[Mudislander]

Thinking about it - You're right, knowledge is always worth it. I'd not be so interested in the differences between the Mods but rather to find out the differences of requirements between owners of low powered devices and high powered media systems as I feel somewhere down the line there is going to have to be a fork in the road.

[DiMag]

I have re-read my opening post in this thread, and to my surprise I discovered to have been reasonable (or political) enough [not to have asked developers to actually sit together and produce a merge of their mods. Well, I did include the ominous word "sit together", but if you read the post it becomes evident that it could, and should, have been left out without altering the post's message. Not only is Toiva's reply "I created my own mod because all the others mods had something that prevented me from using them" reasonable, it should have been incorporated in the opening of this post as "Given that each of the so far three developers created his Mod in the reasonable belief that both stock Confluence and all other competing mods are lacking in some part".

The post's true message is an appeal to the three developers---plus those who have partially modded their Mods; there seem to exist at least three Mods of mad max's Mod---not to collaborate but to submit independently:---

(i) In which way their Mods diverge from stock Confluence and from each other. For them to say "Why, just use my skin!" would be no aswer, because the idea is to expose differences in a way which makes comparison a matter of glancing at a table plus a diff/patch tree rather than testing in practice. (The idea is also to make it possible for users to port code from one Mod to the other. True, users may do so by way of trial and error plus asking in this forum. But there may be more error in this process than trial, and I suppose it is less tedious for developers to document their ideas in a table plus diff/patch tree format than it is to answer the same questions over and over again.) Please do not tell me that such a diff/patch tree is provided in the github --- I know it. What I mean is something more specific, where all three mods are compared not only against stock Confluence (this is the only comparison provided by the github), but also against each other, and with screenshots to match.

(ii) What the rationale of these divergences is. This may be self-evident in 90% of cases, where a mere screenshot suffices as an argument: who needs an explanation of the need for custom additional sub-menu items or shortcuts after being presented with their screenshot? But there may be a residual 10% of cases where things are not so evident and the developers have actually discovered or fixed something below Confluence's surface.

(iii) Whether, and if so to what extent, these divergences result in a heavier skin. Mudislander for once has expressed that though he cares little for the two items above, he is very interested in this one.

[Mudislander]

Sounds like what you're asking for is Comparison of Skin Features If so that doesn't need an author to set it up. Unfortunately there is never enough time to do everything & therefore stuff like documentation gets dropped.

[DiMag]

@Mudislander:

PROPOSAL:
Yes: I am asking for a Comparison of Skin Features: Confluence MODs, but with the following modifications compared to http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Com...n_features:---

(1) All skins modifying Confluence listed. I submit that this should include such skins which, though technically not a modification of Confluence but distinct skins, in point of fact are a Confluence Mod but in name. E.g., Neon.

(2) For each skin a screenshot of: (a) the home page, (b) the relevant sections of the settings page (leave out mere cosmetics like choice of backdrop).

(3) A Modifications Comparison Table based on the format in http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Com...n_features, with the following two additions/improvements:

(4) For each and every modification, a link to the code that does the trick.

(5) For each and every modification whose effect is an alteration of the UI (home screen, nodes, etc), a screenshot.

(6) For each and every modification, a way for users to assign preferences (vote). I submit that voting should be on a non-linear scale --- say 1 (nice), 2 (very good), 4 (must!) --- to better reflect cardinal preferences, and include a "Don't care" box to prevent ordinal preferences from being swamped by cardinal preferences.

(7) Speed metrics for the skin as a whole and, if available, per-modification attribution of the differences.

PROPOSAL - Lite:

Sounds too complex? An alternative, lighter format would be a four-column table per skin, with format as follows:

• Column A: This is where my skin differs from stock Confluence or Confluence MOD (whichever is the case). Provide screenshot! Verbal explanation only if deemed necessary.
  
  
• Column B: This is the code which does the trick.
  
  
• Column C: Speed difference compared to stock Cofluence or Confluence MOD (whichever is the case)
  
  
• Column D: User Poll.
  
  

[DiMag]

ADDENDUM:

I wish to point out that the general skins screenshot gallery in the forum does not suffice to capture a skin's distinct characteristics. For example, I recently checked the relevant page where I found, among other skins, Convergence. Based on the screenshots listed there I would never have known how good Convergence is; never have chosen it as my favorite skin; indeed nor even have known that it offers a vertical home menu.

Fotonote @Mudislander: I stopped using Convergence exclusively the moment Confluence Lite Mod came out, which combined most of Convergence's mods with a lighter a faster skin, and I have tried but rejected Hybrid because it added to Convergence too many fade-outs and other visual effects which add nothing to functionality but subtract a lot from speed.

[DiMag]

List of skins which are Confluence MODs, including those that are Confluence MODs in all but name, in alphabetical order including stock Confluence:*

• Confluence [Jezz_X]
  
  
• Confluence Customizable Mod [Mudislander]
  
  
• Confluence-MOD Vol.2 [mad-max]
  
  
• Confluence-MOD Vol.2 [mad-max] - Brantje Edition [brantje]**
  
  
• Confluence-MOD Vol.2 [mad-max] - MARAmod edition [mad-max]**
  
  
• Confluence Modified [toiva]
  
  
• Hybrid [Mudislander]
  
  
• Hybrid Development [Mudislander]
  
  
• Mediastream Redux [Jezz_X]
  
  
• Neon [stoli] - "Night meets Aeon meets Confluence"
  
  

(*) I assume the Korean MODs refer only to language modifications, and Confluence PAL MOD [Jezz_X] only to a different screen resolution.

(**) I confess to being perplexed as to who the author of these two sub-mods is. Is it mad-max in both cases? In one of them? In none of them?

[Mudislander]

I'm not against the idea you suggest, problem would be maintaining it. These things always start off with a bang but become a chore to maintain.

I'd suggest that you'd have to kick it off & get the comparison up & running you don't have to be the skin's author to maintain something like this, the wiki guys may help with the layout providing they can be convinced that something like this would be beneficial to the end user.

Linking code to modifications would be unlikely to work as not all modifications are a few lines of code that can just dropped in place to make them work. You only have to look at the differences in "home.xml" code between Confluence & CCM. Every now and again you find someone has put up a small piece of code for some modification for others to cut n paste, but these only really work for the skin they were intended in it's default state. How many times have you seen someone asking for a line number to find out where to insert the code - could easily cause a disaster.

On a separate note - Convergence has been thinking about a come back as the vertical sister to Hybrid being horizontal

[DiMag]

@Mudislander:

Let us establish the point of least resistance. Suppose all moders were asked to submit a two-column table formatted thus:

• COLUMN A: This is where my skin differs visually from stock Confluence (or modded Confluence in the case of a sub-mod) : screenshots --- no description required. (But then screenshots of all differences. Not like in the skins page of the wiki, where as I mentioned in a previous post you cannot even make out that Convergence has a vertical menu structure).
  
  
• COLUMN B: This is how my skin differs in terms of speed from stock Confluence (or modded Confluence in the case of a sub-mod): speed metrics.
  
  

Would you provide (and update) these data for your skin?

[Mudislander]

Column A No problem, should be doing something like that anyway to tell users what to expect.

Column B Could prove to be problematic & may have to come from different sources (hardware owners) For example my system handles everything I code with ease which certainly does not help users running a low powered device

[Robotica]

I also miss the possibility to easily switch to an upnp client. This customized skin offers a solution (focussed on pi + openelec). But a setting for this would add a mode "upnp client".

[fernandovg]

I would make a poll asking Confluence users the features (that exists in CCM) and take some of them and add it to Confluence (after some analysis)

[DiMag]

I created my own mod because all the others mods had something that prevented me from using them. So joining forces is not going to happen because i'd lose total control over the skin. Plus, i still cannot properly skin.

Agree in toto, but my idea was not to force anybody do anything. It was to enable everybody to see what everybody else is doing, see what users consider best practice, and then do sometning or do nothing, but on the bases of better information.