Thread: frontend developers - forms and menues

Looks like Street Deck is about to become the better solution of addin development.

http://www.mp3car.com/wiki/index.php...for_StreetDeck

I like the idea of using DirectX, especially for the alpha blending capabilities. Does anyone have links to projects that do it this way?

Plastico HT on www.sf.net have a complete set of usercontrol like menu, common dialog and other features, it's open source and it is made in vb6

Originally Posted by sama

a simple way would be to work on an image, and have a file that defines clickable areas. To begin with, you can have one image. then you can start adding images that are hidden, and the button you press, reveals that part of the hidden image and so giving the illusion of animation.

this would be a much better way than to use a form. however, for rapid develipment (and you can worry about skinning later) you can use a form, but make sure you dont' embedd too much into the actual buttons, and just have the buttons calls methods. in that way, when you do implement the code for a skin, you can point the click-over to the method.

hope that helps

Why not go a step further and have an XML file that defines each object, the properties (aka images) of the object and the method to be called from being "clicked" on or any other event. This way the screen becomes totally customizable and you can work on the background processing instead of focusing on the interface.

is XML the way other front end developers are making their skinning options..?

and, do anyone have some links on how to's..?
thanks..:!

appreciate all help I can get.!


do not wish to use either CF or SD, would like to create my own (one reason is to make myself a better programmer)

If you google it, you will find it. There are many free libraries that speed up development of skinable apps.