How to get rid of the line between chat input and output?

[Ironcheese]

Hi Folks,

i was really happy to find this neat MSN alternative yesterday! But i really dont like the default skin (its too glossy and shiny) and the skins on this page are all great but nothin what i was looking for.... So i decided to make my own ^^ (first time for me on skinning somethin)

I managed to change ceveral things already but i ran into some problems :S

Frist: How can i get rid of the black (default skin) Line dividing my chat input from the chat output window?
I dont want that line there ^^

Secound: I changed some of the Colors (to get a dark color sheme with light gray font color) and now i have the problem that the flicking dash " | " (in the chat window for example or in the password field) became invisible....  and the "****" characters in the password field went invisible aswell... :S

Then... is there a list somewhere were ALL possible tags and their attributes for the settings.xml file are listed? I mean, i know how to make webpages with HTML & CSS(i'm coding my websites in the notepad! ^^ ) So i understand the structure and so on of the xml file but such a list would be pretty neat! (i already read the Skinning Wiki)

Another Question: What determins how wide a specific element is? The .png file? Because in the settings file i can't see any width or height values (besides the values for the alert window). So could i just make a background picture with a motive on it? With the dimensions of maybe 300 x 800? Would it be displayed correctly?

The padding value: does it work in pixel?
Okay, X is for the horizontal axis (left and right) but is there a way to modify just the left padding? Same question on y values....


....uhm.... oh yeah, i installed aMSN yesterday and i made the mistake that i clicked on the X and then in the up popping window "Quit!" and "Remeber my Decision".... well that decision was stupid, i want the program just to minimize into the tray when clicking on the

• ... can i change that? Or do i have to install the app new?

hope you guys can help me....

And sorry for my english!

Ironcheese

[kakaroto]

I'm no expert in skinning but :
1)

Code:

<chat_sash_showhandle>0</chat_sash_showhandle>

Code:

$paned configure \
-showhandle [::skin::getKey chat_sash_showhandle] \
-sashpad [::skin::getKey chat_sash_pady] \
-sashwidth [::skin::getKey chat_sash_width] \
-sashrelief [::skin::getKey chat_sash_relief]

http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TkCmd/panedwindow.htm#M13

(in other words, do the chat_sash_showhandle set to 0, then add a chat_sash_relief and set it to 'flat', then add a chat_sash_width and set it to 0)

2) humm.. don't know, I'm guessing it can't be done, probably because there is no key for the 'foreground' color of the entries... sorry... try putting the bg to grey or something, look what this guy did here : http://www.amsn-project.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3580
OR, you could change what needs to be changed and submit us patches for fixing that.

3) the wiki *should* have the complete list, but it *can* be outdated..
The best way to get a FULL LIST, is to search in the code... it's either in gui.tcl (usually) or in skins.tcl, every key is being set to a default value in the code, so that if it's not in the settings.xml file, amsn won't break, so it's as simple as doing :

Code:

grep "skin::setKey" *.tcl

In amsn's directory, or search for "skin::setKey" in gui.tcl and skins.tcl.
to figure out what it does, if the name is unclear, just grep that name and see where it's used.. shouldn't be that hard...

4) define "a specific element" ? the width/height is usually calculated using some algorithm in order to pack all widgets in a window, what you can modify is the padx/pady of the elements. The only other thing that the skinner has control over in terms of width/height is the width/height of the "Display pictures in contact list" feature, since those DP are resized to have the same size as the buddy icon of the contact list.
The background picture has nothing to do with size, you put the size you want, it will depend if the user has a small window, which resolution, if he maximized the contact list or not, etc... for sure, if you use 300x800 but you resize amsn to fit on 100x200, you can't see the whole image!

5) The padding is in pixels, yes

6) yes, X is horizontal, and no, it is applied on the left and right edges. It depends though on what you need it for, if it's for the contact list for example or something, there might be a setting to specific the X position in which to start drawing the contacts... also, if there is an image on that widget, you can put a padding on the left of the image using transparent background in order to add padding only on the left.. otherwise, I don't think so, but tell us what you need *exactly* and we might be able to help, everything is a special case.

7) yeah, it happens, you can change it back, we still need to add an advanced option for that.. in the meantime, if you searched you would have found the answer quite fast :
http://www.amsn-project.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1824&highlight=closingdocks

8 ) your english is great, didn't notice english isn't your primary language.

[Ironcheese]

Thanks kakaroto,

i was able to solve that problem with the closing docks. (the reason why i haven't done a search was i had no clue what i had to look for "automatic closing app?"...)

and YEAH!!! i was able to remove that fecking line thanks!

Okay next Problem to fix is the invisible coursor xD


Uhm, i dont really understand Point 3.)   Where do i put that "grep "skin::setKey" *.tcl" line? and what can i put in for the *?



but so far thank you

EDIT:: yeah...well i removed the line...but know i want to add my own in again... whats the name of the pixmap? can't find it xD

EDIT2:: my coursor becomes invisible as soon as i change

<menubackground>#e0e0e0</menubackground>

i just used the default skin, and this was the only value i changed. Default is #E6E6E6. It works with #888888 aswell. But as soon i use #303030 or #353535 it becomes invisible... to what colors is the menubackground tied?