what I dream of... (feature request)

[ewald]

Hi,

here's what my SereneScreen-dreams are about:

a wide screen version of "marine aquarium time" with NO window border, no title bar, no etc. - just the aquarium.

you should be able to config it so that:
* it starts in window mode (i.e. not fullscreen)
* you can define the exact start position (on your screen)
* you can define the exact size of the window
* you can define that its position on the screen is locked (i.e. not moveable)
* you can define that it is always in the background (of all opened windows)
* and it should include all 26 fish

then one could autostart this beauty and it would be
part of your computer background

no new artwork would be necessary for this...

what you think of that ???

[ewald]

here is a quick mockup of what it might look like (btw. this is a pc no mac)

[ewald]

those of you who want that wallpaper go here:
http://www.pixelhuset.se/pixelhuset.html#Desktops
(it's called "skull island")

[Jim Sachs]

Nice place. I'll see what I can do about your requests. (The drop-shadow might be a bit much to ask, though )

[cjmaddy]

Now that idea I like!!!!!

[drfish]

Slick, that does look nice... I like the drop shadow effect... Just make a wallpaper with the drop shadow built in, good idea, keeps it simple... You could even antialias it if you had the background color of the aquarium stay the same... I think I'd go for a more tropical looking desktop though...

Edit: Started writing mine before Jim edited his...

Edit 2: BTW, Firefox, nice...

[Liath]

That's a nice idea. I do like to keep MA2 running in a smaller window. It would be cool to have it without the window frame in a fixed position.

[Jim Sachs]

This is not an easy task. All the Windows functions for resizing, dragging, minimizing, etc., are built into that border. Eliminating the border means you'd have to write all these functions yourself.

[drfish]

Who's to blame for this not being easy? Microsoft? IANAP, but it seems to me that it should be as easy as:

border=0
dimension=320x240
align top right=(568,392)

With a GUI that lets you plug in your own numbers... And it shouldn't make a difference that this is 3D, any program that can open in a window should have these settings... I'm going to say it, but correct me if I'm wrong...

Stupid Microsoft!

[cjmaddy]

Would it be easy to just get rid of the title bar, Jim?

I think it would look a lot better, just without the title bar, and be nearly as nice, ..... but not quite!

[ewald]

Jim: "The drop-shadow might be a bit much to ask, though"

No problem here - you can simple cheat and make the drop shadow part of the destop as drfish suggested. Actually the drop shadow of the windows program bar on top of the screenshot is done that way.

But there is another option for adding drop shadows to windows. The freeware program called YzShadow is really cool - you should give it a try.
you can get it for example here:
http://www.freewebs.com/dj_sol/yzsdw109.zip

:-)

[ewald]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs
This is not an easy task. All the Windows functions for resizing, dragging, minimizing, etc., are built into that border. Eliminating the border means you'd have to write all these functions yourself.

But when used this way the program doesn't need to be resizeable or draggable because it is meant to be a background element...

[Jim Sachs]

You can't really blame MS for this one (believe me, I'd love to blame them for everything -- including Global Warming!). They have built all the hundreds of lines of code into the OS for clicking, dragging and resizing windows. The key to all this is the window border. When you click into a window, the border lights up -- you know that window is active and all keystrokes and mouse movements are directed to that window. The WS_THICKFRAME argument turns all this on when calling the CREATEWINDOW function.

Without these built-in Windows functions, the program has to constantly check many items: Where is my window on the screen? Where is the mouse pointer? Is my window the active one? Is the mouse pointer somewhere within my window? Is the left mouse button pressed? If yes to all of the above, then: For each change in the x,y position of the pointer, make a corresponding change in the x and y values for the upper left and lower right positions of the Aquarium window.

And that's just dragging (the easiest).

I'm not saying it's impossible, just that there are a lot of factors to consider.

[patscarr]

I don't even want to type it, but your idea would have to be some kind of active desktop type feature then. You know, the border is gone but when you put your mouse over it, the border is there again.

[ewald]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs
You can't really blame MS for this one (believe me, I'd love to blame them for everything -- including Global Warming!). They have built all the hundreds of lines of code into the OS for clicking, dragging and resizing windows. The key to all this is the window border. When you click into a window, the border lights up -- you know that window is active and all keystrokes and mouse movements are directed to that window. The WS_THICKFRAME argument turns all this on when calling the CREATEWINDOW function.

The windows themeing community often uses the trick to make the window border just 1 pixel. This way it looks slick but keeps the border functionality.

I don't know if it's possible to define this for just one application. A windows theme affects all applications.

example:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4560044/

(if anyone wants to try this theme you need the program "stylexp". You can get a trial version here: http://www.tgtsoft.com/download.php)

[cjmaddy]

Can I show my ignorance? ..... does the term 'border' include the Title bar?

[Jim Sachs]

Not always, but the title bar contains the minimize and close buttons. A lot of people like to minimze the Aquarium if they temporarily need the whole screen for something.

[drfish]

Didn't think about it being that complicated...

That's why the "Show Desktop" icon is always the first thing in my quick launch... Otherwise right clicking on the task in the task bar and selecting minimize would do it... Of course, if you were running the aquarium this way you'd want an icon in the system tray not the task bar...

[Jim Sachs]

Well, I think I'll leave it to Edgar to ponder the ramifications. Back to work on Freshwater...

[James]

Originally posted by patscarr
I don't even want to type it, but your idea would have to be some kind of active desktop type feature then. You know, the border is gone but when you put your mouse over it, the border is there again.

"active desktop"...I fear so....

ANYWAY, Pat, your suggestion is just like the feature in Windows Media Player and the Chat Window in MSN6.1, thier border can set to disapper when cursor is not orver or window is not active.