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Groups > comp.lang.basic.visual.misc > #1922

Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6

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| > You really should be adding manifests (for visual styles, elevation
| > and supported windows version) to any current application you
| > release.
| > Of course for private applications installed on 1/2 of your own
| > (maybe older) machines it's normally fine.
|
| *All* the programs I write are purely for my own use (I'm a long-retired 
hobby
| tinkerer), so in my case it doesn't really matter, especially as all my 
PCs (XP,
| Vista and W7) are set to Classic view and look visually as close to 
Windows 95 as I
| can get them! :^))

  I distribute as freeware/shareware and have never bothered
with manifests. Perhaps it's noticeable to some people, but
what I see is a standard VB window wrapped with Microsoft's
GUI techno-kitsch-du-jour chrome. It seems fine. Standardization is
not what it used to be, anyway. Increasingly, common software
has its own GUI scheme. I've actually been doing that myself
for more "civilian-oriented" software. One can use frameless
windows, then use API to provide drag handles. Along with
custom buttons, it becomes a new GUI. I do it not so much
because a VB window doesn't look good on Win7, but because
VB windows have never looked very good, and it shows more
on Win7.

 (That's one thing -- perhaps the only thing -- I like
about .Net. The first time I ever tried using a .Net program
(I had to because my neice had written for a school class)
I was impressed with the look of "fine finish" that the basic
GUI had. It was like booting into Linux. Everything graphical
was just a bit finer than regular Windows, which is a bit finer
than VB.)

   I think it's interesting and telling that the current bandwagon
craze is anti-skeuomorphic. That's been coming for awhile, with
the simplifying of buttons and the odd non-color off-white putty
that Win7 has in windows. The Metro screen is a bit different,
being simple due to touch design as well as limited options. (I
imagine that in a few years today's Metro might be mistaken for
a McDonalds tablet menu.... Touch fries, Big Mac and Coke for
20% off.) But Metro also conspicuously lacks graphical detail.
That's a sign that computer graphics have come of age. When
the limits are reached, simplicity becomes the object of worship.

  (As, for example, by the 60s and 70s people could have any
wall paint color they liked, including fluorescent colors. Previously
a more limited palette was available. But once one could have
rich plum it was no longer a special color. Thus 80s yuppies
fretted over choosing between three different hues of "off-white
dustbunnie".)

   The obsession these days is simplicity not only with graphics
but with interfaces altogether. Last week I needed to turn on
a Mac all-in-one and couldn't find any buttons at all. It turned
out a button was hidden on the back of the left side. The
AppleSeeds think that's very "cool" -- a slick slab of ultimate
tech. But it's really no different from the 3-D block letters of
early webpages: Apple is trying to be "futuristically clever". The
obvious problem with that is that their device needs buttons.
Removing them is simply a design flaw in the service of fantasy.
Probably Steve Jobs would like the thing to turn on automatically
when one enters the room, but again, that's really a stupid idea
once one gets over the wow factor.

   So, what's the moral here? I'm not sure. Like you, I always set
Classic view on all PCs. I don't want the GUI to be an event. I
want it to be functional. Though I have made a few adjustments
in the interest of civility.... My "recycle bin" is named "Rubbish"
and is made of red oak rather than transluscent Ikea plastic. 

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Thread

PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-09 17:32 +0000
  Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "Farnsworth" <nospam@nospam.com> - 2013-12-09 14:37 -0500
    Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-10 08:54 +0000
      Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2013-12-10 05:13 -0500
        Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-10 10:53 +0000
          Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2013-12-10 06:05 -0500
  Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-10 09:22 +0000
    Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 john@jeasonNoSpam.cix.co.uk (John K.Eason) - 2013-12-12 18:03 +0000
      Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-16 10:33 +0000
        Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 john@jeasonNoSpam.cix.co.uk (John K.Eason) - 2013-12-16 18:59 +0000
          Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-17 09:04 +0000
            Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 john@jeasonNoSpam.cix.co.uk (John K.Eason) - 2013-12-17 19:16 +0000
              Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "Auric__" <not.my.real@email.address> - 2013-12-18 05:52 +0000
              Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2013-12-18 10:07 -0500
                Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-18 16:22 +0000
                Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2013-12-18 13:52 -0500
                Re: Windows version numbers (was: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6) Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-19 08:57 +0000
                Re: Windows version numbers (was: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6) "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2013-12-19 09:58 -0500
                Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2013-12-18 12:10 -0500
  Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Arne Saknussemm <motz001.20.wannabet@spamgourmet.com> - 2013-12-10 11:31 +0100
    Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Arne Saknussemm <motz001.20.wannabet@spamgourmet.com> - 2013-12-10 11:32 +0100
      Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-10 10:55 +0000
        Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Arne Saknussemm <motz001.20.wannabet@spamgourmet.com> - 2013-12-10 12:30 +0100
  Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2013-12-10 06:00 -0500
    Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-10 11:37 +0000
      Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "David Youngblood" <dwy@flash.net> - 2013-12-10 06:02 -0600
        Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 Deanna Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2013-12-10 12:28 +0000
      Re: PBM_SETMARQUEE in VB6 "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2013-12-10 07:44 -0500

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