VB programs have a Vista theme...

Keeper said:
well OK then...

It's called "Multimedia builder" and I would be dumbstruck if anyone here knew what that is, lol.....

I would recommend it to anyone who would wanna code as a hobby, as it's k@k easy to do A LOT of stuff! but If you wanna do it for a living, rather study a course on something the rest of the guys here are using...

does anyone else code their own controls and what are your techniques?

I think this is an awesome topic!
Click to expand...

Well I'm not one for coding my own controls. But with WPF it's so easy so make custom controls YAY! :rolleyes:
 
oober said:
Well I'm not one for coding my own controls. But with WPF it's so easy so make custom controls YAY! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

How does it work, if you don't mind me asking?

lets say I wanted to make a Knob-Control (Like a round volume control on a Hi-Fi) - what Would the procedure be ?
 
Keeper said:
(and farlig - you keep your mouth shut!)
Click to expand...
YARRRRR! :D

My 2 cents for this thread: I used to focus solely on making an app as pretty as possible, until I realized the negative impact it can have on performance. The unfortunate reality is that some users (especially in big corporate environments) don't have all the super-computers we develop and test the apps on, so you HAVE to downscale the UI complexity in order to have something usable.

The trick lies in trying to make the app as easy to navigate as possible, incorporating minimal UI-bling to still give it a clean, professional look. This applies to web-sites as well. These days I see myself using minimal images to achieve a maximum effect. Clean, uncluttered UI allows users to navigate your site / app with ease, finding the information they require much faster.

I've received several compliments on the ease-of-use of my latest UI-upgrade to our solution, but it is still nowhere where I want it to be. The framework for the solution is roughly 3 years old, so rebuilding 3 years worth of ASPX pages is a nightmare, considering there's other work that also needs to be done.

Just to bring the whole UI thing into perspective: Windows Live Messenger incorporates some fancy WPF-based UI, adding a degree of sluggishness to the whole experience. It looks pretty, but feels a bit slow. Compare this to Skype, which uses normal Windows-based UI and it somehow feels a lot more responsive. Granted, Skype uses almost double the memory that WLM uses, but it still feels faster over all...

Wow - I'm just babbling on this morning. Guess I need that third cup of coffee after all...

EDIT: To add to the whole custom-control thing. When I develop custom controls, I make sure they perform the FUNCTION they are supposed to fulfill, rather than to achieve a specific LOOK. It's a case of function-over-form... :p
 
Keeper said:
well OK then...

It's called "Multimedia builder" and I would be dumbstruck if anyone here knew what that is, lol.....

I would recommend it to anyone who would wanna code as a hobby, as it's k@k easy to do A LOT of stuff! but If you wanna do it for a living, rather study a course on something the rest of the guys here are using...

does anyone else code their own controls and what are your techniques?

I think this is an awesome topic!
Click to expand...

ive used multimedia builder actually.

i code my own controls, written a library for c++ and also written a c# lib. i dont use wpf.
 
FarligOpptreden said:
YARRRRR! :D

My 2 cents for this thread: I used to focus solely on making an app as pretty as possible, until I realized the negative impact it can have on performance. The unfortunate reality is that some users (especially in big corporate environments) don't have all the super-computers we develop and test the apps on, so you HAVE to downscale the UI complexity in order to have something usable.

The trick lies in trying to make the app as easy to navigate as possible, incorporating minimal UI-bling to still give it a clean, professional look. This applies to web-sites as well. These days I see myself using minimal images to achieve a maximum effect. Clean, uncluttered UI allows users to navigate your site / app with ease, finding the information they require much faster.

I've received several compliments on the ease-of-use of my latest UI-upgrade to our solution, but it is still nowhere where I want it to be. The framework for the solution is roughly 3 years old, so rebuilding 3 years worth of ASPX pages is a nightmare, considering there's other work that also needs to be done.

Just to bring the whole UI thing into perspective: Windows Live Messenger incorporates some fancy WPF-based UI, adding a degree of sluggishness to the whole experience. It looks pretty, but feels a bit slow. Compare this to Skype, which uses normal Windows-based UI and it somehow feels a lot more responsive. Granted, Skype uses almost double the memory that WLM uses, but it still feels faster over all...

Wow - I'm just babbling on this morning. Guess I need that third cup of coffee after all...

EDIT: To add to the whole custom-control thing. When I develop custom controls, I make sure they perform the FUNCTION they are supposed to fulfill, rather than to achieve a specific LOOK. It's a case of function-over-form... :p
Click to expand...

interesting.

but really, i've had no problem with changing every single aspect of it's UI, when looking at speed.

I can make the window semi transparent, have holes cut into it using an alpha map, add 50 controls (each using *different* images), let it run some task/code and at the same time updating a few graphics (Text, progress bars,etc) at every single itteration. And while all this is going on, I can drag the window around with "Show contents while dragging" enabled on Windows and no speed problems - 100% smooth.

You just need to add a Refresh Command at the right place(s) to make your App fast.

There is also a difference between making it look fast, and true speed.
(the app may be say 20% faster without updating a progress bar and refreshing, but it will appear slow, where as updating it might cause it to be 10 secs slower on a 2 minute load, but seems more responsive.)

MSN Messenger/Live/whatever is coded Very poorly or something! I have no idea why it should be so slow, I can make it look like that without that loading time/unstable behavior.

Controls are basic stuff, it shouldn't be slow no matter what it is, unless you're making a huge 1024x1024, spinning, pulsing / glowing button.
 
oh...and that's with multimedia builder - it has *nothing* on Microsoft's stuff if we're talking about speed here....

maybe i'm not understanding something here?:confused:
 
The problem is when you're building data-driven, enterprise-scale applications. Sure, flashy buttons and loads of images might work for a small desktop app, but as soon as you start populating a system with thousands or millions of records and render controls based on the data, you'll see that performance becomes a major consideration...
 
Keeper said:
oh...and that's with multimedia builder - it has *nothing* on Microsoft's stuff if we're talking about speed here....

maybe i'm not understanding something here?:confused:
Click to expand...

point and simple flashy controls cause speed degradation and load time issues to the controls because of the numerous paint event updates and redrawing required. Simplicity is the best way to go.
 
I agree with you guys on that though, don't worry, but the op was talking about his own apps, not massive-scale stuff.

msn messenger is supposed to be a lightweight. don't tell me msn's little toolbar and stuff is whats causing it's slow responsiveness....
 
msn's protocol is old an needs to be revamped. MSN has always been dodgy, and will always be dodgy.
 
I don't think it will necessarily remain dodgy... Microsoft will probably realize that they're using lots of market-share in the IM market and do something revolutionary for MSN. It's bound to happen.
 
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