BlueMCE2-X cleanup project

[Fatman_do]

McBainUK,

The first bold 15 should stay 0. The second bold 15 is where you get the 15px offset. To use an image that seems to grow from the left edge, you need to be able to use "0" in the x direction with the baseskin.xml file. With the special element postioned at 15, that is the closest one can get to the edge. (see the Metallic Themepack, or BaseBlue, BaseRed, Avance, you get the point)

Button list special elements should be located at 15,65. This will allow buttons to be located by the baseskin.xml file at the left edge of the screen, and not be affected by the Title_Bar.png image and/or ScreenName text.

The reference baseskin.xml file will use this for final button placement. If the plugin is to use the baseskin.xml definitions (recommended), then comment out those lines within the skin file.

<CompositeImage name="NormalButtonImage" size="180,45">
<DrawImage filename="..\Button_Normal.png" loc="15,5" size="165,35"/>
<DrawText text="@buttonText" loc="25,10" size="145,25" textStyle="ButtonText" align="Left"/>
</CompositeImage>

Another question to toss out there.

Buttons for main menu. Most of the time, they could just be the same image as plugin menus. On most Horizontal skins, they use a square shape or task image. How do we handle that?

[McBainUK]

they use a square shape

The MainMenu skin designer would be best to use already available images - the IconView_Selected.png image would be a good option for a square highlight/button.

ps are all images on the wiki list included in the 'Sample files' zip file?

[McBainUK]

Button_Normal / Button_Selected - 165x40px - as this fits in the guide mask.

ListView_Normal / ListView_Selected - 470x25px - again, as this fits in the guide mask.

ListViewDetail_Normal / ListViewDetail_Selected - 470x50px - double the height of the standard ListView image.

Thoughts?

[Fatman_do]

The MainMenu skin designer would be best to use already available images - the IconView_Selected.png image would be a good option for a square highlight/button.

ps are all images on the wiki list included in the 'Sample files' zip file?

They were as of yesterday I believe.

[Fatman_do]

Button_Normal / Button_Selected - 165x40px - as this fits in the guide mask.

ListView_Normal / ListView_Selected - 470x25px - again, as this fits in the guide mask.

ListViewDetail_Normal / ListViewDetail_Selected - 470x50px - double the height of the standard ListView image.

Thoughts?

Sizes seem about right.

[McBainUK]

Background_Popup - 670x200 - width for long text strings but around half the height of the big one.
Background_PopupBig - 670x370 - close to full screen
Background_PopupSmall - 370x150 - small for a line or two of text ("progress" type popups)

A width of 670px allows for for 50px either side.

[Fatman_do]

Background_Popup - 670x200 - width for long text strings but around half the height of the big one.
Background_PopupBig - 670x370 - close to full screen
Background_PopupSmall - 370x150 - small for a line or two of text ("progress" type popups)

A width of 670px allows for for 50px either side.

Your last two numbers were close to what I came up with. I saw there were some that X<400, X>600 and much inbetween.

Maybe Background_Popup can be changed to 550x250. This is close to the average size I found.

[McBainUK]

I like the extra width 670px gives. Since we will be reskinning everything it seems silly to worry about current 'average sizes'.

A wide popup allows space for long text strings, for example sub's error dialogs (rememeber a user posting about how he couldnt read all of an error msg). Jeffs common dialogs could be re-skinned to fit-in with the size/shape/layout.

What do you think?

[Fatman_do]

I like the extra width 670px gives. Since we will be reskinning everything it seems silly to worry about current 'average sizes'.

A wide popup allows space for long text strings, for example sub's error dialogs (rememeber a user posting about how he couldnt read all of an error msg). Jeffs common dialogs could be re-skinned to fit-in with the size/shape/layout.

What do you think?

The longer text strings can be accommodated by increasing the vertical size of the text element to provide word wrap. Let me look at a few dialog boxes and see what it would look like. I am thinking of the dialog for recording programs and setting its parameters.

When I get a chance to see how that would look, I'll let you know.

[McBainUK]

increasing the vertical size of the text element to provide word wrap

Remove SmallButtons - as this would mean having smaller text on the popups, which is against one of the aims of the project ("high level of readability/useability"). Allow space in popups for the slightly larger buttons - possibly increase the height of the Background_Popup to 250 (as 50px will be used by buttons

Add Buttons for use on the main menu. They can be the same size & shape (and indeed the same image), but will be named differently so the user/skinner can have different types of buttons for the main manu / plugins. I feel this is needed in order to fit in with the main manu / plugins background choice.

When I get a chance to see how that would look, I'll let you know.

OK, sometimes its best to see things "live" & working to see how it all fits.