Zugg Software :: View topic - [1.32] Alt-Space -> Taskbar Icon trashes layout

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

I was curious what 'taskbar icon' did compared to 'minimise to tray'. I clicked it and CMUD flashed a bit, as if windows were resizing a lot, then my main mud window went blank (grey background, as if it wasn't there).

Thought it strange so restarted CMUD, and my main mud window was then floating (previously tabbed). When changing it back to tabbed then it'd never save and CMUD started crashing every time I closed it. Eventually I just deleted the tbz and xly files and it sorted itself out.

Very odd - I wonder if it's Vista not liking the CMUD windowing component, similar with the transparency around a window edge not working in CMUD but works with other apps, and when I restore a CMUD window it looks really clunky rather than just, um, 'swooshing' (I dunno) back in like most apps do.

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:16 am

Confirmed. This is not a Vista specific issue. I had similar problems when trying the Taskbar Icon option on the menu as well.

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:23 am

The problem is that you are selecting the Task Bar option for the main application window (which already has a task bar icon). This option was meant for other windows, such as other floating MUD windows.

So, I'm going to take out the option for the main application window, since Windows just seems to completely get confused when I tell it to add a task bar icon to the main application window.

Also, CMUD is not yet a "native" Vista application, which is why it doesn't have the Vista-like close button in the upper-right corner, or any of the "glass" transparency on the edges. Part of this is because of the skinning system that CMUD uses (which overrides the Vista stuff). But part of it is because CMUD is compiled within Windows XP and is not linked with any Vista-specific stuff. I only just got Vista myself a month ago, and once I get the new Delphi 2007 compiler working with all of my 3rd party components, then I'll be compiling CMUD directly in Vista. This will enable all of the Vista-specific stuff. But this won't happen for a couple of months...it will take that long to get all of my 3rd party components updated for Delphi 2007.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Hmm, I've got plenty of old XP apps that have the glass effects in Vista. Hopefully Delphi 2007 will be able to make CMUD look & feel more at home.
1.32 seems pretty solid Zugg, not had any real problems apart from this (and the reformat lexer error I posted)

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 2:25 am

The old apps have the glass effect because those old apps do not have their own theme/skin system. Look at the themes/skins in CMUD: they allow you to change not just the inner contents of a window, but also change the outer portion of the window. When you select the Aqua theme, for example, the window caption changes to show the buttons like on a Mac. Because the theme/skin system is handling the painting of the outer part of the window, it needs to be modified to paint the window caption properly within Vista. So it's not really a Delphi issue, but more of the theme issue.

The Delphi 2007 support just surfaces the new Vista glass properties so that they can be accessed easily and used in the theme/skin system. If I didn't have Delphi 2007, I'm sure I could probably just modify the theme/skin system to support Vista myself. But since I'm planning to use Delphi 2007 in the future anyway, it makes more sense to just wait till I move completely to Vista to make these changes.