Just remembered!

A contact list has that little thing on top doesn't it! Where you set your status and display picture and nickname and that innit. Good job I remembered, haha, how useless am I. Okay..so, latest screenshot:

Next on the agenda...

Now I've worked out the structure and basic code for the contact list, I need to start on a new section of the gui. However, I'm on work experience at Newcross Hospital this week, so I probably won't get started until after I've finished there...
The next item I'll tackle will probably be the sign-in page. Unlike the current set-up, the sign in page will be a different widget to the contact list one.

I shall probably base it on a canvas, to get nice pretty effects :) It need only be a simple page, like the msn 7.5 sign-in screen. "Profiles" will be transparent - the user won't know they exist, but all the features will still be there if you ask AMSN to "remember you". You will also be able to have AMSN "forget you", whereupon you will be warned that this will remove all associated chatlogs and stuff for that account.

I look forward to starting it! :)

MSN increase contact list allowance

I just heard that you can now have 600 contacts on your contact list. Great. This means the new gui code is going to have to be that much more efficient.
I still need to find a solution for truncating nicknames, other than(p.o.c):
foreach contact $contacts {
for i 0 to end {
set width [font measure [string range nick 0 $i]]
if $width > [width of groupbox]
then set nick [string range nick 0 [expr $i - 1]]
}
UpdateNicksOnCanvas
}

Doing that for 600 nicks is not going to be fun.
Oh well, I'm sure I'll come up with something.

More contact list

Okayy... added all those lovely paddings and colours and stuff, and they're acessed through a settings object thing, like the ::skin::getKey in amsn.. which is what it will use when I integrate it.

The great thing is, it's still as fast as ever! It isn't lightning when you have like 50+ contacts in each group, but it still isn't slow at all :)
Screenshot:

Contact list

The contact list is getting underway now, with working smiley replacement, group toggling and a nice modular code design so it's easy to add new features later on.

Screenshot:


I figure the gui side of it is pretty much finished... apart from all the little settings like padding, colours, group boxes, hover effects etc. Those can easily be added later.

All about new and gooey

This blog is where information and updates about the re-writing of Amsn's gui will go.
Some things to note:
1) All screenshots posted here will be actual results of actual real live proper code, unless otherwise stated
2) Please dont comment asking "When is this gonna be in amsn?" or similar. It'll get in when it's finished. And it'll be finished when it's finished ;)
3) This blog is a playground for ideas and progress with those ideas. If you have any comments or thoughts on this or anything, please do post!

Anyway, enjoy :)

~Tom