Getting the ball rolling. Which VB6 projects are you working on?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Right, well, that is what I have been doing all along when it comes to advanced graphical results, using GDI+ in my dock it is just images drawn on a transparent form. My code knows the x & y boundaries of the images (stored in an array) and it notes the mouse click position and compares, the icon in question does something, animates, opens a program &c.



With regard to making your own controls, well that is how Olaf's simple PSD parser does it. It takes each layer of the PSD (any shape at all) and dynamically creates a RC widget from it, complete with all the basic events you might need and of course you can add your own. Then you choose what happens in your logic. This was the same approach I used when I coded in .js using Konfabulator. We used a .js script that would extract the layers and modify the XML descriptor file to describe each layer separately, you then captured the events on a layer by layer basis as you would do on a VB6 control - and added logic. It is very flexible and allows you to make the design you want. No restrictions and not too difficult.



My clock /calendar as described in the PSD file. I drop that file in my RES folder and when the program is run the simple parser pops the clock on the screen. I just handle the events.

I don't like what Niya said, in that the XAML code he wrote was done without a designer. For me, that's just not good enough. If you don't have a designer then you end up with simple designs. That I suppose is the current paradigm. I call my graphics 'advanced' in that they are complex and multifaceted. I look upon the typical MS-inspired apps/interfaces as 'basic' and 'simple', to me they are easy and as they have been done like that for years, thus are 'old fashioned'.

P.S. You also, do not need expensive old photoshop to make the design and the layers. You can use good ol' Gimp. It handles layers in the same manner and outputs a PSD when told to do so. Even easier.