Skin/Theme Engine...Free?

[thefool]

Thanks for your help

glad to help..


i suppose i get a free single developer license now?
(nah, just for fun...)


I cant wait to this software is released!

[PolyVector]

Some progress info:

I've created a working skin format that stores all skin data in a single compressed file... Now I really need to create a skin-editor!

I was thinking about how often programmers would like to impliment skins but can't... I would love to see the freeware community using this engine to get their programs looking the way they intended them to look...
It would be very interesting if someone with a visual designer added support for the engine so that people could see their skins applied to forms they're designing!

*gets to thinking*

Anyone have an idea of what I should call the package?

[blueznl]

skinnydip? skindeep? leather'n'lace?

[PolyVector]

skindeep

[Shannara]

I would definately buy a license as long as this is NOT in DLL format. The last thing I need is another dependancy..

[Dare2]

What about: Windows Wardrobe.

* second thoughts - maybe not *

Actually, I like skindeep and skinnydip. And I am beginning to worry about blueznl, just a little bit ....

[PolyVector]

@Shannara
Could you explain to me why a DLL would be a problem?

You can skin an entire applicate with this code:

Code: Select all

LoadLibrary(0,"SkinDeep.dll")
hSkin=CallFunction(0,"LoadSkin","MySkin.skn")
CallFunction(0,"ApplySkin",hWnd,hSkin)

I'd rather not release a PB lib for various reasons...

[Shannara]

Ok, count me out as I continue my search for a skinning library. DLL is very bad, basically, IMO. Any client can take ahold of it and crack it easier, then if it was just a LIB. What's wrong with having it as a LIB instead of a DLL?

Nvm, I'll continue my search.

[PolyVector]

Good luck. :roll:
If you find one, please post a link, I'm writing this library because I couldn't find a decent one myself.

What's wrong with having it as a LIB instead of a DLL?

Compatibility.

[tinman]

I'd be interested in this when it's done. A demo and perhaps some simple examples to see how it works would be pretty useful.

[PolyVector]

There'll be examples and documentation... but it will be some time before that, obviously... I'm glad to see there's so much interest

[blueb]

Most of the skinning programs I have tried would not refresh their screens properly everytime.

If another window (possibly from another exe) covered the skinned form, the skinned form refreshed properly in most cases, but had problems with transparent elements.

I'm also waiting patiently... a dll is fine by me.

--blueb

[blueznl]

a dll is fine by me as well, hey if you want i can do a testrun for ya' and try to skin logviewer...

[PolyVector]

@blueznl That would be great if you could beta test it for us... We have a few beta-testers for our other software but none of them are coders

If you have the time you can join our forums http://www.skunksoft.com/forums/
We'll set you up with a beta tester account... It's ready for testing, you just can't make your own skins yet since I have no editor...
Your logviewer wouldn't be a good test... At this point, it skins standard buttons, checkboxes, groupboxes, statictext, and tabcontrols.... I don't recall seeing any of those in your logviewer...

Does anybody like either of these 2 names?
-FreeStyle (my personal favorite)
-SkinFX

[Shannara]

I love skindeep Or SkinFX. I may order this DLL, and use that tool on the forums to convert it into a lib.. whee. Damn, there's like nothing out there that is a skinner in a LIB format... bleh.