this should probably just be an accessory application for the skin user to help speed up the process of changing his/her desktop and nothing more (i.e. no uploaded themes). I know that won’t happen. Just voicing my opinion.
.SUITEs on the other hand seem like an ok idea. At least with those, you're assured of downloading the original skin authors work with no modifications made or false credit given(or are you?).
By the way, where is the support for HVD? I have v.95 and don’t see it listed. And there are actually several more apps that could be included (EZpop, Colorpad, QuickNotes, AMInews, Sysmeter, etc…..). Just look at most skin suites and you’ll see several of these smaller apps.
Why condone the inevitable? There will be rips. The very nature of this program assures that. I like the idea of Winstyles, but this should probably just be an accessory application for the skin user to help speed up the process of changing his/her desktop and nothing more (i.e. no uploaded themes). I know that won’t happen. Just voicing my opinion.
.SUITEs on the other hand seem like an ok idea. At least with those, you're assured of downloading the original skin authors work with no modifications made or false credit given(or are you?).
By the way, where is the support for HVD? I have v.95 and don’t see it listed. And there are actually several more apps that could be included (EZpop, Colorpad, QuickNotes, AMInews, Sysmeter, etc…..). Just look at most skin suites and you’ll see several of these smaller apps.
Frogboy
Reply #37 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:10 PM
Reply #37 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:10 PM
If you see any WinStyles themes that contain other people's skins without permission let us know.
Third Eye
Reply #38 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:26 PM
Reply #38 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:26 PM
I think that Winstyles is a good idea.
I also think that allowing for "app plugins/scripts" (or whatever) is also an excellent idea. This would remove SD from having to change a plugin whenever an app changes enough. They would waste no resource on keeping up-to-date with all of the apps/shells out there so the "dev overhead" would rest soley on the app/shell dev team to update their "plugin". SD and the other Skin sites could add a link/item called "WinStyles Plugins/Scripts" to their list and the other app developers could come and upload/update their script(s) when ever they needed to.
This would be a Win=Win situation.
SD could sell their app because they developed it and the numerous other skinable apps could be represented via a plugin or script.
Why this gets completely overlooked/ignored by SD whenever it is mentioned I have no clue.
One question I have is what if the link(s) in the .Suite file is broken? Is it easy enough to change their reference? Could I change the links to another site because it is much faster or because I choose to promote that site?
I also think that allowing for "app plugins/scripts" (or whatever) is also an excellent idea. This would remove SD from having to change a plugin whenever an app changes enough. They would waste no resource on keeping up-to-date with all of the apps/shells out there so the "dev overhead" would rest soley on the app/shell dev team to update their "plugin". SD and the other Skin sites could add a link/item called "WinStyles Plugins/Scripts" to their list and the other app developers could come and upload/update their script(s) when ever they needed to.
This would be a Win=Win situation.
SD could sell their app because they developed it and the numerous other skinable apps could be represented via a plugin or script.
Why this gets completely overlooked/ignored by SD whenever it is mentioned I have no clue.
One question I have is what if the link(s) in the .Suite file is broken? Is it easy enough to change their reference? Could I change the links to another site because it is much faster or because I choose to promote that site?
Firestorm
Reply #39 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:32 PM
Reply #39 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:32 PM
I agree wholeheartedly on the plugins issue. A plugin module would shut people like Shoggot up, since any skinnable app could be easily added to WinStyles' list of supported programs, and SD would not have to open source WS to make it possible (Come on, Shog... If you had access to the WS code, the first thing you'd do is remove support for all SD applicatons.)
Frogboy
Reply #40 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:45 PM
Reply #40 Thursday, January 10, 2002 7:45 PM
Plugin support or some standard way to have your application supported is something we have planned on doing and publicly stated on doing for a long while. It won't make it into 1.0 since it will involve some work. But obviously we would rather not have to keep on having to figure out how various apps apply their skins/themes.
We're willing to do it for the "big" apps (and even then only in the full version) but for the small ones, no.
I'm sure that in hell, right next to the poor guy having to roll that boulder up the hill over and over is some poor guy having to figure out how themes and skins are applied.
I don't really think third parties will make plugins since open source advocates tend to be more talk than action in my experience but it would at least shift the burden off of us.
And just so one doesn't think we're just coming around to this thinking, the plugin stuff is already partially implemented in the current build. If you open up your WInStyles directory you'll see a components.ini file.
The way we'll probably do it is ask devleopers to provide a standardized way of applying their themes.
So for instance it would look something like this in components.ini:
[MySkinnableApp]
Extension=*.myappext
Browse=SkinnabbleApp
Icon=myapp.ico
Description=MySkinnableApp is a generic skinning App.
Website=http://www.skinnableapp.org/
[email protected]
News=news://news.kinnableapp.org
Downloads=https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=48
EXE=skinnableapp.exe /apply
REGENTRY=SkinnableAppCompany\SkinnableApp\path
Load=1
To add add support, you would just update your components.ini to support your particular program.
This is mostly done already. Except that we need to specify that the skin program in question needs to have an external way to apply a skin like "c: myapp /apply myskin.ext" And have a registriy entry that says where it is located on your disk.
That's one reason why we can't yet support Coolplayer. It has no registry entries saying where on your machine it is physically located.
We're willing to do it for the "big" apps (and even then only in the full version) but for the small ones, no.
I'm sure that in hell, right next to the poor guy having to roll that boulder up the hill over and over is some poor guy having to figure out how themes and skins are applied.
I don't really think third parties will make plugins since open source advocates tend to be more talk than action in my experience but it would at least shift the burden off of us.
And just so one doesn't think we're just coming around to this thinking, the plugin stuff is already partially implemented in the current build. If you open up your WInStyles directory you'll see a components.ini file.
The way we'll probably do it is ask devleopers to provide a standardized way of applying their themes.
So for instance it would look something like this in components.ini:
[MySkinnableApp]
Extension=*.myappext
Browse=SkinnabbleApp
Icon=myapp.ico
Description=MySkinnableApp is a generic skinning App.
Website=http://www.skinnableapp.org/
[email protected]
News=news://news.kinnableapp.org
Downloads=https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=48
EXE=skinnableapp.exe /apply
REGENTRY=SkinnableAppCompany\SkinnableApp\path
Load=1
To add add support, you would just update your components.ini to support your particular program.
This is mostly done already. Except that we need to specify that the skin program in question needs to have an external way to apply a skin like "c: myapp /apply myskin.ext" And have a registriy entry that says where it is located on your disk.
That's one reason why we can't yet support Coolplayer. It has no registry entries saying where on your machine it is physically located.
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Reply #21 Thursday, January 10, 2002 5:05 PM