Icon shading bug?

I have noticed that shaded icons display differently (and rather nastily!) in RO5.20 than in RO5.18.

Example from v5.18

Example from v5.20

Note the nasty background in the Radio, Group box and Option icons. This is the same template, created in WinEd by dragging the samples to the window, then ticking Shaded. They are defined with foreground colour 7 (black) and background colour 1 (grey). A transparent background is not (I think) an option.

Is this a bug in v5.20?

B****r! I have noticed this in some of my own progs which I have been updating before adding them to the package manager. I have spent some wee while trying to work out what I had changed (intentionally or unintentionally) in the templates file to make shaded icons start doing this.

If it is a bug, rather than some intentional change, then it is present in the various versions of 5.21 I am using on my machines.

The shading can be removed by specifying the -RemoveIconBoxes switch in the WimpVisualFlags command.

Perhaps you were using Paul Vigay’s Misc configure plugin that allows you to set this easily and haven’t reinstalled it yet?

The shading can be removed by specifying the -RemoveIconBoxes switch in the WimpVisualFlags command.

Thanks for this, I wasn’t aware of that command. Question is – why are these options not built into !Configure ?

And more to the point, why would anyone want the boxes to appear? I disabled them in my RO3.7 Wimp a loooong time ago.

Perhaps you were using Paul Vigay’s Misc configure plugin that allows you to set this easily and haven’t reinstalled it yet?

Very nearly correct! I had re-installed the Misc plugin, and reset most of the settings … but not that one. Set it and boxes disappear. Thanks Fred.

I have updated the WindSetup configuration plug-in to cater for some of the WimpVisualFlags options and read/create/modify the file Choices:Boot.PreDesk.WinSetup accordingly.

The executable package is here:

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/random/newwindsetup.zip (22K)

And the source archive is here; if ROOL think this is a worthy change they can push it to the CVS:

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/random/newwindsetupsrc.zip (82K)

And… Here’s what it looks like now:

How to use:

• Open $.!Boot.RO500Hook.Res.Configure
• Rename “!WindSetup” as “o!WindSetup”
• Copy the contents of the first archive above (the new !WindSetup) to the Configure directory
• Run !Configure as normal…

How to undo:

• Open $.!Boot.RO500Hook.Res.Configure
• Remove the new !WindSetup directory
• Rename “o!WindSetup” back to “!WindSetup”
• Delete the Obey file “WinSetup” – this is usually in !Boot.Choices.PreDesk.

I have updated the WindSetup configuration plug-in to cater for some of the WimpVisualFlags options

Thanks for that. I am wondering though if the new ThemeSetup plugin wouldn’t be a better place to add this. Given that WimpVisualFlags deals with how the desktop looks.

I am wondering though if the new ThemeSetup plugin wouldn’t be a better place to add this.

But where IS this new ThemeSetup plugin? It didn’t come with the HardDisc4/5/20 archive – at least I cannot find it.

But where IS this new ThemeSetup plugin? It didn’t come with the HardDisc4/5/20 archive – at least I cannot find it.

It’s in the Beta HardDisc4 image. Available here.

I can confirm that Rick’s configure utility removes the icon background on the text of desktop pinned items and that it improves the Pi’s opening screen appearance significantly!
Can it be included in the HardDisc Image with an ON default?

Can it be included in the HardDisc Image with an ON default?

What, my config utility? IIRC¹ it is built with DeskLib; if that’s not a problem then I’m okay for releasing the sources to it…

¹ Vague because I’m on break at work, tired as hell, fed up, and can’t remember anything. One might say “situation normal”. ;-)

It might be worth taking a look at this first. This document sets out the philosophy behind the new Themes plugin.

Basically, if I’ve got it right, there are three kinds of setting relevant to how the desktop looks:

1. How desktop elements like window and menus behave. Controls for these are in the various Configure plug-ins (Windows, Menus, Pinboard, etc.)
2. User-editable visual settings, like background textures and 3D style. Controls for these are in the new ThemeSetup plug-in.
3. Aspects of a theme that aren’t user-editable, but are up to the theme designer to define. Examples of this are things like the window outline colour and whether the outline box overwrites the tool icons.

Under the current scheme, the -RemoveIconBoxes flag is treated as type 3 – it’s set by the theme itself rather than being part of the configure plug-in. On my system, all the themes I chose used the switch, so I didn’t see any icon boxes. It’s possible that using other, older third-party Theme apps, such as Paul Vigay’s !Misc and my old !ThemeMan, might be causing the problem by overriding the settings. Try getting rid of these, and any Obey scripts they may have left littering your Boot sequence, and see if the problem goes away.

If it doesn’t, you should be able to manually force the effect. Navigate to the theme directory you want to alter (e.g. for Raspberry, go to !ThemeDefs.Themes.Raspberry) and look for an Obey file called CoFlags. If there isn’t one, create it. You need to add the line:

WimpVisualFlags -RemoveIconBoxes -NoIconBoxesInTransWindows

If there’s already a WimpVisualFlags command, just add the -RemoveIconBoxes, -NoIconBoxesInTransWindows to whatever others are listed.

I’ve not seen the problem on my set-up, so can’t test whether it works. Any joy?