Hey all,
As many know, the new 6.1 has the ability to store and load visual "themes" for mirc. This includes the 16 assigned colors, as well as the pallettes assigned to each number. What I am recommending is two things. One is the addition of an "Extended" tab. Now, this might not even have to be associated with the colors dialog, and can be its own seperate tab in the options dialog, but I feel it would be a nice addition. This is to have an editable selection for nickname brackets, mask brackets, join/part/quit messages, modes, etc. Something like if you have a dialog:
+-Visual Themes----------------------------+
| |
| +---------------------------+ |
|Nick Theme: |<%MODE%%NICK%> | |
| +---------------------------+ |
| +---------------------------+ |
| Join Msg: | * JOIN: %NICK% (%MASK%) | |
| +---------------------------+ |
| +---------------------------+ |
| Part Msg: | * Part: %NICK% (%MASK%) | |
| +---------------------------+ |
| +---------------------------+ |
| QUIT Msg: | * QUIT: %NICK% (%MASK%) (%| |
| +---------------------------+ |
|\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/|
................. Blah ...................
|\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/|
+------------------------------------------+
(Gotta love my ascii art) From there, you can edit the style of your messages, and replace values with constants like %NICk%, %CHAN%, %MASK%, and so on. You even could just provide the alternative at altring the original string outpussing with the "JOIN: %s (%s) %" message where we alter the general appearace (not so customized).
My second idea is to make the highlight colors for switchbar icons tied into the color theme. Im not sure if im the only one, but I change the event, Message, and Highlight colors for the switchbar icons to match my theme. Such as if my theme consists of oranges and grays, i may make the message highlight color orange, or likewise if my theme is greens. I make the switchbar highlight color green. Just an idea.
Now that I am mentioning it, also tying in the switchbar colors with themes hints the idea of having a background association too. Where not only can u set the colors and hues, but also set the default image for status window, channels, queries, and other windows/toolbars.
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Colors |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Scheme: |
| +----------------------+--+ +----------+ +----------+ |
| | mIRC Modern |\/| | New | | Delete | |
| +----------------------+--+ +----------+ +----------+ |
| |
| Appearance: |
| +-----------------------------------++--------------+ |
| | Action Text Notice Text || Listbox Text | |
| | Ctcp Text Notify Text || Gray Text | |
| | Highlight Text Other Text || Title Text | |
| | ... ... || | |
| | ... ... || | |
| | ... ... || | |
| | ... || | |
| | ... || | |
| +--------------------------+--------++--------------+ |
| | Editbox Text | Inactive | |
| +--------------------------+------------------------+ |
| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |
| |A|S|C|I|I|.|.|.| +----------+ |
| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Reset | |
| |.|.|.|R|U|L|E|S| +----------+ |
| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |
| Backgrounds: +-----------------------------------+ |
| Status Window |C:\Program Files\mIRC\img\status.pn| |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
| Channel Window |C:\Program Files\mIRC\img\chan.png | |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
| Query Window |C:\Program Files\mIRC\img\query.png| |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
| Switchbar Image |C:\Program Files\mIRC\img\sbar.bmp | |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
|\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\____/|
|\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\_____/\____/|
| +----------+ +----------+ +----------+ |
| | OK | | Cancel | | Help | |
| +----------+ +----------+ +----------+ |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
(Another fine ascii image if i do say so myself.)
Anyways, just some ideas >:D
