Simple additions - Page 4

Nicki · 03-11-2010, 10:18 PM

When a user wants to select a custom colour for desktop background (which nobody ever uses since we all just stick a jpeg on there or whatever), display properties-> desktop -> color (and it feels so wrong to spell it that way) brings up a really nice colour choosing box. Is there any way you can call this up from within MA3?

I may be totally misunderstanding what you said though. Maybe you are referring to the transition? If so, maybe a very quick dim of the background would be a good way to do it. And then mr starfish could do his stuff.

Once again, way out of my depth but you never know, maybe my whittering could be useful.

Edit. Dale, you have a real talent when it comes to the details. If anyone could track down which drivers are missing yet necessary, it would be you. A little pet project perhaps?

Jim Sachs · 03-11-2010, 11:07 PM

Nicki - I thought about using that standard Microsoft color chooser, but it's nearly impossible to modify, and doesn't really do what I want. It's always scary to code in something that the OS has more control over than I do. I've always found it cumbersome to use. The block of standard colors is practically useless, and takes up a lot of space. The block of custom colors often doesn't remember colors I've chosen, and seldom puts them into the box I've selected. It might be useful if I could weld the right side of that dialog box onto a new left side of my on creation. But I still need to display little squares of color.

Dale · 03-11-2010, 11:11 PM

Originally posted by Nicki:

Edit. Dale, you have a real talent when it comes to the details. If anyone could track down which drivers are missing yet necessary, it would be you. A little pet project perhaps?

Thanks for the compliment. You may have noticed that I'm quite willing to help MA3 users try to track down their problems.

1. If I ever have the problem myself, then I'll try very hard to track down the solution.

2. Otherwise, I view this as a MA3 support issue. Folks in this forum tracked it down to the extent that we could (actually farther than might be expected). So, unless I have a personal need to solve it, it's up to Jim/Prolific.

2B. In the unlikely event that Jim/Prolific is willing to pay for a sound card like Terry has, I would be happy to try to duplicate Terry's configuration and then (if it exhibits the same symptoms) see 1. above.

3. I also have a small consulting business.

Note: I acknowledge Jim's quoting the "Try it before you buy it" policy. But that doesn't help people who have tried it, and bought it, and then install it on other computers in their household; or buy new computers or add-on hardware or upgrade to Wy - and then experience the problem.

The above is, of course, a lengthy way of saying "I'm not eager to spend any of my remaining minutes of existence" fixing a known problem for Prolific. (Uncompensated).

cjmaddy · 03-12-2010, 08:41 AM

Originally posted by cjmaddy:

This topic, "Simple additions", could be just what MA3 has needed. - I've been searching around for some time now in my remaining brain cell, to see if I could come up with some approach or other, that might kick-start some progress into Jim's ongoing updating problems. - Then yesterday, we get, as Nicki so well described it.... a Eureka moment!.... Jim himself, starting a new thread, requesting our suggestions for easily-implemented features. - If this goes the way I hope it will, and if we can somehow dissuade some members from introducing the very things that Jim will be put off by. - then this just might be the start of something productive.

Let's all try to avoid resurrecting yet again, old might-be-bugs, that are more likely to be OS or third-party related, and just stick to the type of requests that Jim has indicated, - ie, "Simple additions to MA3, like allowing the user to change the digital clock colours." etc!

It's not often we get Jim coming to us asking us for ideas, it's usually the other way around. - This may all result in only minor additions or changes, but if they can be implemented easily, it could mean a step forward for MA3. After what I think we all will agree has been too long a period of Jim slaving away at his apparently never ending struggles, whilst we just moan or pester for the impossible.

I wish this topic every success, Jim. - If you do manage to succeed in revisiting and implementing some long awaited additions or changes, however small or few in number, I'm sure that not only will MA3 and its ever impatient following benefit, - but you also might return to the new fish models and all their accompanying difficulties, with renewed vigor!

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Bravo, Cliff. That's the spirit I was looking for. I know that there have been requests where my response was something like "That doesn't sound too hard, I'll consider it", but I can't remember most of them. I started this thread in hopes that the folks who made those suggestions would jog my memory.

It didn't last long did it, - before the inevitable had to happen!!!

feldon34 · 03-12-2010, 09:38 AM

If only Chip would sign up on these forums.

Dale · 03-12-2010, 09:58 AM

Originally posted by feldon34:

If only Chip would sign up on these forums.

I'll ask him.

But I thought cjmaddy was referring to how far this topic has been dragged away from Jim's request for a concise list of "simple additions".

I quite agree with him: "It didn't last long did it, - before the inevitable had to happen!!! "

My suggestion https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...ead.php?t=5263 didn't last long. So the simple additions are being collected in #1 posting in this topic.

Jim Sachs · 03-13-2010, 11:00 AM

Update: At 2 a.m. I was finally successful at getting a control button to turn a different color. This is nessessary for the background color interface. As usual, the solution was nothing like any Visual C++ example I could find on the Internet (none of which worked). It's all uphill from here!

cjmaddy · 03-13-2010, 12:31 PM

Jim, I appreciate your wish/need to have a colour box or button, and your requirement to show the current settings that the user has chosen. - What's so frustrating is, that it is so easy to have a group of four or six .reg file scripts, and have MA itself show the current choice.
.... Here's hoping that that hill soon levels out... Good luck!!!

Marian Nichols · 03-13-2010, 01:14 PM

YAY! Here we go.

feldon34 · 03-13-2010, 04:15 PM

Giving Registry files to users would be a Customer Support nightmare, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Ralph · 03-13-2010, 04:58 PM

Originally posted by feldon34:

Giving Registry files to users would be a Customer Support nightmare, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Perhaps we could use the forum to offer those. Have MA as it is but "someplace" a note to join this forum for enhancements and help in making it / them work.. The "someplace" could be included in the crystal as a second cycle of the crystal.

Just a thought.

Jim Sachs · 03-14-2010, 11:33 AM

Here's the basic plan for the background color interface. There will be six color-sets (top and bottom colors) available. The user can activate one or more of these. When you click on any of the color swatches, you can adjust the color with a set of RGB sliders, or type the numbers in manually.

Each color-set has a timer field. If "Change Colors Automatically" is check-marked, the system will display each color set for the chosen amount of time, then fade to the next.

Something like this:

cjmaddy · 03-14-2010, 11:47 AM

That's looking very good!

..... (Far more adjustable than I'd expected!!)

..... Should be enough there to satisfy anyone!

..... I'm looking forward to trying it.

Ralph · 03-14-2010, 12:06 PM

Nice.. you will need to change the spelling of COlors though or else picky people will complain

henemly · 03-14-2010, 12:34 PM

Nice one Jim

Rick Simon · 03-14-2010, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Here's the basic plan for the background color interface. There will be six color-sets (top and bottom colors) available. The user can activate one or more of these. When you click on any of the color swatches, you can adjust the color with a set of RGB sliders, or type the numbers in manually.

Each color-set has a timer field. If "Change Colors Automatically" is check-marked, the system will display each color set for the chosen amount of time, then fade to the next.

If you hadn't already considered it, I'd like to make a suggestion. Pre populate the color fields with a series of colors from light shades, to dark shades and back to light shades. Something like:

That way, even neophytes could approximate the V2 day/night cycling by simply checking the Change Colors Automatically without having to learn anything about creating colors from numbers.

A third "Defaults" button next to the OK & Cancel buttons to return everything to its original setting would also be a nice touch.

Just my $0.02 worth....

Nicki · 03-14-2010, 12:41 PM

Nice Jim, very nice.

And Ralph, I already did

.

JohnWho · 03-14-2010, 01:17 PM

Originally posted by cjmaddy:

That's looking very good!

..... (Far more adjustable than I'd expected!!)

..... Should be enough there to satisfy anyone!

..... I'm looking forward to trying it.

I agree wholeheartedly.

cjmaddy · 03-14-2010, 02:58 PM

Ralph and Nicki,

By now, I've become reluctantly conditioned to accepting that there are two ways that we are forced to spell 'colour'.....(a) The correct way! - and (b) The way that's necessary, if we wish a computer program to work!....... And yes, that also, should be, "programme"!...

JohnWho · 03-14-2010, 03:54 PM

So, cjmaddy -

You would prefer "COlours"?!

03-11-2010, 10:18 PM	#61
Nicki Sugar Plum Fairy Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,267	When a user wants to select a custom colour for desktop background (which nobody ever uses since we all just stick a jpeg on there or whatever), display properties-> desktop -> color (and it feels so wrong to spell it that way) brings up a really nice colour choosing box. Is there any way you can call this up from within MA3? I may be totally misunderstanding what you said though. Maybe you are referring to the transition? If so, maybe a very quick dim of the background would be a good way to do it. And then mr starfish could do his stuff. Once again, way out of my depth but you never know, maybe my whittering could be useful. Edit. Dale, you have a real talent when it comes to the details. If anyone could track down which drivers are missing yet necessary, it would be you. A little pet project perhaps? Run you clever boy. And remember...

03-11-2010, 11:07 PM	#62
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Nicki - I thought about using that standard Microsoft color chooser, but it's nearly impossible to modify, and doesn't really do what I want. It's always scary to code in something that the OS has more control over than I do. I've always found it cumbersome to use. The block of standard colors is practically useless, and takes up a lot of space. The block of custom colors often doesn't remember colors I've chosen, and seldom puts them into the box I've selected. It might be useful if I could weld the right side of that dialog box onto a new left side of my on creation. But I still need to display little squares of color. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

03-12-2010, 09:38 AM	#65
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	If only Chip would sign up on these forums. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

03-13-2010, 11:00 AM	#67
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Update: At 2 a.m. I was finally successful at getting a control button to turn a different color. This is nessessary for the background color interface. As usual, the solution was nothing like any Visual C++ example I could find on the Internet (none of which worked). It's all uphill from here! Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

03-13-2010, 04:15 PM	#70
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Giving Registry files to users would be a Customer Support nightmare, as I'm sure you can imagine. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

03-11-2010, 11:11 PM	#63
Dale Banned Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Western Missouri Posts: 960	Originally posted by Nicki: Edit. Dale, you have a real talent when it comes to the details. If anyone could track down which drivers are missing yet necessary, it would be you. A little pet project perhaps? Thanks for the compliment. You may have noticed that I'm quite willing to help MA3 users try to track down their problems. 1. If I ever have the problem myself, then I'll try very hard to track down the solution. 2. Otherwise, I view this as a MA3 support issue. Folks in this forum tracked it down to the extent that we could (actually farther than might be expected). So, unless I have a personal need to solve it, it's up to Jim/Prolific. 2B. In the unlikely event that Jim/Prolific is willing to pay for a sound card like Terry has, I would be happy to try to duplicate Terry's configuration and then (if it exhibits the same symptoms) see 1. above. 3. I also have a small consulting business. Note: I acknowledge Jim's quoting the "Try it before you buy it" policy. But that doesn't help people who have tried it, and bought it, and then install it on other computers in their household; or buy new computers or add-on hardware or upgrade to Wy - and then experience the problem. The above is, of course, a lengthy way of saying "I'm not eager to spend any of my remaining minutes of existence" fixing a known problem for Prolific. (Uncompensated).

03-12-2010, 08:41 AM	#64
cjmaddy Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 7,854	Originally posted by cjmaddy: This topic, "Simple additions", could be just what MA3 has needed. - I've been searching around for some time now in my remaining brain cell, to see if I could come up with some approach or other, that might kick-start some progress into Jim's ongoing updating problems. - Then yesterday, we get, as Nicki so well described it.... a Eureka moment!.... Jim himself, starting a new thread, requesting our suggestions for easily-implemented features. - If this goes the way I hope it will, and if we can somehow dissuade some members from introducing the very things that Jim will be put off by. - then this just might be the start of something productive. Let's all try to avoid resurrecting yet again, old might-be-bugs, that are more likely to be OS or third-party related, and just stick to the type of requests that Jim has indicated, - ie, "Simple additions to MA3, like allowing the user to change the digital clock colours." etc! It's not often we get Jim coming to us asking us for ideas, it's usually the other way around. - This may all result in only minor additions or changes, but if they can be implemented easily, it could mean a step forward for MA3. After what I think we all will agree has been too long a period of Jim slaving away at his apparently never ending struggles, whilst we just moan or pester for the impossible. I wish this topic every success, Jim. - If you do manage to succeed in revisiting and implementing some long awaited additions or changes, however small or few in number, I'm sure that not only will MA3 and its ever impatient following benefit, - but you also might return to the new fish models and all their accompanying difficulties, with renewed vigor! Originally posted by Jim Sachs: Bravo, Cliff. That's the spirit I was looking for. I know that there have been requests where my response was something like "That doesn't sound too hard, I'll consider it", but I can't remember most of them. I started this thread in hopes that the folks who made those suggestions would jog my memory. It didn't last long did it, - before the inevitable had to happen!!!

03-12-2010, 09:58 AM	#66
Dale Banned Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Western Missouri Posts: 960	Originally posted by feldon34: If only Chip would sign up on these forums. I'll ask him. But I thought cjmaddy was referring to how far this topic has been dragged away from Jim's request for a concise list of "simple additions". I quite agree with him: "It didn't last long did it, - before the inevitable had to happen!!! " My suggestion https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...ead.php?t=5263 didn't last long. So the simple additions are being collected in #1 posting in this topic.

03-13-2010, 12:31 PM	#68
cjmaddy Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 7,854	Jim, I appreciate your wish/need to have a colour box or button, and your requirement to show the current settings that the user has chosen. - What's so frustrating is, that it is so easy to have a group of four or six .reg file scripts, and have MA itself show the current choice. .... Here's hoping that that hill soon levels out... Good luck!!!

03-13-2010, 01:14 PM	#69
Marian Nichols ~Author~ Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Rocky Mount, NC Posts: 7,429	YAY! Here we go.

03-13-2010, 04:58 PM	#71
Ralph Retired Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Edmonton Alberta Ca Posts: 2,443	Originally posted by feldon34: Giving Registry files to users would be a Customer Support nightmare, as I'm sure you can imagine. Perhaps we could use the forum to offer those. Have MA as it is but "someplace" a note to join this forum for enhancements and help in making it / them work.. The "someplace" could be included in the crystal as a second cycle of the crystal. Just a thought.

03-14-2010, 11:47 AM	#73
cjmaddy Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 7,854	That's looking very good! ..... (Far more adjustable than I'd expected!!) ..... Should be enough there to satisfy anyone! ..... I'm looking forward to trying it.

03-14-2010, 12:06 PM	#74
Ralph Retired Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Edmonton Alberta Ca Posts: 2,443	Nice.. you will need to change the spelling of COlors though or else picky people will complain

03-14-2010, 12:34 PM	#75
henemly asdf Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Hiko, CommieFagnia Posts: 278	Nice one Jim

03-14-2010, 12:39 PM	#76
Rick Simon Registered Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Michigan Posts: 93	Originally posted by Jim Sachs: Here's the basic plan for the background color interface. There will be six color-sets (top and bottom colors) available. The user can activate one or more of these. When you click on any of the color swatches, you can adjust the color with a set of RGB sliders, or type the numbers in manually. Each color-set has a timer field. If "Change Colors Automatically" is check-marked, the system will display each color set for the chosen amount of time, then fade to the next. If you hadn't already considered it, I'd like to make a suggestion. Pre populate the color fields with a series of colors from light shades, to dark shades and back to light shades. Something like: That way, even neophytes could approximate the V2 day/night cycling by simply checking the Change Colors Automatically without having to learn anything about creating colors from numbers. A third "Defaults" button next to the OK & Cancel buttons to return everything to its original setting would also be a nice touch. Just my $0.02 worth....

03-14-2010, 12:41 PM	#77
Nicki Sugar Plum Fairy Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,267	Nice Jim, very nice. And Ralph, I already did . Run you clever boy. And remember...

03-14-2010, 01:17 PM	#78
JohnWho Registered Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Tampa Bay Area, Florida Posts: 486	Originally posted by cjmaddy: That's looking very good! ..... (Far more adjustable than I'd expected!!) ..... Should be enough there to satisfy anyone! ..... I'm looking forward to trying it. I agree wholeheartedly.

03-14-2010, 02:58 PM	#79
cjmaddy Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 7,854	Ralph and Nicki, By now, I've become reluctantly conditioned to accepting that there are two ways that we are forced to spell 'colour'.....(a) The correct way! - and (b) The way that's necessary, if we wish a computer program to work!....... And yes, that also, should be, "programme"!...

03-14-2010, 03:54 PM	#80
JohnWho Registered Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Tampa Bay Area, Florida Posts: 486	So, cjmaddy - You would prefer "COlours"?!