Advanced techniques
The tutorial skin is built from 14
disp
sections, which isn't exactly much compared with the original skins that ship with
cFos
and
cFosSpeed
. Even the rather basic
cFosSpeed
"Icon" skin uses a total of 39 different sections to convey as much information as possible. Having a switch cycle run through
three interface states displaying different parameter information was implemented by using a combination of regular sections
and a group of
activearea
switches toggling not only those sections but also the switches themselves.
You may want to have a look at the corresponding
INI file
to understand how this works.
Another example of advanced skin design is the definition of history sections to track the progress of a parameter (and its maximum values) during any given period of time. This is used in most cFos and cFosSpeed skins to display data traffic. It offers a wide variety of options to create some truly sleek effects, while providing users with as much information as possible.
Again, you may have to take a look at the corresponding cFosSpeed
INI file
and the
description of the
history
method
to learn more about this.
Last but not least, the
activate
method didn't make it into our short tutorial, even though it's been used for creating most
cFosSpeed
skins. But, in terms of functionality, it is so similar to the
fader
method used for
disp13
that it just didn't make much sense adding another section solely to introduce an almost identical approach.
It might be a good idea to browse through the different skin definition files coming with cFos or cFosSpeed to see how things can best be accomplished. At any rate, it should be a good starting point for mastering those techniques and then creating the "ultimate" skin – which we sincerely hope you will share with the entire cFos(Speed) community.