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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 11:53 pm 
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nexter wrote:
With one particular shelf (ATM having two for testing only), in both top and bottom edge docked as well as floating near top or bottom, the icons extend into and overlap the scroll arrow area/arrows, as per screen grab. Theme independent. Vanishes in vertical orientation.

Image


Fixed, thanks. A minus sign got turned into a plus sign because of the code change for the Drawers.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:18 am 
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winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
With one particular shelf (ATM having two for testing only), in both top and bottom edge docked as well as floating near top or bottom, the icons extend into and overlap the scroll arrow area/arrows, as per screen grab. Theme independent. Vanishes in vertical orientation.

Fixed, thanks. A minus sign got turned into a plus sign because of the code change for the Drawers.

Fab! Good work Jorge. :) A simple little thing like that causing such visual havoc, eh. And still no crash, not even a whimper! ;)

Still 20C outside, indoors an unbearable 38C! Can't sleep, even with fan going like the clappers, so hauled my tail out of bed to do something useful. :/

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:13 am 
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nexter wrote:
Still 20C outside, indoors an unbearable 38C! Can't sleep, even with fan going like the clappers, so hauled my tail out of bed to do something useful. :/


Eh? Why such a big temp difference between outside and inside? Guess houses in the UK were built for the cold and not warm weather, but still, 18C delta is HUGE (not to mention that 20C is not warm at all, at least not by Porc & Cheese standards lol)!

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 10:47 am 
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Vlad wrote:
Thank you Jorge!


I think you're going to like this one too: added a new 'Now Playing' entry to the Media Player's right click context menu - shows all the songs in the currently selected playlist (in alphabetical order) and allows you to directly jump to the song you want.

I was kind of missing the ability to do that.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:57 pm 
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winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
Still 20C outside, indoors an unbearable 38C! Can't sleep, even with fan going like the clappers, so hauled my tail out of bed to do something useful. :/

Eh? Why such a big temp difference between outside and inside? Guess houses in the UK were built for the cold and not warm weather, but still, 18C delta is HUGE (not to mention that 20C is not warm at all, at least not by Porc & Cheese standards lol)!

LOL! Well, in general houses never used to be built for any particularly severe climate, but if they were built properly to keep the heat inside in winter they'd also keep the heat out in summer. 20C is not especially warm but warm enough, and at night in the middle of summer it's unprecedented here I should think. In what used to be a fairly typical British summer, temperatures rarely used to rise much above 20C even in the daytime. But hell, the whole planet's screwed up. Iceland used to consider anything more than 20C a heatwave - the other day they had 29C! As for that enormous gap - well, it's simple and it's also complicated. We've got a flat concrete roof, which soaks up all and any heat and radiates it down day and night, like a storage heater that heats up rock or concrete during the night on cheap-ish rate electricity and then heats up the place during the day, at least, in theory. Even when things cool down again, it takes several days and up to a week for things to get cooler in here. :/

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 4:14 pm 
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Probably never paid much attention to this before, but it really hit me earlier today. All in-shelf modules change with themes, except the clock. Any particular reason why this should be so? (None of my mods etc. are set locked.)

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:33 pm 
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nexter wrote:
Probably never paid much attention to this before, but it really hit me earlier today. All in-shelf modules change with themes, except the clock. Any particular reason why this should be so? (None of my mods etc. are set locked.)


Are you sure the clock theme isn't locked? Can you post a screenshot of the clock module, please?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:04 am 
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winstep wrote:


Quote:
think you're going to like this one too: added a new 'Now Playing' entry to the Media Player's right click context menu - shows all the songs in the currently selected playlist (in alphabetical order) and allows you to directly jump to the song you want.

I was kind of missing the ability to do that.


Thank you for that also, Jorge!


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:27 am 
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winstep wrote:

Quote:
nexter wrote:
Probably never paid much attention to this before, but it really hit me earlier today. All in-shelf modules change with themes, except the clock. Any particular reason why this should be so? (None of my mods etc. are set locked.)


Are you sure the clock theme isn't locked? Can you post a screenshot of the clock module, please?


The clock changes just fine for me, is the Recycle Bin that does not change (locked theme or unlocked), the only change I see (in the shelf) is when you choose the style of Recycle Bin to be Recycler, I get the arrows from the Windows 7 Xtreme Theme Recycle Bin and when I choose the Recycle Bin option from style, I get the full Recycle Bin icon from Windows 7 Xtreme theme.

Attachment:
bug_003.JPG
bug_003.JPG [ 12.67 KiB | Viewed 14762 times ]

Attachment:
bug_004.JPG
bug_004.JPG [ 12.46 KiB | Viewed 14762 times ]


Also, the colorise option does not have any effect on in shelf modules.


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:32 am 
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Update to previous post:

Just made an attempt to change the recycler from a drawer and surprise: it is working. It is working in the drawer and also now, after that, it is working in the shelf. Go figure... :wink: :?:


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 4:01 pm 
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winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
Probably never paid much attention to this before, but it really hit me earlier today. All in-shelf modules change with themes, except the clock. Any particular reason why this should be so? (None of my mods etc. are set locked.)


Are you sure the clock theme isn't locked? Can you post a screenshot of the clock module, please?

Definitely nothing locked. Will post screen grab later, got to rush for now.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:34 pm 
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nexter wrote:
winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
Probably never paid much attention to this before, but it really hit me earlier today. All in-shelf modules change with themes, except the clock. Any particular reason why this should be so? (None of my mods etc. are set locked.)

Are you sure the clock theme isn't locked? Can you post a screenshot of the clock module, please?

Definitely nothing locked. Will post screen grab later, got to rush for now.

Right, all done. Here's the grab with a wrong clock theme on a totally different theme. The hands are the correct ones for the over-all theme but of course wrong for the alien clock theme.
Attachment:
WrongClock.png
WrongClock.png [ 5.49 KiB | Viewed 14745 times ]

BTW, how come the in-shelf (and in-dock) clocks still display full-size 64px images, at least, in the majority of themes?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 11:12 pm 
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Vlad wrote:
The clock changes just fine for me, is the Recycle Bin that does not change (locked theme or unlocked), the only change I see (in the shelf) is when you choose the style of Recycle Bin to be Recycler, I get the arrows from the Windows 7 Xtreme Theme Recycle Bin and when I choose the Recycle Bin option from style, I get the full Recycle Bin icon from Windows 7 Xtreme theme.

Also, the colorize option does not have any effect on in shelf modules.


Sigh. This happens for two reasons: one because you're not understanding how modules work, second because the whole concept is rather confusing and not clear at all (lol).

A few lose concepts:

1. Each module has two different styles. What those styles are is arbitrary, it's just a way to have some variety to the default modules.

Which style is being used for a particular module is something that is ALWAYS set by the user, and cannot be changed by theme authors.

2. In-Shelf/In-Dock modules and Desktop modules are two VERY DIFFERENT beasts.

The first are essentially icons, even though they are dynamic (i.e; built on-the-fly) images. Because they are displayed the same way as the icons for all the other applications in a dock or Shelf and therefore can become as small as 16x16 pixel images, they are very limited in the amount of information they can display.

Desktop modules, on the other hand, are free form fixed size widgets (ignoring for the moment that you can actually scale them up and down). Being fixed size, the theme author is free to put as much information (text, etc) into them as it will fit.

Desktop modules are thus based on a fixed size background bitmap and may - or may not - also display inside them an image of the module in icon format. Also some modules allow the theme author to do that, other modules don't.

3. Desktop modules do NOT have a style, they only have one version. Only modules in icon format have two possible styles.

This is another thing that can induce confusion. For instance: most theme authors choose to the display the desktop clock module in analog format. Users get confused when they change they in-shelf/in-dock clock module to digital but the desktop clock module remains in analog format.

4. Another source of confusion can occur when the theme author decides to display the icon image of the module inside the desktop module. Because that image is an actual in-shelf/in-dock icon, it will already display in the currently selected style, thus giving the impression that desktop modules also have a style when they do not.

For instance, refer to Vectornut's post HERE.

The Recycle and Email Checker images (unlike the globe and ram sticks images in the RAM and Email Checker desktop modules) were not being colorized. Why? Because the former are actual in-shelf/in-dock icon images overlayed onto the desktop module background. So, the background got colorized but the icons did not (I changed that so the icons will also be colorized from now on according to the colorization settings of the desktop module).

The KTEK-4D theme author (Tiggz) in the example above could actually have chosen to use two different background images for the empty and full recycle bin states, and for the Mail/No Mail states of the Email Checker module, but he chose to display the actual icons instead.

Another problem with doing this is that if the user has a style other than the default selected for the recycle bin and the Email Checker, the image that shows up on those desktop modules is the green animated recycler and the rotating globe instead of his customized icons.

5. New modules are being added all the time (ahem, lol) so older themes will naturally not provide background bitmaps for desktop modules that did not exist at the time the theme was made.

When this happens, WorkShelf has no other option but to display that desktop module as a clone image of it's in-shelf/in-dock little brother (i.e.; as an icon, and in the style currently by the user). The only exception to this is the calendar module for obvious reasons.

Despite this, they are still desktop modules.

6. And this too can induce some confusion on the user, because if the desktop module is displaying the icon image (because the theme author did not provide a theme for that particular module) then changing the style actually works for that particular desktop module.

7. Despite being icons, the theme author has a limited ability to skin *parts* of the in-shelf/in-dock modules so they blend in with the their theme.

However, exactly what gets skinned depends of the module and the style of the module, as well as if the theme author provided alternate images/settings for those or not.

For instance, take the Recycle Bin: you have a static style and an animated style. Even though the theme author can provide an alternate animation for the second style, very few do. If the theme does not have an alternate animation for the second style, WorkShelf displays the default look of the animated recycle bin.

Same thing for the Email Checker module: the second style is a rotating globe animation - almost nobody is going to provide alternate animations for that even if they could.

Likewise, take the clock: theme authors normally only provide a static background for the in-shelf/in-dock analog clock style and change the colors of the clock hands, completely neglecting the digital clock style.

It's understandable, but what happens then is that some in-Shelf/in-Dock modules change when you switch to a different theme, other don't, sometimes they change when you switch to another theme (if the theme has alternate bitmaps), sometimes they don't (if the theme does not have alternate bitmaps for that particular module/style), which can also be a bit confusing.

8. Colorization settings for modules are restricted to desktop modules only. They are NOT meant to colorize the icon version of those modules.

So, when the desktop module is showing the icon version because that particular theme does not have bitmaps for that module, the icon image is not colorized either, which can lead to further confusion.

I am thinking that perhaps I should always colorize the desktop module even if it is displaying the icon image - the drawback of this is that it can have some performance implications if the desktop module is constantly being updated (the rotating globe for the Email Checker module, for instance).

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 11:16 pm 
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nexter wrote:
Here's the grab with a wrong clock theme on a totally different theme. The hands are the correct ones for the over-all theme but of course wrong for the alien clock theme.


In addition to what I wrote above, there is a THIRD way to customize in-shelf/in-dock modules, one which is restricted to the user and overrides the theme/skinning settings.

Right click on the clock module in the Shelf or in the Dock, select 'Dock/Shelf Entry Properties' and then 'Change Icon'. Make sure the 'Analog Clock Background' is set to 'Default'.

As I said, this is one way users can override theme settings for icon modules.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.5?
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 2:58 am 
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winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
Here's the grab with a wrong clock theme on a totally different theme. The hands are the correct ones for the over-all theme but of course wrong for the alien clock theme.


In addition to what I wrote above, there is a THIRD way to customize in-shelf/in-dock modules, one which is restricted to the user and overrides the theme/skinning settings.

Right click on the clock module in the Shelf or in the Dock, select 'Dock/Shelf Entry Properties' and then 'Change Icon'. Make sure the 'Analog Clock Background' is set to 'Default'.

As I said, this is one way users can override theme settings for icon modules.

Oh heck, yeah, totally forgot about that one! :/ Thanks Jorge. File names should be WsClockA.* for analogue and WsClockD.* for digital, right?

As for your comments in your reply to Vlad ('The Impaler'? ;) ) re: analogue vs. digital in-shelf/-dock clock, personally, I tend to prefer analogue clocks, but nonetheless I've done a few themes with digital in-shelf/-dock clocks, some with the desktop mod digital as well. (As well as some with a dig. desktop but analg. in-shelf/dock clock, and even some with a combined a/d desktop clock.) Of course, an analg. in-shelf/-dock clock is much easier for the skinner to configure, in the absence of a ThemeBuilder, so that might have something to do with it?

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