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Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by SilverAzide »

MourningStar wrote: August 15th, 2021, 3:48 pm Maybe you or someone can point me to a skin that achieves your 'single-skin' suggestion.
Well, one good example comes with Rainmeter.

In the built-in Illusto suite there is a Disk skin that has two variants, for 1 drive and for 2 drives. If you have 3 drives you're out of luck... What if you have 10 drives? To cover all the bases you'd need 26 possible variants (with almost the identical code repeated over and over), and the user would have to choose the one they wanted. Every time you wanted to tweak something, you'd have to fix 26 skins. Ugh.

It would be much better to create a single skin that can handle from 1 to 26 drives and configure itself automatically based on whatever you have.

Obviously, the Illustro suite is intended as a starter kit and example that people can play with and learn Rainmeter, so it is fine the way it is, but that is just one of many "single-skin" suggestions I could think of. It's more difficult to create skins that are dynamic or are driven by a set of configuration options, so putting something like that in Illustro would only confuse newcomers.

I know you use the Gadgets suite, so another example is the Analog Clock. If you check the settings, the clock can appear 9 different ways, with different faces, hands, fonts, etc. No need for 9 different skins. But the Digital Clock variant is needed, as the contents of the .ini and the appearance is completely different and shares almost no code with the Analog variant.

I know you are learning, so what you have is good. Now you can start learning about using variables to control the way your skin appears, so your fonts and animations are driven by a set of configurable options that change the appearance of the single skin.
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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by SilverAzide »

MourningStar wrote: August 15th, 2021, 4:32 pm Thank you

1 - I did not know this was even possible. I have the gadgets weather meter and it has 2 variants (std & Pro). I do not know what to do to display them both. If possible, why would I want to?

2 - As far as my skin is concerned, I know of no rational reason for having more than one displayed.

3 - Perhaps someone can inform me to a scenario where displaying more than one version of the same skin would be logical.
I think you mean the Network Meter, which has two variants, "Std" and "Pro". (The Weather Meter used to have a large and small variant, but they have been combined into one skin that displays two different ways.) The "Std" and "Pro" version could be combined into a single skin, but for now I'm leaving them separate since they work in different ways.

You'd never really need two different variants of a single skin running at the same time. If you did, then they wouldn't really be variants and you'd have them as separate standalone skins. An example could be the Weather Meter... if you wanted to see the weather at your house and the weather in, say, your favorite vacation spot, you'd create duplicates so you could have two identical skins active at the same time.
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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by SilverAzide »

MourningStar wrote: August 15th, 2021, 4:32 pm (yay! 200th post, do I get a prize?)
Nope, jsmorley recently just hit 22000 posts... HE gets the prize! :D
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MourningStar
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by MourningStar »

SilverAzide wrote: August 15th, 2021, 5:10 pm I think you mean the Network Meter, which has two variants, "Std" and "Pro". (The Weather Meter used to have a large and small variant, but they have been combined into one skin that displays two different ways.) The "Std" and "Pro" version could be combined into a single skin, but for now I'm leaving them separate since they work in different ways.

You'd never really need two different variants of a single skin running at the same time. If you did, then they wouldn't really be variants and you'd have them as separate standalone skins. An example could be the Weather Meter... if you wanted to see the weather at your house and the weather in, say, your favorite vacation spot, you'd create duplicates so you could have two identical skins active at the same time.
I know you replied to my quote, but my quote was a reply to this ...
jsmorley wrote: August 15th, 2021, 4:20 pm Your variant approach is fine, with the understanding that you won't ever be able to load two or more of them at the same time.
iow, is your response in reference to jsmorely? :confused:
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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by SilverAzide »

MourningStar wrote: August 16th, 2021, 12:12 am I know you replied to my quote, but my quote was a reply to this ...
iow, is your response in reference to jsmorely? :confused:
No, I was responding to your item #1...
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MourningStar
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by MourningStar »

SilverAzide wrote: August 16th, 2021, 1:10 am No, I was responding to your item #1...
which, in turn, refers to jsmorely: "... that you won't ever be able to load two or more of them at the same time"?
:confused:
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MourningStar
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Re: Skin Load/Unload Via Bat File

Post by MourningStar »

MourningStar wrote: August 16th, 2021, 3:06 pm which, in turn, refers to jsmorely: "... that you won't ever be able to load two or more of them at the same time"?
:confused:
After careful review it is clear to me now - thx all.