[arkryal]

I've been tinkering the last few day, and getting some cool results editing many of the menus.

Before I go too far into any one of these modifications, what is the criteria for any new views to be eligible for inclusion in future releases of this skin?

I assume the option to enable or disable any modification to an existing part of the UI would be required. Clean, commented code is a given, with an emphasis on simplicity and no unnecessary redundancy.

Other than that, in terms of file sizes or coding practices, is there any specific requirements or criteria the work will be judged by?

It's also a standard practice in other coding communities I work with that any original author be credited in the code for their part. Here however, I see a lot of copy and paste with little or no mention of the author in the code or forum post. If I should use or modify someone else's code, what is the preferred method of accrediting them?

[Jezz_X]

Basically everything has to pass by me If I like it and don't think its overly complicated or hard to understand (for new users) and still fits in with the skins theme without adding tonnes of bloat or duplicating other things with just small changes, then it stands a better chance.

As for submitting patches for the skin. A forum thread with some screen shots of what and how you changed stuff and and explanation of what if anything from the original you removed or changed. Then you can post a diff on xbmc.org/trac for me to look at and review. Ohh and all indents need to be tabs not spaces

but here are some guidelines I made a while ago I like to stick too

B]What we want[/b]
Well obviously we want a new skin the question is what do we want in it

• It needs to not reply on fanart (of course it will use it in certain views but it cannot rely on it for background) slapping a menu on a premade photo in not what I would call a skin
  
• needs to be expandable
  
• fullscreen layout (really helps with the one above eg: pm3 is crippled by its header and content panel layout)
  
• Obviously is has to be royality free and 100% original images and open source anyone working on the graphics has to be willing to upload all their source material for the team to use in the future not just the end product png files
  
• Things have to be obvious You can't just hide crap off the screen with no inclination of how to get to it or that it even exsist and just assume people will find it.
  
• It has to be light 90mb for a fancy looking skin is just not on (read AEON) maybe we need the svg support for it who knows it sure wouldn't hurt
  
• It doesn't have to work on the xbox system specs but it needs to run smooth on a reasonble HTPC or even those ION ones
  
• It has to be useable for people who don't care about the libraries many many of our users just use us as a media playback then delete not everyone stores things and want to get or make pretty covers for everthing they get. Lets face it our uses are probably 90% pirates who download watch and delete most stuff
  
• Text has to be readable on a decent size screen not everyone has 1080p 52inch TV's though I really don't think CRT TV's should really limit us I guess its the 10 foot interface thing. It has to be readable from 10ft
  

[arkryal]

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't given much consideration to lower resolution screens, but that can be easily accounted for. I'm playing with a few navigation tweaks for all views, so I'll try and keep changes modular, and let users implement only what they want rather than a "mega-mod" that may be too drastic.