It is truly amazing to realize just how many skins have been made or ported over to K-Meleon over the years. I've found skins going back to 0.7 and if not for a hard drive crash some years ago, I'd have my hands on even older ones.

All those years of skin development has resulted in a crazy patchwork of skins with the same names, but different icons, etc. You can find a skin where, say for instance, the RSS icon is different from one release to the next. If we could get them all together, perhaps those amongst us with a creative design gene can mix and match parts to get a better whole. Also I'd bet a small fortune that there are dozens of skins that have vanished into the ether that if found could enrich KM tremendously.

I bring this up now, because IMO KM 1.5 is a seminal release and deserves the best of everything that the K-Meleon Community has created over the past several years. There is a lot of great stuff out there that just needs to be compiled, recompiled, tweaked and just plain recovered!

N

I have a small cache of old K-Meleon resources, although I never was much of a skinner - Phoenity and sometimes Crystal suit me fine.

I can upload whatever I got, if your idea gets any support from the community.

foobarly,

All we need is someone here with a site and a willingness to put up skins. The only problem I see for that side of providing "stuff" for KM is whehter or not trademakr issues are addressed. Other stuff would be macros that people have developed over the years and which will need to be updated to the new macro language that kko wrote (kudos).

N

Guenter tried to make something similar to you like with skins but he had to quit because the original authors of some skins (Al for example) complained.

If that does not exist gives you thank your friend Al.

K-Meleon in Spanish

Cave: 1.5 may have altered picture support. Skins may need new graphics.

p. s. In December 2007 I had made installers and updated to K-Meleon 1.1.x the toolbars.cfg code of all skins from the wiki, my own past collections (I have used K-Meleon for many years) and most skins that have been online outside of our wiki ( friends e.g. desgas_2 gave me links).

Al was the only person that complained. From what he posted he owns only 1 icon set ( which he bought/payed ). For the rest he just claimed ownership without the original icon creators consent. That was most likely a violation of copy right (no matter whether someone has given it as a free icon or whether someone has only permitted the use in a free skin - You do not have the copyright and You cannot bar others from using it because You used it in a skin ).

And that is the crux - to do anything officially - You would need the original icon authors consent. Without doubt the original creators of the skins have asked and got positive answers. These permissions have vanished with the original PPL that made the original skins. So after Al complained I could not pretend that I did not know We need new permissions and we cannot simply update the code.

So far we have to use/update only free icons/skins. But most skins are badly documented in this aspect. You would not even know which are free and where to look.

Officially nobody can update anything without a go ahead from the original skin author (if he has a permission) or from the icon creator or You need free icons ( means: You must be able to prove - that they are free or that You have permission ). Trying to find and contact PPL that have created free icons years ago is consuming time without end.

For me it was easier=faster (my online time is limited) to create an icon set from scratch and optical primitives that require no copy right because I can draw them myself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2008 08:19PM by guenter.

Gunter,

Unlike past years, where I was more active, the last two years have been like hectic beyond belief. I have been running/owning a relatively well-received restaurant in a trendy neighborhood in Williamsburg Brooklyn. An interesting experience, to say the least, but one that has kept me busy for most of every day. No time to play with KM, unfortunately. And I do love my KM.

I think that Dorian is very close now to an official KM 1.5. This version imo is a seminal upgrade to the browser and I would really, really like it to get a wider audience than it has ever had in the past. One problem of course is that Seamonkey and FireFox have moved on to the next iteration of the Gecko engine, so we are playing catch up once again. But this version is really incredible. So much more can be done, from JuJu's extensions (which need imo to be expanded exponentially) to a more robust (if more stringent) macro language.

The skins are an easy place to start off with in terms of offering an appealing package that can "wow" us end users and the criticism types out there who light down for a time, express a quicky and usually quirky opinion and then move on to the next new thing on the world wide web.

It bears repeating that KM has one advantage over all the other Gecko browsers and that is its use of a macro scripting language instead of XUL/XPI extensions with all that software emulation overhead which makes them (all the varaiations on that XUL theme) slower inherently.

So, aside from the issue of copyright, I really, really would like us all to compile a list of ALL the skins that anybody/everybody can recall that have been adapted for KM. If memory serves, we truly do have an impressive collection of possible skins out there and as this version of KM has had some major improvements, all of those old skins probably need to be modified to work with it.

(and, as always, I am hopelessly partial to only one of those skins: "Early Blue" the original Mozilla Suite skin, discarded at the last moment in a frenzy of conformity by the designers who had a great skin and let it go bye bye in favor of a very grey and dull remake of the orignal Communicator skin <SIGH>.

And I know that there are old macros out there that do incredible things and I don't believe the Wiki has managed to archive that many of them. SO if anybody has anything macro related that you like, post them in messages here so they can be properly stored and reused.

THANKS for listening.

N



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2008 03:09AM by ndebord.

desga2,


Al has been a longtime user of KM. The fact that he is currently embroiled in a tif with some of us is a minor aside.

I forgive all who have been longtime lovers of K-Meleon. There will always be (and have been) serious disputes in the k-meleon community. This one is small in comparison to others and of course, the granddaddy of all, when Ulf went bye bye and the website went south too. For a time, we all were sweating bullets in the fear that KM had truly died. Before that I remember others, who have long passed from the message boards who were as combative as any of us who now patronize these messages, perhaps even more so and we both survived those major flames and made up after spats that make the current crop tame in comparison.

So if we are missing a theme or two over disputes, we can at least try to get the rest of them visible once again and even hope that, in time, the missing ones can also come back into the fold.

<just my two cents worth>

N



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2008 03:21AM by ndebord.

By the way :
Early Blue is one of the skins, that still work with 1.5 .
Put it into the skins folder and enable it in Preferences.
The toolbars are draggable whereever you want them.
Disable first privacy bar and bookmarks bar in the menu View
before starting to pull the toolbars around.
You can enable the bookmarks bar again then, and it will
appear in a fourth line.
After that lock the toolbars in the View menu.
The problem with updating old skins is the uncertainty
about copyrights, as Guenter mentioned.
It would be very welcome, if the original creators of the
old skins would give their explicit permissions to reuse
their work for adaptations.
This would make it possible to offer at least a basic stock
of selectable skins.
I ignore, if there are any skin creators left from old
times. Rapido may be one of them. If they don't use the
browser anymore, it may be difficult to find them.
Regards
Fred

Nick, I remember the possive review about Your place

Early Blue was updated and can be updated - Only minor thinks with some accels that changed spelling since the original. When they get the new form/spelling of the commands, all will run. The same is true for all skins. When You make the commands spelling identical to what is used now - then all skins will still work.

If You use an old skin and click an icon and nothing happens - the icon needs an update for its accel code - nothing more/nothing less.

p. s. The number of icons increased - so some really old skins do not have all the icons that are in use with e.g. Phoenity.

The newer the skin the more complete the icon set - as a rule of thumb.

It is tiresome/time consuming to find or make additional icons that look ok with the rest. And IMHO mostly not needed to add new icons because these old skins give You a feeling of nostalgia.

Just to let you konw, I've contacted the author of Phoenity a while ago. He said he would make a new skin for kmeleon but didn't hear from him since. It would be too bad to release 1.5 without a better looking skin.

I'm working in a new skin to my K-Meleon CCF ME version with new icon set Aura (by Phoenity author). This icons are very similar to Firefox 2 icons.
I havent't enought icons to official K-Meleon port.

K-Meleon in Spanish

Gunter & Fred,

<<Early Blue is one of the skins, that still work with 1.5 . >>

That would be the 1.1 version of Early Blue, yes?

I gotta find some time to work on learning stuff for KM 1.5. It seems as though each day I wake up to work, sleep and back to work again. <shrug>

N



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2008 08:15PM by ndebord.

Yes. & if clicking one icon does not work = replace its code with new code.

@ ndebord

For KM1.5b2, rename toolbars.cfg in the skin folder to toolbars.cfg-original,
and replace it with a new toolbars.cfg with the following content :
____________________________________________________________________

Main Bar(23,21) {

Back {
ID_NAV_BACK
Go back one page
toolhot.bmp[0]
toolcold.bmp[0]
tooldead.bmp[0]
}

Forward {
ID_NAV_FORWARD
Go forward one page
toolhot.bmp[1]
toolcold.bmp[1]
tooldead.bmp[1]
}

Stop {
ID_NAV_STOP
Stop loading this page
toolhot.bmp[2]
toolcold.bmp[2]
tooldead.bmp[2]
}

Reload {
ID_NAV_RELOAD|Reload Options
Reload page. Right-click for more options.
toolhot.bmp[3]
toolcold.bmp[3]
tooldead.bmp[3]
}

Home {
%ifplugin macros
macros(Home)|Home
Open Home Page or Startup Group. Right-click for more options.
%else
ID_NAV_HOME
Home Page
%endif
toolhot.bmp[4]
toolcold.bmp[4]
tooldead.bmp[4]
}

%ifplugin bookmarks|favorites|hotlist
Bookmarks {
%ifplugin bookmarks
bookmarks(Edit)|&Bookmarks
Edit Bookmarks. Right-click to view Bookmarks list.
%else
%ifplugin favorites
favorites(Edit)|F&avorites
Edit Favorites. Right-click to view Favorites list.
%else
%ifplugin hotlist
hotlist(Edit)|H&otlist
Edit Hotlist. Right-click to view the Hotlist.
%endif
%endif
%endif
toolhot.bmp[12]
toolcold.bmp[12]
tooldead.bmp[12]
}
%endif

History {
History(View)|History
View History. Right-click for more options.
toolhot.bmp[6]
toolcold.bmp[6]
tooldead.bmp[6]
}

Print {
ID_FILE_PRINT|Print
Print this page. Right-click for more options.
toolhot.bmp[7]
toolcold.bmp[7]
tooldead.bmp[7]
}

}


%ifplugin macros
Mail and News (23,21){

Mail{
macros(Mail_ReadMail)|&Mail And News
Read Mail. Right-click for more options
toolhot.bmp[14]
toolcold.bmp[14]
}



}
%endif


Search{

Search {
%ifplugin macros
macros(Search)|Web Search
Type a word or phrase in the URL bar, then click Search (Ctrl+G). Right-click to choose different search engine.
%else
ID_NAV_SEARCH
Search the Web
%endif
bonus.bmp[8]
bonus.bmp[8]
}

%endif

}


GO{

Go{
%ifplugin macros
macros(Go_Selected)|_Go
Go to URL. Right-click for more options.
%else
ID_NAV_GO
Go to URL
%endif
extras.bmp[6]
extras.bmp[6]
}

%ifplugin macros

Up{
macros(Go_Up)|_Up
Go up one directory level. Right-click for more options.
extras.bmp[7]
extras.bmp[7]
}
%endif

}


Tab/&Window Buttons{


New{
# Tabs:
ID_NEW_TAB
New Tab. Right-click for more options.
# No tabs:
# ID_NEW_BROWSER
# New Window
extras.bmp[1]
}

Close{
# Tabs:
ID_CLOSE_TAB|Close
Close Tab. Right-click for more options.
# No tabs:
# ID_FILE_CLOSE|Close
# Close Window. Right-click for more options.
extras.bmp[3]
}

}


Zoom{

Zoom In{
%ifplugin macros
macros(Zoom_In)|_Zoom_In
Zoom In. Right-click for more options.
%else
ID_FONT_INCREASE
Zoom In Text
%endif
%endif
menu.bmp[14]
}


Zoom Out{
%ifplugin macros
macros(Zoom_Out)|_Zoom_Out
Zoom Out. Right-click for more options.
%else
ID_FONT_DECREASE
Zoom Out Text
%endif
menu.bmp[15]
}

}



%ifplugin macros|privacy

&Privacy Bar(64,13){

%ifplugin macros


Cookies{
macros(pref_ToggleCookies)
Block Cookies
privhot.bmp[2]
privcold.bmp[2]
}

Images{
macros(pref_ToggleImages)
Block Images. Press F9 to toggle.
privhot.bmp[3]
privcold.bmp[3]
}

Java{
macros(pref_ToggleJava)
Block Java Applets
privhot.bmp[4]
privcold.bmp[4]
}

JavaScript{
macros(pref_ToggleJavaScript)
Block JavaScript. Press F7 to toggle.
privhot.bmp[5]
privcold.bmp[5]
}

Popups{
macros(pref_TogglePopups)
Block Popups. Press F8 to toggle.
privhot.bmp[6]
privcold.bmp[6]
}


%endif

%ifplugin privacy

Clear Cache{
privacy(ClearCache)
Clear Cache
privhot.bmp[8]
privcold.bmp[8]
}

Clear Cookies{
privacy(ClearCookies)
Clear Cookies
privhot.bmp[9]
privcold.bmp[9]
}



Clear Passwords{
privacy(ClearSignon)
Clear Passwords
privhot.bmp[11]
privcold.bmp[11]
}



%endif

%ifplugin macros & privacy
Clear All{
macros(kPrivacy_ClearAll)
Clear All
privhot.bmp[13]
privcold.bmp[13]
}
%endif

%ifplugin macros

Kill Flash{
macros(JS_killFlash)
Kill Flash Objects
privhot.bmp[14]
privcold.bmp[14]
}



User Agent{
ID_APP_ABOUT|&User Agent
Check Browser Identity. Right-click to choose different User Agent.
privhot.bmp[16]
privcold.bmp[16]
}


%endif

______________________________________________________________________________

Take care to create a file toolbars.cfg, and not toolbars.cfg.txt.
If you got that, rename it to toolbars.cfg after saving.

To make your homepage usable, copy and paste it as startpage.htm
into the K-Meleon main folder (where k-meleon.exe is),
write about:config into the URL bar, and when the preferences list
has opened, right click into the page, and select New > string.
A window will pop up asking for the preference name.
Write there: kmeleon.general.homePage .
When being asked to enter the string, write: resource:///startpage.htm
and click OK.
This should make this homepage stick.
Fred

P.S.
I hope that the bitmap names of your version are
corresponding, or else you would have to set in the
correct ones.
You could adapt this basically to any other old skin,
replacing the bitmap names with the corresponding
bitmap names of the respective skin.
Always take care to put the chosen skin in on the same
folder level as Phoenity is.

And a little correction:

For the button Search, replace in toolbars.cfg
macros(Search)|Web Search
with
macros(Search)|_Search_Engines
to make the other search engines usable by right clicking
on the button Search.

Fred

Since the Klassic skin is shipped with KM, can I assume that it is complete? I use it because the icons on the tool bar seem to have more meaning for me that any other skin that I have tried. I guess that I am just too old to change easily.

Does any one know who made Klassic? If it ever needed a minor change could permission be obtained for that?

Maybe skins should have a license.txt file to show who made the bmp files and whether they are copyrighted or open source.

The Problem is that the original creators of most skins did not think of such a license.txt that told future PPL about it. It is almost impossible to find info now - You would not even know where to search. PPL and their pages have moved/gone.

I have updated versions of skins from K-Meleon Wiki and other sources.
I probably updated toolbars.cfg of all skins available for download in 2007.

If anyone finds license info for icons or is the original creator of a skin that is updated. HE/SHE can send a mail to me and i will send the updated skin installer back. My updates are compatible with the 1.1.x K-Meleon versions. The recipient of an update/installer is free to use it privately or for new publication.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2008 09:47AM by guenter.

Quote
JamesD
Since the Klassic skin is shipped with KM, can I assume that it is complete?

Of course, everything else would be a bug.

Quote
JamesD
Does any one know who made Klassic?

Various people. It was already used in K-Meleon 0.2, the first version that was published here on SourceForge by Christophe Thibault (almost 8 years ago). The throbber was made by Frédéric Toussaint. But I don't know anything about the origin of the icons - that was not documented. The icon set has grown over the years together with the skin system until it reached its current state in K-Meleon 0.9 (no new icons were added since).

Quote
JamesD
If it ever needed a minor change could permission be obtained for that?

Who is meant to obtain permission from whom and what for?

Officially, I have no permission to give you permission if you mean that. But on your own computer you can anyway do what you want. You just need permission when you want to distribute something...

Quote
JamesD
Maybe skins should have a license.txt file to show who made the bmp files and whether they are copyrighted or open source.

Exactly. But as guenter says...

Several good Firefox themes seem to have known creators
and could be adapted for K-Meleon, if their
creators would approve.

Pinball -- Joachim Schellen -- Johannes@epost.de or his safety address from his site: http://mozilla-themes.schellen.net/firefox.html
EarlyBlue -- Robert Kaiser -- KaiRo@KaiRo.at
Orbit -- Chris Neale/Kent Thuresson -- site: http://orbits.mozdev.org/


Contacting them could be a way to have more licensed skins available.

Fred

and also :

Nautipolis -- Alfred Kayser -- site: at g eocities /alfredkayser/mozilla/
Smoke -- Aaron Spuler -- themes@spuler.us
Low Fi -- Gashu -- info@gashu.org

Many more themers can be found through the site

http://themes.mozdev.org/themeSites.html

Fred

@Fred,

I do not doubt that PPL can still find some makers of icons.

Many K-Meleon themes are based on or come via MyIE / Maxton themes. And PPL may want to contact those that did the port to *.bmp - which were (and still are immidiately usable by K-Meleon skinners?

p.s. Anyone that finds out a skin with free copy right or gets the permission by the maker of a skin or its icons can get the updated skin installer for it.

Klassic Skin is by courtesy of Microsoft Any past dev that had VC ( You need VC to compile K-Meleon ) has had the copy right to Klassic.

The basic first 15 icons come most likely from a little browser shell sample shipped with some versions of VC. I have seen and recompiled it with a free edition of VC98 which I found on a CD of a 2001 PC Magazin issue. The shell is sometimes called mfcie and it is AFAIK the ancestor of Mozilla's MFCembed and thus K-Meleon.

If You find a Klassic icon set with 330X20 pixels bmp - You have found the original 15 K-Meleon icons.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2008 03:26PM by guenter.

Fred,

Much thanks. I've done as you said and it works fine. I really appreciate this.

N

Fred,

A couple of entries from older Early Blue:

News{
macros(Mail_ReadNews)
Read News
toolhot.bmp[10]
toolcold.bmp[10]
}

RSS{
macros(RSS)
Read RSS Feeds
toolhot.bmp[10]
toolcold.bmp[10]
}

N

Fred,

I've put Early Blue into KM 1.5RC0 now and made one change.

FYI. In the Early Blue skin, the RSS button uses the wrong bmp (10). Change it to 22 and you'll be far happier imo!

<g>


OLD

RSS{
macros(RSS)
Read RSS Feeds
toolhot.bmp[10]
toolcold.bmp[10]
}

NEW

RSS{
macros(RSS)
Read RSS Feeds
toolhot.bmp[22]
toolcold.bmp[22]
}

With this change, you get the RSS logo in the icon that someone came up with (attribution???) and it looks better.

Thanks again.

N



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2008 04:32PM by ndebord.

Good to hear that you can use the Early Blue skin
in KM 1.5 .I know that it has always been your favorite
and I like it too.

Fred

Fred,

Yes, I'm a fanboy for Early Blue, from way back when it was used with Mozilla Suite when it was the pre-release favorite, unfortunately dumped when they got overly cautious and went back to the old, old, (dull) Communicator skin.

N