Plugins and interface questions from a C# rookie

[mvallevand]

When I saw that C# 2008 SP1 was out I thought it might be fun to see what it takes to make a plugin and I was shocked to see how easy it really is especially considering I never touched C# or .NET before. Good job to everyone involved. Now I want to try and play with something.

The first thing I thought might be nice was seeing if I could approximate an Apple-type Cover Flow interface. Search google for "coverflow demo" and there are lots of example and it looks like fun eye-candy.

Does this sound possible from a plugin or am I wasting my time? If a plugin can use WPF/XAML it might be easier too so is this possible?

Martin

[sub]

There is no reason why you couldnt do an apple style cover flow interface. Admittedly things become slightly more complex when you step outside of the provided base classes, but its not too complex. If you look at the tile sample plugin in this thread http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=27703, it shows an example of cover art animations, including the logic to skip the in-between animations on slow render devices like the MVP/PCH.

If you do give it a go, and need help, just let me know - I'm sure I'd be able to get you up to speed with it pretty quickly.

There no build in WPF/XAML support. I looked into some of this when implementing the UI, but decided it didnt lend itself well to what wanted to achieve with UIs on the MVP etc.

[mvallevand]

Thanks sub, I forgot about the tiles plugin. Now I have to learn how to rotate and reflect images and of course use C#. I won't be bothering you about this for a while, but no doubt I will.

Martin

[psycik]

Hi martin, I'd kind be interested in this as well, and it could potentially lend itself well to ML3 for displaying a library - it you wanted to collaborate, or make it open.. So I'd be interested to see how you go...

[martint123]

Just glancing at the samples makes me realise I'd be no good with modern languages - they're too "wordy"
I can't spell and my typing is too slow.
Ah, the good old days of MOV A,(HL) etc and the code fitting into a 1k prom.

[pz1]

Ah, the good old days of MOV A,(HL) etc

Argh, still so wordy. This is so much better

[martint123]

Far too verbose. I still have a box of these in the attic and a cardpunch somewhere in the garage!

[mvallevand]

I'm probably one of a handful of people on this forum who have used those formats. I've even toggled in assembly code manually with switches.

My first experience with punch cards wasn't good, sitting in a room of people inputting frustrated me I searched and found a hack to use a "fancy" line editor (think of a poor edlin) someone had, but my professor wouldn't accept printed source so I had to output the source to punch cards.

psycik I will gladly make it open if I can do anything, I'm just playing around now.

Martin

[martint123]

I'm probably one of a handful of people on this forum who have used those formats. I've even toggled in assembly code manually with switches.

I'm one of that handful. I've found a leaflet showing one of my "on the side" jobs dated 1975 - punch cards on a huge office accounting machine calculation loads, stresses and "angle of dangle" in oil rig moorings and just using add and subtract

Here is my first computer and the first piece of commercial software I ever bought (and didn't use!).

[ACTCMS]

Far too verbose. I still have a box of these in the attic and a cardpunch somewhere in the garage!

Now you are talking my language... the good old 5081 - I've had a box of them in the attic for about 25 years... I remember one of the first jobs I did when I started as an operator over 35 years ago - I had to sort (on an IBM 083) almost 20,000 on 16 columns for the payroll - took a whole nightshift...