OS/2 eZine - The Best OS/2 Reading Anywhere!

November 16, 2002

One hardware platform; three environments: OS/2, Linux, Windows. What more do you need?

From The Editor

Transparent Folders Tip from a Reader

I got the following note and files on a program called CandyFolder from a reader named Matt this month. He says:

This is a 768 x 1024 (bigblue.bmp) (787K) version of the default Warp 4 background. I created it so I could keep the way cool "blue turf" look with Candy Folders transparency option which would not allow tiling of the OEM image. Here's how it looks:

(candyexample.jpg)

Candy folder allows you to specify that the background of a folder is transparent, so the open folders background is your desktop with the window frame controls and folder content overlayed onto it. You can also set the color shade and related opacity via a tri-color selector. It registers a replacement WPFolder class adding these features. It seems to work great here and the replacement class also inherits other WPS enhancers. I have had Object Desktop 1.5 and Deskman/2 1.5 for years and it kept the features they added with no problem. So far I can't find a bug in it at all. The only folder child class I have noticed that it does not update is the drives folder.

The only gotcha is that it cannot set transparency for a tiled desktop background image, and the image does have to be 256 colors as well, more or less and it will not render in the folder. But even then it is "nice" as it just reverts to the mixed color background setting for the folder. I think the docs say it can't handle a scaled image either, but I have to select to scale some images at 1x1 (as opposed to the 'normal' setting) when running the Warp Center or I have 1/4" borders on the vertical edges of my screen. I am running Warp4.5 (fp15) on a 300mhz PII with 384mb RAM and a Matrox G200/8mb at 768x1024 x 32 bit color. I can not tell a noticable difference in memory usage or performance drop running Candy Folder. I do not know how eCS handles it but I have used it on a fp5 level box just fine. I got it from NetLabs (http://candybarz.netlabs.org), it is GPL freeware. I believe they offer a more extensive enhancement package in CandyBarz for sale as well.

Sorry for the large file size but when I reduce the image resolution it doesn't render as well. I suggest you consider trying it on for a fit. It's far from a really necessary item but it is way kewl! I also use it with other images on other installs, I especially like it on a really nice Mars Soujouner flyover image I found ( be happy to email it as well).

Cool Website of the Month

If you're into sci-fi, you should check out the Baen Books Library (http://www.baen.com/library/) which contains the full text of a wide variety of books from writers you've even heard of. You won't find a better deal anywhere.

This Issue

Isaac Leung looks at a 3D Modelling and Animation Java tool as well as Lyx, a typesetting word processor from the UNIX world. Deane Yamane reviews Jasmine and PopCD!, after reading that review I'm going to have to look at the former. John Bijnens has a useful program for our multilingual readers, Bas is back with a look at Warp 3, and we have a couple more cool desktops for you in The Art Department. Thanks to Innotek (http://www.innotek.de) for donating a copy of Virtual PC for OS/2 to one of our authors this month. Very cool (http://www.os2ezine.com/20020516/page_4.html) product.

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Robert Basler is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. (http://www.aurora-systems.com) and has been a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day. He spends what free time he can manage travelling the world. Photo was taken at Franz Josef glacier, New Zealand.

This article is courtesy of www.os2ezine.com. You can view it online at http://www.os2ezine.com/20021116/page_1.html.