[Judge_Fire]

Small App Idea: OS X version of Small Screen

If someone's looking for an idea for a little app, for practice or otherwise, a remake of Small Screen might come in handy for some people, including me.

I emailed the author, and while he said he was interested in picking up Cocoa in the future, he indicated he was busy in RL and didn't mind someone else taking a shot at it.

Small Screen 1.3 is an app for OS 9 that simply draws colored borders, representing any smaller screen on your desktop. It's great for focusing on a certain screen size when doing app or website layouts etc. without needing to switch your screen resolution.

It works in Classic, so you can have a look at it by downloading it from one of these sites.

Additional features for a new version could include:

- Custom screen sizes to accommodate the various screens out there now, with perhaps iPaq, Nokia 9210 etc. as presets.

- Dimming of the excess areas via a menu item, dock menu item and/or a keyboard shortcut, to quickly preview just the layout. Customizable dimming opacity, of course.

- Free positioning of multiple, different sized views on the desktop for quick comparison between several target screens.

Simple, dedicated and perhaps a fun Cocoa exercise

TIA,

J

[Chuckit]

Wow, that is a handy little app. I'll give it a go tonight when I have some free time.

One question, though: What to you mean by the "free positioning" thing? You mean let people tear the "screen" rects off of the menu bar and move them around?

[00101001]

Yeah, nifty... I just started coding it -- gimme half an hour and I'll post a beta for you to play around with.

[00101001]

try this:

i'm not sure if it's exactly what you mean (i didn't get a chance to try the classic-version) but try it anyway

http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/SmallScreenX2.dmg

hope it works!
-Loren

[00101001]

here's a minor update:

-new icon
-fixed up menus
-about box
-'close screen' confirmation sheet (useful)

http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/SmallScreenX_3.dmg

-later

[00101001]

Ok, I'll admit -- that was pretty fun. Here's another update:

- added Help menu
- added key shortcuts ( apple-p for screen prefs, and apple-w to close the screen )

http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/SmallScreenX_v11.dmg

I think I'm going to go to sleep, that was enough for one day.

Tell me how it works!

[iSoldier]

Good job. The app works as requested. Dang, 00101001 your pretty good!

[Judge_Fire]

Lol, damn you're fast!

Great work, thanks.

The ability to move the frame really rocks and I don't mind the nifty resize animation either

If you enjoy tweaking, here are some UI suggestions:

- Live resize with visible width, height indicators (numbers). Done by grabbing at indicated points (ie. small darker or lighter dots in the middle of each side).

Those indications give a clue to try them and thus you won't need a modifier key or a visit into a menu or dialog.

- Bringing the size / color choices out from a pref dialog into menu items named SIZE and COLOR, with a number of presets and a 'Edit…' or atleast 'Custom…' option at the bottom.

Less modal and more direct, IMHO.

But yes, SmallScreenX does the job and has a great icon! That's a lot.

Thanks again,

J

[Nebagakid]

this is mega-cool, good job dude!

[00101001]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
Lol, damn you're fast!

- Live resize with visible width, height indicators (numbers). Done by grabbing at indicated points (ie. small darker or lighter dots in the middle of each side).

You got it... for now, I just made the upper-right corner the resize spot. Try it and tell me if you like it

- Bringing the size / color choices out from a pref dialog into menu items named SIZE and COLOR, with a number of presets and a 'Edit…' or atleast 'Custom…' option at the bottom.

I'll think about it... for now, I simply made the prefs a sheet (so that you don't have a bzillion pref panels flying around without any connection to their owner...

But yes, SmallScreenX does the job and has a great icon! That's a lot.

Thanks! Besides the live-resize and pref-sheet, I also added the option for changing the border width and another option for rendering a shadow. (it runs faster w/o the shadow)...

Download the new version here:
http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/SmallScreenX_v12.dmg

-Loren

[Nebagakid]

I like how the changing of the window size is animated...can you make the colors animate when changing? I do not know if this is available in Cocoa, but, like

When the colours change, the colors update as if you were moving it along the hue wheel to the new color

eh?

try gurgel doll:http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...&db=macosx

[00101001]

Originally posted by Nebagakid:

When the colours change, the colors update as if you were moving it along the hue wheel to the new color

like this?:
http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/SmallScreenX_v121.dmg

?

[00101001]

http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/smx13.dmg

Sorry to keep buggin' you guys with updates... but I would kinda like your input. I added the menu presets for resizing the screen, but I'm not exactly sure what to put in there. So maybe if you guys posted what you wanted, I could update it.

Also...

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:

I emailed the author, and while he said he was interested in picking up Cocoa in the future, he indicated he was busy in RL and didn't mind someone else taking a shot at it.

did you have a chance to show it to him? I'd like to know what he thinks.

[Nebagakid]

Hmm, i really like how it animate the movement? Can you make it animate the border width change? i like animating things!
Also, add preferences under window menu, sometimes it is hard to select the right spot, not a problem that needs to be changed,. just add that!

PS. I read that one guy's review of the program, harsh and unnecceasry, your program does everything it said it would, and more


http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...&db=macosx

[00101001]

Originally posted by Nebagakid:
PS. I read that one guy's review of the program, harsh and unnecceasry, your program does everything it said it would, and more

thanks, that means a lot , oh, and as weird as it is, I'm now keeping gurgel doll in my dock

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by 00101001:


thanks, that means a lot , oh, and as weird as it is, I'm now keeping gurgel doll in my dock

Well, i hope you are ready for .gdol files. That is the file format for exchanging gurgel dolls with others. Beta 5 is going to be awesome. I am going to be making a new style along with the ability to save and view dolls. Also, i added html help.... 1.0 is going to be grand!

[Judge_Fire]

Hey, been away for awhile.

I didn't get a chance to try v. 13 and now the .mac account isn't available

Yeah, I can contact the author once there's a download site to point him to

J

judge_fire@mac.com

Originally posted by 00101001:
http://homepage.mac.com/lorenb/smx13.dmg

Sorry to keep buggin' you guys with updates... but I would kinda like your input. I added the menu presets for resizing the screen, but I'm not exactly sure what to put in there. So maybe if you guys posted what you wanted, I could update it.

Also...

did you have a chance to show it to him? I'd like to know what he thinks.

[00101001]

crap, sorry about that... i got the chance to update it to an email-only account (worth the $10), and forgot that I was hosting it there...

for now, I can email it to you... sound good? (send me your email @ lorenb@mac.com)

but anyway... does anyone know where i can host it? it's only 173kb and would help a lot until i get another host

thanks

[00101001]

never mind

http://homepage.mac.com/christinasidoti/smx13.dmg

[Nebagakid]

on a totally unrelated note, could y'all download this Gurgel Doll Beta 5 and tell me watcha think:

http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...&db=macosx


thanks!

[00101001]

sick dude, absolutely sick !!!

i like the icons too.

anyway, (not sure if you know this) when im picking my favorite color i get::

`NSReceiverEvaluationScriptError: 3 (1)`

doesn't seem to break anything though

very cool program

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by 00101001:
[B]
anyway, (not sure if you know this) when im picking my favorite color i get::

`NSReceiverEvaluationScriptError: 3 (1)`
/B]

Yeah, i know that happens, i am just hopping it will go away during more developing on it.

[Nebagakid]

Well, I wanna bring this topic back to the top so more people can see.

I like the current version a lot. I gotta annuter question about making it more:

can you making it so everything outside the window is shadowed, darker, or animated like ripples?

It would be cool, eh?

ONLY an option not mandatory for each window, also, maybe make tooltips so when you are on a place when you can click and something happens, it will show up

[00101001]

hmmm... that's a fine idea. I can actually use some of my code from Focus . Sweet -- I'll get on that. Look out for an update by the weekend.

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by 00101001:
hmmm... that's a fine idea. I can actually use some of my code from Focus . Sweet -- I'll get on that. Look out for an update by the weekend.

EXCELLENT!


hehe...bit by bit these nice people will build me a free photoshop replacement....

is this thing still on?

Go Dam.....

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep