Why i aborted my work on HiFi Skin 2.0

[onkel bouncy]

i'm a real fan of xbmp /xbmc, but skinning for the new xbmc is real hard.
i break my work off for the time since xbmc gets final.
every new added feature needs a change in the skin-xml files.
and every change in the skin-xml files makes a skin useless.
example: cvs 10-10 has no language option.
cvs 10-12 has a language option but skins for the older cvs version didn't know this feature, so there is no language option in the old skin.
result: if there is a new feature added to xbmc you can trash your old skins.

i don't know how, but find another way to do it.
i can change everything in my skin, but there must be changed everything for a new version of xbmc.
possibly make a colors.xml and put the settings-section not in the skin dir, to keep the colors (e.g. 5 default colors) and use the new settings-section with old skins.

[Frodo]

xbmc is still alpha software.
this means that a lot will change over time.
if you cant/wont handle that then indeed its better 2 wait

why do you think we add all those new features like a language option? because i speak 15 languages and wanna choose between them
no, we make those options for you, so stop complaining


frodo

[onkel bouncy]

sorry, you misunderstand me.
this and future features are great, but it makes it nearly impossible to make a skin for xbmc.
i hope xbmc never stops to implement new features, but new features means new skin.
or not ?

[onkel bouncy]

only exchangeing graphics is no problem (simply make a new background pic and some buttons), but the skinning feature in xbmc is more than that.
you can change everything you want !
and i change much (nearly everything) in my skin.

i think it would be helpfull to have a color.xml and a position.xml to keep or edit the colors and positions of all texts and buttons only once.

so there is no need to edit every changed skin-xml file.
please think about it, before there exists too many useless skins for xbmc.

it's only an idea.

[Xetasoft]

like frodo said, its all alpha! you can't expect anything from one xml file to be there in the next. it's part of the development process. it's not easy to be a skin developer when everything changes no doubt, but, if no one tries, there will be no reason to even make skinning available.

i'm sure that when there is a final release, future updates for skins will stay compatible(or mostly compatible). it's just going to take some time to get there. in the interim, i plan on skinning as many of the builds as i can, that way, i can check out the new features as well as try and make new features within the skin itself.

[onkel bouncy]

yes, i know it alpha.
but if there is nobody who tells problems, there would be never a solution.
... keep on good job guys ...

[nullpointer]

i am sorry to hear you are giving up on working on hifi since it is my favorite skin for xbmc. there is no other skin with the elegant simplicity that hifi captures so well. i hope your departure is just a hiatus untill xbmc's xml changes slow down.

edit:
i really should have looked at the date of this post. sorry for bringing back such an old post.

[Chokemaniac]

@ bouncy - why not use my xml an copy/paste?

my png's are available on sourceforge too... be my guest - we need more skins!

[wabidwoveren]

posted: oct. 13 2003,18:36

your 11 months late choke!

[Chokemaniac]

rofl