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I am interested in learning the techniques involved in writing an
application that can make use of different skins a la windows media player.
Any help in this persuit would be appreciated.

"PERCIVAL BRAGG" <> wrote in message
news:10pOa.34666$...
> I am interested in learning the techniques involved in writing an
> application that can make use of different skins a la windows media
player.
> Any help in this persuit would be appreciated.
>
>

You probably wanna try comp.lang.java.gui for stuff like this. But check out
L&F for java. (http://www.google.com/search?q=java+look+and+feel)

As for making something where you specify the shape of the window, I'm not
sure if you can do that.

"Harald Hein" <> wrote in message
news:Xns93B2CB9488A06hhtoken@194.97.5.8...
> "Miguel De Anda" wrote:
>
> > As for making something where you specify the shape of the window,
> > I'm not sure if you can do that.
>
> No, you can't. There is a hack, but that one is just nonsens:
>
> Use the Robot class to get a snapshot of the area behind the window.
> Use that snapshot as the window's background. At first glance this
> looks like a transparent window, on which you can paint non-regular
> shapes. But, as soon as you move the window, or if the screen behind
> the window is not static, it just looks ugly.
>
> HH

Most programs that I've seen with irregular shaped windows are annoying and
hard to use anyways. I won't miss it.

"Miguel De Anda" <>, Tue, 08 Jul 2003 20:50:47 +0000:

>
> "Harald Hein" <> wrote in message
> news:Xns93B2CB9488A06hhtoken@194.97.5.8...
>> "Miguel De Anda" wrote:
>>
>> > As for making something where you specify the shape of the window,
>> > I'm not sure if you can do that.
>>
>> No, you can't. There is a hack, but that one is just nonsense:
>>
>> Use the Robot class to get a snapshot of the area behind the window.
>> Use that snapshot as the window's background. At first glance this
>> looks like a transparent window, on which you can paint non-regular
>> shapes. But, as soon as you move the window, or if the screen behind
>> the window is not static, it just looks ugly.
>>
>> HH
>
> Most programs that I've seen with irregular shaped windows are annoying and
> hard to use anyways. I won't miss it.

I won't miss it either (unless somebody finally gets to make a usable 3D
window manager, don't see that happen very soon. Just imagine the
productivity increase by being able to walk around in an Urban Terror(Tm)
L&F environment looking for your favorite IDE when you get a hit by an
incoming usenet posting and a barrage of pop-ups; it would give me sea
sickness).

But the people from www.l2fprod.com were offering skinned regions too. I
have never tried it out though.

Greets Bhun.

"PERCIVAL BRAGG" <> wrote in message
> I am interested in learning the techniques involved in writing an
> application that can make use of different skins a la windows media player.
> Any help in this persuit would be appreciated.

You can do lots but you will need the JNI.

Check the WinPack for JNIWrapper (http://www.jniwrapper.com/winpack.jsp).
It allows creating windows of any shape plus other window decorations.

Here is the example: http://www.jniwrapper.com/images/winpack/cust_shape.gif

Good luck!
EToporov