[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Skrobel:
Hello

I liked the idea of an ActionScreen ever since I met with this program for a first time (it was on a Sense 2.1 stock ROM so it was really handy). ActionScreen is a simple application which shows the user a screen with 12 (sometimes more) shortcuts which can start/toggle frequently used programs or functions.

But as I am a Rhodium owner, I always had problem with Landscape orientation. The Smaberg's ActionScreen was showing only 2 rows of icons in Landscape or wasn't showing at all. So with the encouragement by Jackos I started to develop my own application based very much on the original idea of the 12-icon ActionScreen from Smaberg. As I am definitely not a programmer I started to learn Basic4PPC for a starter. Then, after I discovered how many environment restrictions it gives I switched to C#.

What I present here is a version which has full Landscape support (the app will run without problems in Landscape and will change it's layout properly even if there will be an orientation change while program is shown).

* NEW * - The whole app has been rewritten from scratch. Also changed to the C# + NetCF. This has not solved all of my memory problems but allowed me to improve on many other fields. The details are in the change log in post #2.

* NEW 2* - I added a VGA version of my ActionScreen. Special thanks to xOverkill who encouraged me to start working on VGA and then provided a great help with testing on Raphael.

With this version you can easily customise each link function by changing command and parameter in:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Skrobel\ActionScreen\LinkXX]

where "XX" is a number of the icon starting with 00 to 11.

You can change the icons as well (all the graphic files are stored in program folder). From v0.5 you can also change the colors of the background (at the moment only solid colours are supported) and the label texts.

And last but not least you can change the text of the labels under each icon in the same place in registry. This can come in handy when you want to change the language for instance.

There is a small readme.txt file attached to this post where I put a brief description of the settings/configuration possiblilities.

DOWNLOADS ARE IN POST #2

Unfortunately some problems have been solve and some not:

- I have problems to effectively dispose the resources upon program minimization. The C# or NetCF uses Garbage Collector for all the disposed controls/images, so the app memory does not decrease when it's minimized (and is about 1300 kB). I can't find a way to do it better :(

- the WinCE and WinMo environment doesn't support a "minimize form" event. So I used a little trick to override native Windows.Forms.Hide with SW_MINIMIZE imported from coredll.dll. Buuut this doesnt really minimize the app, but only get the window behind all other windows, but in front of Titanium or TodayScreen. That's why I suggest using this app ONLY on Sense/TF3D enabled ROMs or otherwice you will se my app instead of the TodayScreen :(

- Because of the above my app is visible also during system startup until Sense/TF3D is fully loaded

Actually I found a solution for SW_MINIMIZE (it was easier than I thought). So for now my only concern is to make the app less memory consuming and possible yet faster.

Soooo, if any of you guys could help me to improve the app (especially the memory management) I can share all my current experience as well as the source code. HELP PLEASE :o

Enjoy! Any feedback is welcome. I will try to improve as soon as my programming knowledge raises :) Or of course when someone agrees to help me :)