Author Topic: T-Clock 2010 (download) (Read 1065769 times)

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #325 on:** May 26, 2011, 12:29 PM »

Okay, that makes a bit more sense. Now try setting the font color to the silver gray that's in the middle of the color menu. It should come out looking white when applied.

Also with that font, try setting Quality to ClearType(XP). I had to do that here at the office to get Calibri to look right.

Mugsy · « **Reply #326 on:** May 26, 2011, 01:02 PM »

Okay, that makes a bit more sense. Now try setting the font color to the silver gray that's in the middle of the color menu. It should come out looking white when applied.

Also with that font, try setting Quality to ClearType(XP). I had to do that here at the office to get Calibri to look right.
-Stoic Joker (May 26, 2011, 12:29 PM)

Setting the text color to "gray" makes it even harder to see. Setting it to "silver" makes it invisible. Definitely the wrong direction. The text itself is "transparent" (tinted based on color).

Changing the color does not help. Changing the "Quality" (anti-aliasing), as I noted previously, likewise has no affect.

Mugsy · « **Reply #327 on:** May 26, 2011, 01:10 PM »

The only difference between these two samples is the text color.

The background image is a boat on the beach.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #328 on:** May 26, 2011, 05:19 PM »

Hm... Okay, here's what's bugging me. In you first set of pics we had this:

Which is "normal" given that I haven't gotten around to picking a better set of defaults yet.

Then - from the second set - we get this:

What changed? Does that come up every time? Or just after some event? What if any effect does hitting refresh T-Clock have? There's nothing in the code that will/can create a background color right now...(Even Classic should be transparent)...However it is on my to-do list to add that option back (by request(s)). So that behavior is really quite baffling.

Is there anything else running, that could be conflicting with it? Can you shut down the other items in the tray to see if one of them may be tripping it? Skype I know is safe, but I don't know what else might be running.

One thing I did just noticed, while flipping through your screen-shots. Is the ones that have the white clock face also don't show any taskbar transparency. Aero, by default, should have just a bit of transparency. Not entirely sure if/how that's related ... But it seems worth picking at...

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #329 on:** May 26, 2011, 06:34 PM »

Okay, played with it a bit more, While trying to replicate what I know of your configuration. For the tests, I'm running a copy of Windows 7 Basic in a Virtual PC so no Aero. But that shouldn't be an issue.

So here's the a default T-Clock with a theme applied:

And, here's what happened when I switched to Classic (You should recognize this one):

Then I switched the text color to black and got this:

Then switched back to white for this:

Then I fiddled with it for a bit trying to figure out how to best reproduce number 2.

There does seem to be a problem with one of the shades of white when entering classic mode...But hitting Refresh T-Clock did clear it up. Black seemed to do just fine at all points. I could not however manage to get it to do the whited out background trick with a theme applied.

So I'm back to pondering your configuration to see if there is anything else I may need to replicate to reproduce the behavior.

Mugsy · « **Reply #330 on:** May 26, 2011, 08:17 PM »

Changing "Desktop" color seems to disable text transparency (regardless of color selected).

See screenshot below from my "Personalization" settings dialog.

Themes that have "transparent" text lack a black bar in the "preview" icon. Themes with opaque text show a black bar on the "window" graphic. The icon/theme on the left would give me transparent text. The right one: opaque.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #331 on:** May 26, 2011, 10:08 PM »

Changing "Desktop" color seems to disable text transparency (regardless of color selected).
-Mugsy (May 26, 2011, 08:17 PM)

Unfortunately that doesn't really prove anything because the applied color settings just force a repaint of the entire desktop. Which is the shotgun version of Refresh T-Clock forcing a repaint of the systemtray. The question on the table is: How do we make it do that in the first place?

Themes that have "transparent" text lack a black bar in the "preview" icon. Themes with opaque text show a black bar on the "window" graphic. The icon/theme on the left would give me transparent text. The right one: opaque.
-Mugsy (May 26, 2011, 08:17 PM)

Certain fonts are harder to render at runtime than others. T-Clock renders its own font at runtime independently of what the system is doing. Which is why the Font Quality setting had to be added. But the issue there was in the fonts washing out and appearing transparent. The issue I'm concerned with at this point is the (white) backgrounding that is appearing in your screen-shots. It is something I've simply never seen before. I did have limited success reproducing an ephemeral version of it ... But that's in a Virtual PC which means it's stuck with a crap virtualized video card.

Now I get the impression that your's are persistent. And I'd like to help. But if I cannot find a way of rely-ably reproducing the issue with the software ... Then the issue, most likely, does not exist within the software.

Mugsy · « **Reply #332 on:** May 26, 2011, 11:50 PM »

if I cannot find a way of rely-ably reproducing the issue with the software ... Then the issue, most likely, does not exist within the software.
-Stoic Joker (May 26, 2011, 10:08 PM)

Yes, I fear you're right. It does seem to be connected to the way Win7 handles Theme colors. I'll just have to experiment some more.

If there was a way to *add* a background box/color to the area behind the T-clock text (I believe a much older version of T-Clock could do this), that might "fix" the problem.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #333 on:** May 27, 2011, 06:57 AM »

if I cannot find a way of rely-ably reproducing the issue with the software ... Then the issue, most likely, does not exist within the software.
-Stoic Joker (May 26, 2011, 10:08 PM)
Yes, I fear you're right. It does seem to be connected to the way Win7 handles Theme colors. I'll just have to experiment some more.
-Mugsy (May 26, 2011, 11:50 PM)

Please do let me know what you find. I'm not giving up on the issue, I'm just at a bit of a lose as to how to define it. Where is the Spring theme you're using from? Is it a 3rd party item? I never really got into the skinning craze back when so I'm not really "up" on what all of the MS themes are available.

If there was a way to *add* a background box/color to the area behind the T-clock text (I believe a much older version of T-Clock could do this), that might "fix" the problem.
-Mugsy (May 26, 2011, 11:50 PM)

Yes that was one of the legacy items I removed (back when). The transparency worked better as a default going between (Win2000 & XP) the two primarily available OS of the time. And with Vista and 7 both being themed there was no real compelling reason to bring the background color option back going forward either. This was compounded by the fact that when using either of the transparency methods (Aero or the one built into T-Clock) the background was also subjected to the transparency...Which made its effect rather moot. Well that and I thought the squared corners looked like poo.... *Shrug*

What I usually do in testing is drag either an explorer window or a command window down behind the taskbar for quick extra contrast when needed. This helped out a great deal when I was trying to resolve the fuzzy font issue (which is why the font quality setting was added) awhile back. I don't know (kinda doubt) if it'll help here as it seems like something is either blocking, mangling, or not sending a paint message to that window. But it might be worth a shot.

Mugsy · « **Reply #334 on:** May 27, 2011, 07:57 AM »

Please do let me know what you find. I'm not giving up on the issue, I'm just at a bit of a lose as to how to define it. Where is the Spring theme you're using from? Is it a 3rd party item? I never really got into the skinning craze back when so I'm not really "up" on what all of the MS themes are available.
...
What I usually do in testing is drag either an explorer window or a command window down behind the taskbar for quick extra contrast when needed.
-Stoic Joker (May 27, 2011, 06:57 AM)

I'm afraid I added to the confusion a bit. I *am* using a skinning program "WindowBlinds7" from Stardock (love it), but when the problem persisted with it disabled/unloaded, I dismissed it as a factor.

With WB7 unloaded and is using the default "Aero" theme, I encountered the problem/solution you described earlier with "black/dark" text displaying as "transparent" and light/white text appearing opaque. The "White" box around the clock only shows when a skin is being used, drawing the clock on top of the skinned graphic.

There is no setting in WB7 to control "text" transparency, though you can change the transparency of the toolbar, windows and menus (I fiddled with them all). So I'm not sure how it is affecting text transparency, but am fairly certain now that it is. Not sure why a forced "repaint" also seems to fix the problem (temporarily, until the next reboot.)

I'll try a few more things and let you know what I find.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #335 on:** May 27, 2011, 03:54 PM »

Ah Ha! Now that sounds a plausable theory. Usually IIRC Skinning requires either WB or a hacked copy of UxTheme.dll. T-Clock does load and use functions from UxTheme.dll so if WB is stepping around it the results would be rather, unpredictable...

I've spent years hating StarDock for killing one of my favorite sites. But I may have overlook that to get this tested properly.

Let me know what you find.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #336 on:** May 27, 2011, 07:42 PM »

Yepper it's definitely WindowBlinds (T-Clock is handling transparency in the below Screen-Shot):

Txomin · « **Reply #337 on:** June 22, 2011, 11:58 PM »

Stoic, my friend, thank you very, very much for taking the time to develop T-Clock and for making available for free. I had looked everywhere for a decent tray clock replacement and I had just about given up. It is a true pity your app doesn't get more recognition. IMO, it is superior to commercial apps.

For the record, T-Clock works like a charm on my Win7 x32 and on my Win7 x64.

I must ask for the source code. I have to. Having given up on finding a replacement, I started to look into writing my own. I made enough progress to appreciate the difficulty involved. It would be a treat to look at how you have implemented T-Clock.

Thanks again. Good karma to you.

MathewP · « **Reply #338 on:** July 03, 2011, 03:06 AM »

I second that. What happened to releasing the source code?

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #339 on:** July 12, 2011, 01:47 PM »

I must ask for the source code. I have to. Having given up on finding a replacement, I started to look into writing my own. I made enough progress to appreciate the difficulty involved. It would be a treat to look at how you have implemented T-Clock.
-Txomin (June 22, 2011, 11:58 PM)

Work has kept me to pinned down to even try to get anywhere with T-Clock for months now. And unfortunately I'm not real sure where I left off. Once I can figure out where I stopped at, I'll know what to check to make sure everything still works (I was jumping around there for a bit towards the end). Then I'll release a new build with the source included.

Txomin · « **Reply #340 on:** July 24, 2011, 04:55 PM »

Great news. Thank you, my friend.

darkhelmet · « **Reply #341 on:** August 03, 2011, 03:53 PM »

Thanks for the program however after looking I cannot figure out how to display the calendar. Windows 7 default is double clicking the date/clock but here I get nothing when I double click. The only alternative I could find was right-click / T-clock Quickys / T-clock calendar. Much of an improvement over the default calendar but was hoping not so much effort to display it. Or maybe I just missed a special setting?

WIN 7 64 ULTIMATE

lanux128 · « **Reply #342 on:** August 05, 2011, 05:55 AM »

Thanks for the program however after looking I cannot figure out how to display the calendar.
-darkhelmet (August 03, 2011, 03:53 PM)

i'm having the same problem as darkhelmet. double-clicking does nothing even though i run it on an 'elevated' status. however if i disable UAC, then the calendar appears.

btw, i'm running it on Win 7 Pro 64bit

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #343 on:** August 05, 2011, 06:58 AM »

Thanks for the program however after looking I cannot figure out how to display the calendar.
-darkhelmet (August 03, 2011, 03:53 PM)

i'm having the same problem as darkhelmet. double-clicking does nothing even though i run it on an 'elevated' status. however if i disable UAC, then the calendar appears.
-lanux128 (August 05, 2011, 05:55 AM)

Why would you be running T-Clock elevated??

As long as the Left Button->Double Click action is set to Show Calendar on the Mouse Tab, it should just pop open the (T-Clock) calendar. I never have figured out how to hook the default Win 7 calendar yet - But I do revisit the idea from time to time.

lanux128 · « **Reply #344 on:** August 05, 2011, 07:15 AM »

Why would you be running T-Clock elevated??
-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 06:58 AM)

i ran TClock in the elevated state to see if that solved the problem of the calendar not appearing but it didn't. then i tried after disabling UAC, upon which the calendar appeared. i still don't know what to make of it. any suggestions?

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #345 on:** August 05, 2011, 10:33 AM »

Why would you be running T-Clock elevated??
-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 06:58 AM)

i ran TClock in the elevated state to see if that solved the problem of the calendar not appearing but it didn't. then i tried after disabling UAC, upon which the calendar appeared. i still don't know what to make of it. any suggestions?
-lanux128 (August 05, 2011, 07:15 AM)

Well... Much as I'd love to say something brilliant ... I'm stumped.

I tried running it elevated here, and nothing worked (calendar, context menu, etc.). Damn Peculiar That Are!

But it shouldn't (ever) require elevated/administrative rights to do anything (it was designed not to). Maybe try double checking the mouse click settings, and/or setting them to a different action so we can see which part of what is failing.

(Long Shot) If you check properties on the clock.exe and tclock.dll files, do either of them show an UnBlock button?

mouser · « **Reply #346 on:** August 05, 2011, 10:49 AM »

if you are looking at things that could be added -- i'd love to see a full year calendar.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #347 on:** August 05, 2011, 11:05 AM »

if you are looking at things that could be added -- i'd love to see a full year calendar.
-mouser (August 05, 2011, 10:49 AM)

1, 3, & 12 month views are available for the calendar via the Miscellaneous tab.

mouser · « **Reply #348 on:** August 05, 2011, 11:09 AM »

Damn it i missed another update.. how do you keep adding features before i request them?!?!?!

Love the yearly calendar!

movrshakr · « **Reply #349 on:** August 05, 2011, 02:19 PM »

1, 3, & 12 month views are available for the calendar via the Miscellaneous tab.
-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 11:05 AM)

OK, just thinking out loud here...

One possible setup: click on text calendar shows current month (like now when set to one month). It has two new buttons on it--one brings up a larger 1-year calendar with January of current year in upper left; other button brings up 1-year calendar with current month in upper left. The 1-yr view also should have the button to change to whichever view (Jan start or current mo. start) is not showing.

This would be way fewer steps than having to go into properties, change tab, change option, exit, open calendar...many steps.