Hi,

I was wondering what the current status and future of WSX was. Sadly, I have not seen many themes for the newest version being posted.

I recall a time when new themes came up daily... of course this was when skinz.org was alive and well...

Brad Wardel recently wrote an interesting article in Wincustomize about the current lack of skinners: in the old times (back in the Skinz.org era), most users of customization software were also skinners. Now there are millions of users and hardly any skinners. To make matters worse, the few existing skinners are spread thin across all the different customization software out there, and some of the old timers have turned pro. Others seem to have mostly lost interest in skinning (Winstep has lots of old time users who are excellent skinners, like Dawn, Burt, John T.Folden, Mark, Jason, etc..., and who still do skins from time to time, although they are nowhere near as prolific as they once were).

I've committed to have at least one new Winstep skin released every month (so you should have a new theme posted soon), but the rest is not really up to me, but to the users themselves.

As for the future of WSX, in the next couple of days there will be a new release that focus mostly on fixing some bugs and adding some minor improvements. Windows Vista is obviously also a high priority at this time (although I think that, given the current compatibility issues, it will take some time for it to really take off) and I'm currently fighting with the lack of MS documentation on some critical issues. Digitally signing Winstep applications, for instance, seems to be a requirement to ensure Winstep Xtreme is 100% compatible with Windows Vista (although I have this icky feeling on my stomach about MS forcing me to give them money - yes, digital certificates cost money - so users can run Winstep software on their brand new OS when it worked perfectly well on previous versions, from Win95 to XP).

After the next release, focus will be on adding lots of new, useful, desktop modules and even more functionality to the Winstep Xtreme applications, and possibly a complete revamp of the Preferences GUI.

Keep in mind that Winstep Xtreme final was released only one and a half months ago, and that a great deal of effort was put into it - even I need to rest a bit from time to time (plus 'feel the pulse' for what is happening and reprioritize accordingly).

Can you tell us what the next new module is going to be?

I actually plan on introducing a handful of new modules, some simple others more like mini-apps. For instance, one that I've already started working on is a disk meter... but, as with all Winstep modules, not just your average, run-of-the-mill, disk meter: besides the usual capacity stats, I want this one to display internal temperature information for hard disks that support it (which includes most hard disks with S.M.A.R.T. technology) plus a pie graph panel letting you visually (and quickly) see which files and folders are taking the most space on your hard disk, etc... Another module that has been on the pipeline for some time is a full blown VDM. Other, simpler, modules include battery meters, quick search engine browsers, auto-complete run prompts, etc...

Do you (or would you? ) have any plans to release or develop an API for third party modules?

That is a question which has been asked before by others. The short answer is 'no, not at the moment', and for various reasons: some technical, others that have to do with quality control and how Xtreme is organized.

The new modules sound awesome. I love the quality of the modules so far and therefore look forward to the new ones. I know I once requested a media player module ? I wanted my media player to be alpha blended and sexy to match Xtreme ? but you don't have to worry about that now as I found Xion

As far as skinning goes, I only wish I had the time to produce more skins. I have so many things on the go right now and so little computer time outside of work. I haven't even had a chance to add proper NeXuS support to my most recent skins. I have concepts for new skins ? but not the time to implement them.

[quote= To make matters worse, the few existing skinners are spread thin across all the different customization software out there, and some of the old timers have turned pro. Others seem to have mostly lost interest in skinning (Winstep has lots of old time users who are excellent skinners, like Dawn, Burt, John T.Folden, Mark, Jason, etc..., and who still do skins from time to time, although they are nowhere near as prolific as they once were).[/quote]

You are right Jorge. I don't do much now. I mostly just modify other's work to suit my needs. The problem is the time that is needed to complete a skin and nowadays there is a major increase in the number of elements to skin which makes it too time consuming, unless you are doing it for a living.

I will try to do some more in the future.

Dawn

That's true, although not so much for Winstep as for, say, WindowBlinds skins. Treetog told me WB has so many skinnable elements that it takes him (the fastest skinner I know) at least a week to finish a WB theme.

With Winstep, on the other hand, you can just re-use a lot of the elements (say, the same bitmap background for most of the WorkShelf desktop modules, etc...). I'm also gradually making it a bit easier to skin (for instance, with Xtreme you no longer have to 'cut' the shelf bitmap into little pieces, etc...)... on the other hand, the more desktop modules you have, the more work you have skinning them all, that's true.