I'm a graphic designer. Can you tell me a little more about the skinning language?

Sure, it's fairly straightforward, and I have (*gasp*) written documentation (albeit crude) for it. Basically, it's a line by line language, with subroutines and variables. Nothing too fancy (although you CAN do some far out stuff.) Here's probably the simplest (functional) example I have, it demonstrates most of the concepts used. This is part of the LochJournal Lite demo, which has a basic version of the scripting language in it.

# set our main form data
Set window,width,600
Set window,height,400
Set window,noresize,1
Set window,nomax,1
Set window,caption,LochJournal Lite (NeonOrange Skin)

# setup initial background image
CreateControl GFXBackground,neonorangemain.bmp

# now display main page
Run main page

# this routine is the main about screen
Subroutine main page
   # set background
   Set background,source,neonorangemain.bmp

   # set visibility
   SetGroup update,visible,0
   SetGroup main,visible,1

   # create buttons
   CreateControl GFXButton,update:main,90,170,70,30,cmd run update page,updatebtn.bmp
   CreateControl GFXButton,friends:main,280,280,70,30,cmd message Not implemented yet.,friendsbtn.bmp
   CreateControl GFXButton,groups:main,40,290,70,30,cmd message Not implemented yet.,groupsbtn.bmp
   CreateControl GFXButton,history:main,420,221,70,30,cmd message Not implemented yet.,historybtn.bmp
   CreateControl GFXButton,about:main,310,130,70,30,cmd message Not implemented yet.,aboutbtn.bmp
End

# update page
Subroutine update page
   # set background
   Set background,source,updatepage.bmp

   # set visibility
   SetGroup main,visible,0
   SetGroup update,visible,1

   # now create components
   CreateControl EditBox,subject:update,60,5,529,21,,Enter Subject Here
   CreateControl Memo,text:update,10,31,579,298,,Enter Post Here
   CreateControl EditBox,username:update,70,343,112,21,,Username
   CreateControl EditBox,password:update,70,369,112,20,,
   Set password:update,password,*
   CreateControl ComboBox,shared:update,249,343,115,21,,
   CreateControl ComboBox,moods:update,249,368,115,21,,

   # prettify
   SetGroup update,border,0
   SetGroup update,color,0
   SetGroup update,fontcolor,$ffffff

   # buttons
   CreateControl GFXButton,login:update,459,350,60,30,login,loginbtn.bmp
   CreateControl GFXButton,post:update,522,350,60,30,post,postbtn.bmp
End

 

It's fairly straightforward. There is a command to create controls, one to set various attributes on the controls, one to declare a subroutine, one to run a subroutine, one to send stuff to the actual program, et cetera. They're all detailed in the reference.

If you want more information, let me know, I'd be more than happy to send you a copy of the reference as it stands, so you can see how it works in a more detailed sense. I'm also on ICQ/IRC/AIM/Y!/MSN if you decide to take this up and need help. :)

Thanks!

why not make an app that does most of the skinning for you?

Thought about it. Haven't gotten around to it. :) I want to get LochJournal out, and the language isn't -that- hard. The hard part is drawing up the bitmaps and then lining everything up, and making sure you don't misspell a trigger name. Though if someone out there (you? :)) thinks they want to tackle a project like this, go for it! ;)

Okay. The reference can be found here:

http://queech.com/~mark/skinref.txt

That explains most of the system. A few things haven't been put into it yet, I'll work on that.