[UPDATE][10/10/2008] TouchLaunch 0.0.3! so beautiful ( NET2&NET3.5 ) with some skins

[avellant]

0.0.4 version: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=437773

TouchLaunch is simple application launcher, which scans start menu shortcuts, and list them alphabetically. Kind of similar to scoll launcher
but this has new quick alphabetic scroll function. This is very early alpha and my first program release.

Features:
-finger scrolling
-quick alphabet shortcuts
-skinnable
-you can choose whether it closes after program launch or not



[0.0.1][10/06/2008]

[0.0.2][10/07/2008]
+Skin changer
+Better skinning support
+You can use bitmaps as list item highlight
+6 premade skins
+closeAfterLaunch feature

[0.0.3][10/10/2008]
+backgroundbitmaps
+you can use your today's screen background as this program's background
+ability to choose whether minimize or terminate on exit
+automatic closing ( either minimize or exit on closing )
+it's minimizes correctly, so you can leave it on running background
+should work on all different language roms!

Known "bugs":
-skin change takes about 5 sec... so don't panic
-if closeAfterLaunch feature is on and you switch to other application,
TouchLaunch will close in 2 seconds.
-if you try to launch phone ( or calendar ), it will launch softaware and after that it will crash...
-using bitmaps multiples memory usage, but you can avoid that using simpler skins
-menu is ugly


Requirements:
.NET CF 2.0
wm6 ( might work with wm5 ), i have only tested on emulator and on my elf
qvga or vga

Instructions:
Download and install the cab file

or download the zip file, extract it to any folder on your ppc and run the exe file.

Making new skins you can look example from premade skins in the skin folder at installation folder, two of them ( white.xml and original.xml ) are commented. Adding new just copy your skin xml file in the skins folder.


ToDo:
-better skin support
-adding some animations
-icons ( maybe someone could give me a hint )
-bug fixes
-landscape support
-performance tweaking
-optimizing memory usage

Feel free comment, and give me more ideas!
If like it, you can always donate to keep me motivated






Thanks to gingercat and dosfan for exellent work on KListControl!

Thanks to skinmakers!
Other's skins included in package:
Manila 2D Blue ( by shadowmike )
Diamond ( by Azimuth21 )
DiamondVGA ( by Mr Gee )

[munnna73]

nice work can we change background skin

[kidnamedAlbert]

awh damn. just when i had made my mortbuttons program launcher skin.
thanks buddy.
i bet its MUCH easier than my way...

[avellant]

Originally Posted by munnna73 nice work can we change background skin

Yes, you can change all the colors and also change placements of different elements by modifying skin.xml file. It doesn't support using background bitmaps, but i'm planning to make that for nex release.

Every object has these attributes, which you can modify:

<ELEMENT>
<NAME>mainList</NAME>
<BGCOLOR>105105105</BGCOLOR>
<FORECOLOR>245245245</FORECOLOR>
<X>12</X>
<Y>0</Y>
<WIDTH>228</WIDTH>
<HEIGHT>268</HEIGHT>
</ELEMENT>

the colors are 9 digit RGB values ( example. BGCOLOR is 105105105, so it has 105 red, 105 green, 105 blue ). Make sure you always use three numbers, even if value is under 100, for example 5 -> 005.

[kidnamedAlbert]

i cant wait till we can have background images. and select images like scroll launcher(by l5v3y)

[avellant]

Originally Posted by kidnamedAlbert i cant wait till we can have background images. and select images like scroll launcher(by l5v3y)

Actually you can use select image, because it use the same KlistControl code base. Just copy png bitmap to execution folder and name it as select.png. The dimensions must match the dimensions configured in the skin.xml. So, by default it's 228x40.

[-Arturo-]

Looks nice
Few pointers if I may it starts kind of slow it takes about 4 seconds to open it on my kaiser. And the search engine is kind of not finger friendly it,s hard to select a letter with your thumb. I think that bigger letters would do the trick for example you could place half of the alphabet on the left side of the screen and the rest on the right side or introduce the search engine similar to the one present in IContacts.
Great job

[avellant]

Originally Posted by -Arturo- Looks nice Few pointers...

Thanks for responses and ideas!
The slow start time is mostly compact framework's fault, one idea is to let it run on background or switch to WIN32 api... but i did look up Icontact's source and felt it was not my kind of cookie But there's some tweaking that could be done. About the scroll touch, i find it quite good on my touch.
It helps to not really trying to hit right alphabet but instead follow what the on screen indexshower shows, and if it's wrong letter just slide your finger up or down. have to say that i'm not big fan of the idea dividing the alphabets but the Icontact alphabet's style could be an idea...

Btw. out of concept, but does anyone know any free coctail databases? Because i have done earlier a program that displays coctail recipes, but the database i use is something that i can't publish. firstly because i don't have authors permission and secondly because it's in Finnish It would perfect if database would be in XML format.

[avellant]

Just added a cab installer.

[-Arturo-]

If the memory footprint is low and by saying low I mean less than 500kb then it's a good idea. WIN32 api??? Well that's double dutch to me

Well I think I've got too big thumbs While holding the phone in one hand I'm not able to access the alphabet with my thumb. I've tried pressing the alphabet area and then slide it up or down to choose a letter but I end up scrolling the list with applications up or down. So maybe widening the alphabet touch area would do the trick. Also I think that moving the indexshower to the upper or even upper right part of the screen would prevent it from being covered by a thumb while picking a letter.

I don't know any cocktail databases at least not free ones