Quinto Black CT

[ariszlo]

Quinto Black CT v4.4 is available at its new home: https://quinto-black-ct.info

• You will need to remove any previous versions of Quinto before installing this version.
• Change the installation path to WACUP's Skins folder in the installer.

[Aminifu]

Hi,

Do I also have to remove the studio.xnf file?

Dro has changed the format of the studio.xnf file. This makes it much harder to manually enter the configuration info for other modern skins that have not changed. I really like Quinto Black CT, but I use other modern skins and it is very inconvenient to have to reconfiguration the arrangements of these skins every time Quinto Black CT is updated.

[dro]

Eh? I've not changed the format of that file afaict since it's still being written out by the gen_ff plug-in (which is the part I hook into to be able to make a backup of the file but it's format shouldn't be different otherwise things wouldn't be able to be read back in correctly). I would like to change the format so per-skin aspects are stored in their own files (but that brings problems with some that re-use the same values for some of the switching modes like bento to big bento) but that's not something I'm going to try to hack around whilst still using gen_ff.

Peter's stance on the studio.xnf removal requirement has always been at the detriment of any other modern skins which is somewhat selfish for those that do swap & change their skins or like to customise them from default which ironically imho also impedes using his skin vs any customisations that may have been made by the user.

If it's a key requirement when installing that skin, why isn't the installer force removing it? Since that's what an installer can help facilitate even if from numerous experience, people don't like their settings being screwed around with but if it's an install requirement then so be it.

[ariszlo]

Do I also have to remove the studio.xnf file?

I don't know but as far as I can judge probably not.

[Aminifu]

Eh? I've not changed the format of that file afaict since it's still being written out by the gen_ff plug-in (which is the part I hook into to be able to make a backup of the file but it's format shouldn't be different otherwise things wouldn't be able to be read back in correctly).

...

A few beta versions ago, the line breaks in the file in my configuration changed. I assumed you were responsible for it. This is another reason why it is never good to assume. I think I can find around the date it happened if you want to know. I think it was when the backup copy first appeared. I made a copy of the file with the old line breaks format. I can post a copy of both, if it would help you see what I'm talking about.

[dro]

Line breaks in the file shouldn't have changed as that's not something I can see my hooking is touching. As all that does is hook the call used to open the file, see if it's the studio.xnf file, make a backup of the current file & then let things continue as if I wasn't there . Nor should a line break change be affecting things in usage as the xml library afaict doesn't care if they're \r or \n or \r\n & just loads the file. So no I don't think I need to see a copy of the file & depending on what you're using to compare file differences, there probably is an option to change things to ignore line break differences (e.g. winmerge has such an option).

[Aminifu]

Hi dro,

Studio.xnf without the previous line breaks has been working normally. Thank you for responding to this thread and the text editor suggestion. I've been using notepad for my manual editing of studio.xnf, when needed. I can use another text editor to deal with the change of line breaks.

I removed the studio.xnf.backup file between WACUP sessions. It was recreated after the next session. As you know, studio.xnf is updated after a session if needed, like if the modern skin was changed during the session. Both studio.xnf and the backup file now appear to have no line breaks. Without the line breaks, it takes longer to find sections in the file when I need to edit stuff. I seldom need to edit stuff (since I seldom change the modern skins I'm using), so having to take more time was not a problem, more of a minor nuisance.

It is best not to manually edit the file anyway. I have learned over the years that if not very careful, it is easy to mess it up.

[Aminifu]

Do I also have to remove the studio.xnf file?

I don't know but as far as I can judge probably not.

Hi ariszlo,

As dro stated, it has been a long standing requirement to remove the studio.xnf file and let it be re-built when updating Quinto Black CT. It would be nice if that was no longer needed.

Do you have a way of directly contacting Peter? I tried via the last email address I have for him. No reply as far.

[ariszlo]

Hi Aminifu,

I only have the email address from Quinto's skin.xml that you also have.

[Aminifu]

Hi ariszlo,

Thank you for the info.

I had already installed Quinto Black CT v4.4 for Winamp after deleting the v4.3 folders. I still have Winamp installed, mostly for nostalgia. I deleted the Winamp studio.xnf file before running v4.4 for the first time.

I installed v4.4 for WACUP today after deleting the v4.3 folders. I did not remove the WACUP studio.xnf file, but I did delete it's skin section for v4.3 before running v4.4 for the first time.

So far the v4.4 skin works fine on Winamp and WACUP. I do see one difference from v4.3. I use the album cover flow feature. If I position the feature's window with it's background visible and then hide the background when switching skins or ending a session, the window returns to it's default position when switching back or starting a new session. If I leave the background visible, the position I put the window in stays the same. I was able to hide the window's background in v4.3 when switching skins or starting a new session without affecting the position I put in window in. I don't know if this is a bug or a  change in the way the feature works. Either way, it's a minor thing.

I prefer to run Milkdrop in a window behind the album cover flow albumart instead of it's normal background.

[ariszlo]

So far the v4.4 skin works fine on Winamp and WACUP. I do see one difference from v4.3. I use the album cover flow feature. If I position the feature's window with it's background visible and then hide the background when switching skins or ending a session, the window returns to it's default position when switching back or starting a new session. [...] I don't know if this is a bug or a  change in the way the feature works.

IMO, it's a bug but I'm not sure PeterK. reads this forum. He would probably fix it if you mentioned it at the Winamp forum or sent him an email about it.

[Aminifu]

Yeah, PeterK. is not happy with dro or the moderator at Winamp. I can quickly reposition the cover flow window if it changes, so I'll live with it for now.

[ariszlo]

This is what I have found. If you move Album Cover Flow after you have hidden its background then it will remember the position. It will only go back to the default position if you first move it and then hide the background.

[Aminifu]

That appears to work! As I've said before, you're the man!

Thank you for your research and figuring this out.