Now that v25.7 is finally out the door, it's time to start thinking about the next release.

Besides the multi-session modules that ended up not being implemented in v25.7 and have been on the to-do list for a very long time, something else I would like to try to tackle is the smoothness (or sometimes lack of it) of the dock animations as you add and remove items from it, etc... See if I can improve on that.

Multi-session modules would also opens the door to implementing even more modules, and, other than this, I would say the Winstep applications are pretty much feature complete in terms of what I envisioned them to be/become.

There are some other visual stuff I would like to change too, perhaps work on the logos, etc... not directly related to the applications themselves but replace some of the Windows 7 based images on the website with something more modern.

Also, allow the user to customize the new volume, net and battery tray icons via the mechanism already there and which was intended for the real tray icons.

And that is all for the time being.

Oh well, not an awful lot to do then.

BTW, adding or removing items from the dock (and Shelf) with anim is smooth as butter here.

As another suggestion, how about allowing for desktop mods to be fixed in place on a per theme basis?

And another one. How about bringing NS Menus in line with the rest of Xtreme by giving the gadgets (close, roll-up, minimise, always on top, and horizontal/vertical orientation) a mouse-over option?

As for the website app logos etc., as I mentioned before, they look perfectly good and strong, as well as not looking dated in the slightest. Damn good, strong brand image Jorge - mess with that at your peril. (I am talking about the Winstep and NextSTAR logos here.)

Hmm, perhaps that was a slightly premature reply there, given that you're so tied up with other stuff still, so I'll wait and let you get on with stuff in peace Jorge.

Done.

What do you mean? Xtreme already remembers the position of each desktop module on a per-theme (and per screen resolution + multi monitor configuration too) basis.

Move them around on theme x, switch to theme y, move them to suit theme y, go back to theme x and the modules will be where they were when you switched to theme y.



Yes, that is actually something I had already thought about for desktop modules too - something optional that only shows on mouse over and fades out as you move away from the module.

Likewise for the NextSTART menus - most themes do not have real title bars (in reality all menus have a title bar even if it is just a thin line at the top) and if you manage to detach a menu by accident then you might not know how to close it because there is no visible close button lol (the solution is actually to right click at the very top of the menu).

Yes, I'm aware of the position saving of mods as is at present. However, it is remarkably easy to move a particular mod or mods out of position. There is some sort of 'save positions' or 'fix positions' setting that fixes all positions in the current theme for all themes - this is what I mean should be available on a per theme basis.

Good news re: mouse- over for NS menus; and shouldn't there be some sorrt of default making the basic the basic title bar gadgets compulsory, much like the frames in wworkshelf? I'm sure that would eliminate a lot of confusion for newbs.

Oh Gawd, no.

This said, there is another way which would make overlapping fade in/out controls unnecessary: Winstep objects rely a lot on right click context menus, basically everything has a context menu.

Menu items are no exception. And while a context menu for a menu item normally relates to that item, I could actually add an always present option at the top of each context menu that actually relates to the menu itself, and not just that item, e.g.;

Menu -------------------> This opens a sub-menu with close, roll up/down, rotate, toggle always on top options
------------------------
Menu Item Properties
Rest of context menu options for that item
Etc...

Yes, that would be one solution I suppose, if perhaps not a very elegant one. But also, bear in mind that a heck of a lot of people don't have the foggiest what their right mouse button is for let alone what a context menu is. Seen that a lot.

So, as I mentioned in the previous version, I am thinking about modernizing a bit the logos/icons of NextSTART and perhaps Nexus and WorkShelf too. The Winstep logo is fine as it is, IMO.

Nexter, don't worry, when I say "modify" I don't mean "completely change". The logos/icons would remain essentially the same, so their recognizability would not suffer in any way, shape or form.

For instance, these two are the original Nexus icons (one is the logo that appears in the About tab the other is the blue variation of the actual Nexus icon):



In the application you can select six different variations of the same Nexus icon for the control icon of a particular dock. This is not merely cosmetic, it is also somewhat useful to help individualize multiple docks.

I am thinking about going one step further and let users customize the colors of both the background shape and the letters (add kind of a mini Nexus icon studio lol). For instance, the following are different color variations of a new version of the Nexus icon (still experimenting, not happy yet with how the background shape looks in the example below).

What is special about those is that they are all hue + saturation + lightness variations (with or without colorization) of two individual bitmaps, one with the background shape and the other with the NeXus letters. You colorize both independently and then overlap the letters on the shape to make the final icon (this in Photoshop, if added to the application you would only see the combined result, but you would be able to colorize the shape and the letters independently as in Photoshop).

With this method dock control icons would be dynamically generated based on the two source bitmaps + colorization options selected by the user. They could thus basically be any color combination the user wants instead of being limited to the current 6 pre-defined Nexus icons.

Not to mention that creating their own individually colorized Nexus icons might actually be a fun thing to do for some artistically minded users (and the others who can't bother can still select the 6 basic color versions as before, also created dynamically to recreate the original individual icons, see below).

So, what do you guys think? Not a biggie in terms of a new feature, I know, but after what I have been through in the past couple of months I need something light to play with eheh



Also, take a look at two new version of the original NextSTART icon (original in the middle). Personally I like the new versions a lot more. The one on the left is even more consistent with the metalic look of the Winstep logo AND the Nexus logo.

There is no big change, all three are perfectly recognizable as the NextSTART icon (which is basically a monochromatic rotated 3D Windows flag)

With the new (better IMO, more like the original) 3D rotated square that goes behind the word NeXuS:

Something else I just remembered I would like to add: the ability to select and drag multiple items at once in a shelf/drawer/grid stack. I actually did some work on it a long time ago but then never followed through for some reason.

And here is the leftmost NextSTART logo in the above image (the one I like the most) color corrected to match the metallic color of the Nexus icon.

Personally, don't particularly like the Nexus variations (new) but hey, that's a matter of taste. That shade of green though is particularly 'orrible. But also bear in mind, too much choice is a bad thing, full stop. Just look what it's made of this society at large.

As for the NextSTART icons, yes, have to agree Jorge, I actually like the left one and think it fits in well with the Winstep one.

Definitely looking good, Jorge.

Exactly! But that is basically a problem with the limited choice users currently have (see below):



So, at least the new method would allow users to customize the colors of the dock control icon to whatever they like.

And in other news, shelf multi-selection is currently looking something like this:



It will auto-scroll if you go above or below the rows of visible icons.

Still a lot to do to actually make it work, though.