2006-07-26, 03:19 AM
Old Dog Wrote:Who benefits? The web site administrator (the skinner)! One person, and not the end user at that.
But it does nothing for my five-year-old-end-user with his remote control.
I don't think you could be more wrong.
How doesn't the end user benefit? User finds a skin that looks the way they want only to find plugin X and Y doesn't work with it or even worse causes crashes. a) they call it quits and use some other software. b) They post the problem on the msg board which takes the time of one to many people to solve.
I see it completely the other way, it would add creativity! I have so many friggin' skin ideas I'd like to do but when I think about how much time it would take to go thru every skin.xml file to make my dreams reality, I shelve them.
Think about it. The ability to set the color, style, and position for buttons/text/boxes/etc for data area, notes area, and header area in one file based on your theme/dream and know that any plugin will work. But you'll still have the ability to tweak each individual plugin if you want. Yes, I understand that the more complex plugins like video archive have a radically different layout, but it would help tremendously if the rounded box and text styles could play off the baseskin if it wasn't defined in it's own skin file.
Something in the baseskin that said:
[SIZE="2"]boxHeader = {DrawRect borderWidth="2" borderColor="Black" fillColor="#FFFFFF" loc="10,10" size="700,30"}
box1 = {DrawRoundedRect radius="10" borderWidth="2" borderColor="Yellow" fillColor="Vertical:#FFFFFF-#2BA301"}
textHeader = {DrawTextWithOutlinetext size="200,50" fillColor="White" borderColor="Black" outlineWidth="1" align="Left" loc="11,11" size="698,20"}
text1 = TextStyle color="LightGray" typeFace="Arial" size="13" style="bold"}[/SIZE]
then in the plugin skin:
[SIZE="2"]<DrawRect style="boxHeader"/>
<DrawText style="textHeader" text="Main Menu"/>
<DrawRect style="box1" loc="4,5" size="155,30"/>
<DrawText style="text1" text="blah blah" loc="6,6" size="100,20"/>
[/SIZE]
MY PVR:
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Hardware: Silverstone LC13-E, Athlon II 250, Asrock 785GMH, 2GB Corsair RAM, 250GB WD HDD, 1TB WD Black, Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE tuner (s-video to Dish STB), HDHomeRun (ATSC x2), MCE2004 for Rx, USB-UIRT for Tx, Sony VL600 Remote, 36" Sony Wega HD CRT on DVI to embedded ATI HD4200.
TV Service: Dish Network and Antenna Pics 'n Details
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Hardware: Silverstone LC13-E, Athlon II 250, Asrock 785GMH, 2GB Corsair RAM, 250GB WD HDD, 1TB WD Black, Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE tuner (s-video to Dish STB), HDHomeRun (ATSC x2), MCE2004 for Rx, USB-UIRT for Tx, Sony VL600 Remote, 36" Sony Wega HD CRT on DVI to embedded ATI HD4200.
TV Service: Dish Network and Antenna Pics 'n Details