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Topic: New Foobar GUI (Read 219094 times) previous topic - next topic
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New Foobar GUI

I've got an idea of a new simple and small minimalist interface for Foobar.
I'd be happy if there's any programmer, which could make it. Hope, this one to become a worthy alternatives to Foo_LEDZ and Foo_uftS.

How it should work:
1. A window itself is very small and shouldn't take much screenspace. Nevertheless the main idea is to make this window as informaive as possible without enlarging it.
2. Most important controls are being located inside a small recrangle area of a main window, which is set "always on top".
3. volume slider is replaced by two small triangles. While clicking and dragging (or scrolling mouse wheel) it you will be able to adjust Foobar's volume.
4. Position slider/indicator is used together with time indicator to save space. Can be used as ordinary position slider.
5. A small tooltip with currently played song appears on mouseover. Alternatively it's possible to change windows' appearance, so it would only display NP song.
6. All the graphics is being stored in ZIP file inside BMPs, so appearance can be changed.

Advantages over other GUI plugins:
Tiny screen size with lots of information, ability to change it's appearance by replacing bitmaps.

Disadvantages:
Tiny size  Someone dislikes even idea of skins.

Here's a shot:

Well, I don't have good hosting, so (hope) noone minds agains using old good (from the times of Fidonet) UUE (can be opened with most modern archivers).

Anyway, 1 226b is smaller, than loading any user avatar, so (hope) noone minds against such a weird way of file submission.

Just save text into a file, called GUI.UUE and open it.

=============================================================
section 1 of 1 of file Foo_WSGUI.gif  < MxUUE v0.6.4 © 1999-2001 Maxxi >

filetime 782721596
begin 644 Foo_WSGUI.gif
M1TE&.#EA@`"``*('`+3B_\#`P,S,_X"`@-[__P```/__F?___R'Y!`$```<`
M+`````"``(````/_>+K<_C#*2:N]..O-N_]@*(YD:9YHJJYLZ[YP+,]T;=]X
MKN]\[__`H'!(+!J/R*1RR6PZG]"H=$JM6J_8K';+[7J_X+!X3"Z;S^BT>LUN
MN]_PN#Q<J-OO^+Q^S^_[_X"!@GP&A8:'B(F*BXR-CH^0D9*)=9.6EYB9FI*5
M!GJ;H)Y[GI:?!:6*=XB=IZ&NE*NHH:V'M*2&K*^ZN+&3MIJ_O[>BA<+%O*2M
MJL=VM<V<L9W%S[6IS+;+P\>+SWG(M[G(TLK5D<'DVN?+RNC8V]_1Z+#;M.[I
M[^G4Y=_RVO[T_-;U@A5N'CAX_=AE>Q1,')Z!Y>KAZ_?O&KY]\NQIS-00_R`C
M8QDG7A1VJB1%A^\T2KQG;F!"B.)BRMQWD)6W:0=Q43.)31]#ESJEP9M9KUG)
M5/I\NC*VJZE38DV9/ITZ:Y#5JUBS:K4ZIVN,K6##BAW+AX#9LVC3JEW+MJW;
MMW#CRIVKM@[=NWCSZMT[UZ[9`&@!YPT@F`!AM@7>%C:\=C$!`9`C2YXL`(#E
MRY@S:]Z<V:Q?QG\=AR9,6NWAT(@3MST-.C#KQY#O")`=VPZ`.YQS<_:L&G1I
MTZ1_NS[[&JV=U:<=!R\<N4!LR<YC;RZ@NSIFWL0-"W>]'#AQT;P_IPW>6GMW
MV+.?-T]/77-[Z]6QC][^_?QPU&OQ-+;O=CU[.]#-V7;9>_#E)A]CY`'''W[:
MI28>=X`M-L"$%`Y@EG_.1:>>90026.!F!PI&WWPCLE;<6<>Q]9MC%5IXH7H9
M4E;9;9AY^&%G!'Q6V(GF)7A?@_GUME]V:5&(5H!US`9@;774>*.!.?:V&'AQ
MF4BED(T%MI:+9\GHY8Q/%G@@7V26:>:9*&*)YIILMADD67#&*2<@7M5IYYUX
MYJGGGGSVZ>>?@`8JZ*"$%FKHH8@FJNBBC#;JZ*.01BKII)16:NFEF&:JZ::<
.=NKIIZ"&*NJH,"0``#N$
`
end
sum -r/size 26777/779 entire input file
=============================================================

Anyone to program this?

New Foobar GUI

Reply #1 –
It looks really good... I just hope the yellow thing in the top of the screen in which the name of the song is displayed is supposed to be displayed only on mouseover

Well it can be cool... but I have never programmed a plugin for foobar and I don't think it is easy, because of this kind of buttons... I also have other programming projects, so I can't... for now
Did you mean the title bar is not displayed at all ?

Well for instance I use uftS, which have many interesting features
. m y . n i c k . i s . n o t . f r e a x .

New Foobar GUI

Reply #2 –
For those wondering how to view the pic, copy and paste the stuff between the ======'s into a file called pic.uue and youc an then extract the image with winzip.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #3 –
We're Leaving together.... but still it's fareweeeeeeeeeeel !

oh huh, hum... yeah, very nice idea, it looks pretty similar to the winamp part of many themes for litestep. Just hopes someone will code something like that pretty soon. Actually I would see it like sliding from the bottom of the screen when you roll your cursor over the foobar icon in the systray, instead of the tooltip, but I doubt the SDK allows this...

Quote
All the graphics is being stored in ZIP file inside BMPs, so appearance can be changed

I don't think it would fit the foobar minimalist style to make it skinnable. The only graphics that are needed are the 7 buttons, for the rest it would be better to make color and size customizable and that's it.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #4 –
Well, the SDK doesn't have anything to do with the gui.  When someone writes a new interface, they do all the GUI work, and interface with foobar using the SDK for the actual actions (i.e. stop, play, etc.).

New Foobar GUI

Reply #5 –
Erm, I just realized that you wanted to change what happens when you roll over the foobar icon.  You are correct.  The SDK does not allow this.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #6 –
Quote
oh huh, hum... yeah, very nice idea, it looks pretty similar to the winamp part of many themes for litestep

Actually there was a WA plugin for Aston Shell with similar features. I just wanted to have something a little bbitore functional for Foobar. And yes, many shell plugins (Litestep, SharpE, GeoShell and so on) have excellent WA control plugins. IMO they must be a good sample for FB2K GUI creators

Quote
I don't think it would fit the foobar minimalist style to make it skinnable. The only graphics that are needed are the 7 buttons, for the rest it would be better to make color and size customizable and that's it.

You guys just don't understand the main aim of skins: you can make ANY interface... Minimalist, mazimalist, super-mega-kewl and so on... That's one of the best ways to add customization...

If someone decides to write plugin, I' ready to perform a very simple and easy skin format, which will allow everyone make his own interface look.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #7 –
Quote
You guys just don't understand the main aim of skins: you can make ANY interface... Minimalist, mazimalist, super-mega-kewl and so on... That's one of the best ways to add customization...

Minimalist would be using standard windows controls.  Skinning means custom controls.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #8 –
Quote
You guys just don't understand the main aim of skins: you can make ANY interface... Minimalist, mazimalist, super-mega-kewl and so on... That's one of the best ways to add customization...


I'm not talking about how it looks. Of course you can make something very small and with just the needed buttons with a skin, but as far as the program itself is concerned, I have a feeling it will be bigger, use more memory, and possibly more CPU time if you have to implement skin support.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #9 –
v .01 created.

DISCLAIMER  **This is a proof of concept - I know it is not complete and it doesn't do all the things foo_uftS, etc. can do so don't point all of those things out**

But, the basic idea is in place and can be reviewed but only on Windows XP (unless you get the GDIPlus.dll for older OS versions).

The UI is based off the graphic which in the final release would be totally designed by the end user (size, colors, layout, etc.)
The designer would then use the WSGUI preferences (again not implemented) to define the rectangles of the various buttons, fonts, colors, etc. which are all hard coded right now with respect to the current foo_WSGUI.gif image.

The font is currently hardcoded to "Verdana" 8Pt Bold and the background image to foo_WSGUI.gif.

Future revs. would support GIF,JPG,PNG,TIFF, or BMP.

The window will be as big or small as the background graphic so it should give everyone a way to create their "skin" to their liking.

NO, the seek bar is not implemented!!!!

Yes, you can mousewheel the volume otherwise left click volume to inc.  right click to dec.

Right click on next or prev do Random track.

...

It is rough but good enough for some feedback and bug reports on what IS implemented.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #10 –
Oh, you can move the window but you have to click and drag anywhere on the top two lines of the window (since there is no title bar).  It is a little tricky at first since the window is so small.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #11 –
Quote
Oh, you can move the window but you have to click and drag anywhere on the top two lines of the window (since there is no title bar).  It is a little tricky at first since the window is so small.

This is what mine looks like:

http://home.attbi.com/~impulse3k/foo.gif

Am I doing something wrong?

New Foobar GUI

Reply #12 –
Quote
This is what mind looks like:

http://home.attbi.com/~impulse3k/foo.gif

Am I doing something wrong?

You didn't copy the foo_WSGUI.gif file into the Foobar2000 directory.  You need it, as well as foo_WSGUI.dll.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #13 –
Quote
Quote
This is what mind looks like:

http://home.attbi.com/~impulse3k/foo.gif

Am I doing something wrong?

You didn't copy the foo_WSGUI.gif file into the Foobar2000 directory.  You need it, as well as foo_WSGUI.dll.

They're both there

New Foobar GUI

Reply #14 –
Using Windows XP?

It looks like it isn't loading the background image for some reason and my first guess would be it can't find the gdiplus.dll which is normally installed on XP but not other OS flavors.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what is going on.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #15 –
Quote
Using Windows XP?

It looks like it isn't loading the background image for some reason and my first guess would be it can't find the gdiplus.dll which is normally installed on XP but not other OS flavors.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what is going on.

Yes I'm using Windows XP, so I don't know whats going on either

When I restarted foobar I now get this when I put my mouse over the upper black area:

http://home.attbi.com/~impulse3k/foo2.gif

New Foobar GUI

Reply #16 –
Working directory maybe.

I'm posting a version which uses full qualified paths to find foo_wsgui.gif

v .01a

New Foobar GUI

Reply #17 –
Quote
Working directory maybe.

I'm posting a version which uses full qualified paths to find foo_wsgui.gif

v .01a

Works great now except the gui only shows when I put my mouse over the "welcome to foo_wtl" black area, unless that's the way its supposed to be. Great work by the way

New Foobar GUI

Reply #18 –
Quote
Works great now except the gui only shows when I put my mouse over the "welcome to foo_wtl" black area. Great work by the way


That's intentional.

When you aren't rolled over with the mouse you get the title of the current song.

Mouse over activates the gui

Trying to make the UI as small as possible - other ideas?

New Foobar GUI

Reply #19 –
I think it's awesome so far. Things like being able to customize the background and text colors of the song title area would be nice, and being able to customize what it shows as the title (like right now it says the band name and then the song name, but if a band name is long the title gets cut off), but I don't expect that kind of stuff overnight.

As for making the UI as small as possible, I think you've acomplished that goal

New Foobar GUI

Reply #20 –
Quote
I think it's awesome so far. Things like being able to customize the background and text colors of the song title area would be nice, and being able to customize what it shows as the title (like right now it says the band name and then the song name, but if a band name is long the title gets cut off), but I don't expect that kind of stuff overnight.

As for making the UI as small as possible, I think you've acomplished that goal


We'll have to see what SacRat says about the smallness factor 

For customizing, the idea is (not fully implemented yet) taht the whole UI is driven by the background image which will be totally up to the end user to create - any size, colors, etc.  We'll just have to come up with some agreed upon conventions for the graphic layout.  The song format string, font, color, etc. will all be user settable.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #21 –
i really like this new layout.. very small and very able to keep out of the way with powerful functions at hand still. how do i move it around the screen though? or is that not implemented?

thanks danZ.. awesome

voltron

New Foobar GUI

Reply #22 –
Just one more thing, the song name doesn't seem to get updated when the song changes or you change the song.

New Foobar GUI

Reply #23 –
Quote
i really like this new layout.. very small and very able to keep out of the way with powerful functions at hand still. how do i move it around the screen though? or is that not implemented?


Moving is a little tricky because of the small size.

You have to have the mouse over the top 2 lines.  The easiest way I found.

mouseover the window then move up just until it switches back to title display then click and drag.
The switch to title display lets you know you are over the drag area.

Takes a couple tries then its pretty easy and foobar will remember where you left it next time so you don't have to do it again 

New Foobar GUI

Reply #24 –
Quote
Just one more thing, the song name doesn't seem to get updated when the song changes or you change the song.


That's def. implemented and working fine for me and Aero.  Volton?