A2 thread: wishes and ideas

SacRat · Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 335

epyon22, logging of is actually needful only once. If you find this annoying, feel free to kill the shell process manually (explorer.exe?) and run another one (Aston?) with a command prompt.
Logoff is done to avoid some glithes otherwise there'll surely appear some morons (I don't point to anyone) asking to fix nonexisting bugs.
In short, it's done to make you "safe". if you're experienced enough, you can change the shell on the run manually...

Vidge, doesn't A-MAster->Config work for you? There's a special option. (I won't give any further support instructions in this topic, PM me if you need it).

Cycl@ne, it's too early to talk about this Wink

No A2 - no free keys Very Happy

Sedlmase · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

Hello aston is great but i would like it more when there is a German version. Rolling Eyes

SacRat · Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 335

Sedlmase · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

really, thats great

when comes the Aston v2.0

Liderc · Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 5:16 pm Post subject:

SacRat · Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 335

Sedlmase · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

haha when its done!?!?!?!?!? Laughing

Liderc · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:36 am Post subject:

Yeah, Sedlmase, "when it's done". If you run a search you will see that this is a popular theme when referring to the new project. Hopefully, and from rumors Wink

, the guys at Gladiators are hard at work on the new shell and it should be out this year. All we can do is wait patiently. Just remember, "if it is worth having, then it is worth waiting for". Very Happy

~mycroes · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 1659 Location: Netherlands

There are two things I'd like to see in A2:
- Container/object model. Something is a container, or something is an object. If it's a container you can dump as many objects in as you want. This way plugins also don't have to be made for desktop, or taskbar, you just need to select the container you want them in... This also includes having your start button on the desktop, or on a side panel etc etc. These containers can be expended with plugins (container plugins), so that you can make all sorts of bars etc, like the sidebar in longhorn, or some odd menubar, or a taskbar like thing (as in second taskbar) which hosts a lot of other functionality.

- Scripting support. Simple things to start with, like hiding a plugin when clicking a button or changing a setting when clicking somethings. Showing things when your mouse is over something else etc etc. Would be nice if it could be as customizable as javascript is.

And last i want to add something to the skinning thing... In my opinion there should be 'skin styles' or something like that, that allow you to create groups. So if you have 5 buttons on your desktop and you want them to be skinned the same way you select the same skin group for those 5 buttons. That way you don't have to make tons of images, but just a few. You just have to tell Aston how to use those few images to skin tons of objects. These skins should also be able to skin the containers I mentioned above. I think that's something that really misses in current Aston versions...
Greetings,

Michael

P.s. Feel free to ask for more information on these suggestions, though I think I made myself quite clear here...

Veratil · Joined: 29 Aug 2003 Posts: 3536 Location: Texas

As far as I remember, most of the things you've asked for Mike are already planned to be in A2. Wink

~mycroes · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 1659 Location: Netherlands

SacRat · Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 335

Container model should be there. IIRC it's a core moment of A2.
Scripting should appear, although the language type is being discussed now (have good ideas? tell us...). I'm only afraid, that it would be something, like VBScript as I'm not good in programming at all Smile

As about the skinning model, it shouldn't be a problem. Let's wait for the demos, which could reveal if it's possible to do.
The thing I'm really waiting for should be the implementation of Dynamic Skins engine, suggested by Ivan Oshepkov. Stardock is trying to make something similar in their DesktopX, but I don't really like their model.

~mycroes · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 1659 Location: Netherlands

Because it's all about objects, we need somethign object orientated. I think only a few functions will be needed, and thus each object will need a few properties. If you think about an object, you'll find it has properties like x, y, visibility, transparency, image, parent (container), maybe some kind of animation property and that's about it. So you need functions to be able to deal with all those properties and you need some simple math functions. So VBScript would actually do for this purpose, as would JavaScript, but theres nothing wrong with making a new script language for Aston, like Flash has it's own...
Greetings,

Michael

Veratil · Joined: 29 Aug 2003 Posts: 3536 Location: Texas

The skinning engine works by reading an XML file and processing how the image should appear. Another thing that it would be able to do is tell how it should handle events (mouseclick, etc). Basically it would be like DHTML with it's onClick and onMouseOver (or something similar). This is what Oleg told me. Smile

~mycroes · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 1659 Location: Netherlands

Well XML and DHTML don't have much to do with eachother, if you say it's like DHTML it sounds scary to me Wink

. But as it also says it uses XML I'll just assume the xml object for images/objects will have properties like onclick instead of functions as in dhtml. Anyway, sounds great! Now comes my next question, will this mean themes are also made into xml files? This would really be nice, as there's lot of xml stuff availible, and xml is xml, so there's always ways to extend and modify it... Sounds great!
Greetings,

Michael