Developer Adrian Gschwend announces today June 03 new version of CandyBarZ will be available soon at the OS/2 Netl@bs. Now, do you can download
the actual version, cbarz110.zip (126,48k). CandyBarZ is the titlebar replacement for OS/2. CandyBarZ
primary feature is gradient-filled titlebars; you choose the top and bottom colors,
and it does the rest. Both active and inactive colors are supported, and CandyBarZ
will not muck up your titlebar text colors or fonts. Custom colors for individual
programs are also supported.
CandyBarZ was originaly developed by Matthew J. Wagner but
due the lack of time, he decided to release the code and make CandyBarZ free.
Beginning immediately, the development of CandyBarZ will be taken over by OS/2
Netlabs. Among other things, this means that CandyBarZ will be free.
- I have several reasons for taking this step, chief among them being lack of
time. This move should not be interpreted as the death of another OS/2 developer.
I will continue to work on CandyBarZ, along with Peter Garner and Eric Norman.
Peter will assume the
organizational duties, and suggestions and problem reports should now be sent his
way - saids Adrian Gschwend.
I would like to thank everyone who has registered CandyBarZ and reassure them that
their investment is secure. Development will continue, and many new features are
planned. Image support is nearly complete, and my mailbox is overflowing with
excellent
suggestions for other enhancements. -saids the developer.
IN VERSION 1.10
- Horizontal gradients! They weren't as hard as I thought.
- Automatic fill options!
- 3D border highlight, ala Warp 4!
- New optimizations for both CPU and RAM usage!
- Less clutter in CBSetup! Many options have been moved to a menu
accessible via "CandyBarZ" buttons on the dialogs.
- Bug fixes. ahem....
PLEASE read the instructions thoroughly before proceeding with installation.
As CandyBarZ REPLACES PART OF OS/2, failure to follow the instructions
accurately may result in severe problems.
Extensive online help is also available.
The Files ---------
Just to make sure everything is in order before you start, check that the
following files were extracted from the CandyBarZ archive:
Requirements ------------
OS/2. CandyBarZ has been tested with OS/2 Warp 3 and Warp 4. It
should work on any 32-bit OS/2 platform, however.
MMOS/2. Though MMOS/2 is not used by CandyBarZ, the PSRT dll requires
that it be installed. Future plans may also call for greater use of
MMOS/2 (not for titlebar sounds, for JPEGs. This is not a promise,
however).
New Installation ----------------
Start the CBSetup program. Until CandyBarZ is installed, the setup
notebook has only one page, Install/Uninstall. This page will let you
select the destination directories for CandyBar.dll, PSRT.dll and
CandyBar.ini (note that CandyBar.ini is NOT included in the archive, it
will be created when CandyBarZ is first loaded). Context sensitive help
is available for all controls on this page (tab to the control and hit
F1).
When the installation is complete, you must reboot so that OS/2 can
load CandyBar.dll.
NOTE: Whack-A-Mole uses a previous version of PSRT.DLL. If you have
Whack-A-Mole installed, please remove the version of PSRT.DLL that came
with Whack-A-Mole.
NOTE: CandyBar.dll and PSRT.DLL MUST reside in a directory specified in
your LIBPATH line in CONFIG.SYS.
Upgrade -------
Start the CBSetup program and turn to the Install/Uninstall page. Press
the "Uninstall" button. Reboot and delete the old DLLs. It is not
necessary to delete the INI file. It is compatible with the new version
of CandyBarZ. Start the CBSetup program again and proceed as with a new
installation.
NOTE: It is important that you delete the old DLLs. If you install the
new version to a different directory from the old version without
deleting the old DLLs, and the old DLLs are earlier in your LIBPATH than
the new, then you haven't upgraded.
NOTE: If you previously removed the CandyBarZ DLLs without using CBSetup,
CandyBarZ information remains in your OS2.INI (unless you removed it).
If this is the case, the "Install" button will be disabled. Conduct
the
uninstall as instructed above to remove the INI information and restart
CBSetup. It is not necessary to reboot in this instance.
The above method is the only supported method. With that said, you can
reduce the process to a single reboot by using the unlock utility that
is included with the freeware package lxlite by taking the following
steps:
- open an OS/2 command prompt and change to the directory containing the
already installed DLLs
- type "unlock candybar.dll"
- type "unlock psrt.dll"
- copy the new DLLs over the old DLLs
NOTE: THIS IS NOT SUPPORTED!
Customization -------------
Once CandyBarZ is installed, two additional pages are added to the setup
notebook, one for the default color scheme, and one for custom colors.
The Default Colors page will let you set up the scheme that CandyBarZ uses
for all titlebars which don't have an explicit custom scheme. The Custom
Colors page, of course, lets you choose custom colors program by program,
as well as disable CandyBarZ program by program.
Online help is available for all fields on these pages.
Potential Problems ---------------------
Some programs may either have problems with CandyBarZ or completely ignore
CandyBarZ.
A list of known problems is included in the online help, as well as
instructions for selectively disabling CandyBarZ.
History -------
24 July, 1997 1.00 Initial release
02 August, 1997 1.01 Fix lots of bugs, probably introduce some others
