ok here is an idea i had; it should take less than a day to write with all the bells and whistles.
warning: if no one does this one i'll do it just as a lark.
ok here is the idea, it's for a joke program.
the app would be a system tray app called
"Windows Error Guard" "Dr.Windows"
Ok so what does the program do?
basically the idea is to pop up at random times joke error messages of the type found here:
http://atom.smasher.org/error/with real buttons, etc.
What is important i think is that the user should be able to configure their own dialogs.
so i suggest like this, a data directory containing dialog_name.cfg files and bitmaps for images in the dialog.
a dialog_name.cfg file like (dialog_tiredcomputer.cfg" would simple specify:
1) the titlebar of the dialog
2) the text
3) the bitmap (to be loaded from the data dir)
4) the button text
so your data file might have 100 different fake joke dialogs, and we could trade them and share them, etc.
the program should auto discover any .cfg files and choose from them randomly.
Now if we really wanted to get fancy i would suggest this: add an ability for the buttons to launch other dialogs -
for example:
Dialog_tired.cfg:Title = "Error: Computer is Tired"
Text = "I'm sorry, you're computer has gotten very tired.\nWhat would you like to do?"
Bitmap = "tired.bmp"
Button1 = "Shutdown"
Button2 = "Continue Anyway"
Button2link = "SubDialog_beware.cfg"
and SubDialog_beware.cfg (note: subdialogs should not be shown at random):Title = "Complaint Filed"
Text = "Your computer has filed a complaint against you, I hope you're happy"
Bitmap = "stop.bmp"
Button1 = "Ok."
And if we REALLLY wanted to get fancy,
we could actually add support for windows scripting when buttons are pressed, for example:
Dialog_tired.cfg:Title = "Error: Computer is Tired"
Text = "I'm sorry, you're computer has gotten very tired.\nWhat would you like to do?"
Bitmap = "tired.bmp"
Button1 = "Shutdown"
Button2 = "Continue Anyway"
Button1scrtipt = "javascript:shutdown();"
Button2link = "SubDialog_beware.cfg"
Options:
program would sit in the system tray, where it could be exited (lets not be cruel), and would appear from system tray to be a real program (either having no options or fake ones). A secret options page would allow you to set how often a message was displayed (with some randomness), like for example 1 per day, and whether to start with windows.
note: i really like this fun idea so if someone implements it, please do it well or i'll be writing this myself one day in the next week
ps1: any volunteers to help make a set of funny dialogs?
ps2: any other ideas for this?
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