Re: [ecco_pro] Re: Ecco+EE Memory Limits >>New Info

Friedhelm - This exchange information, beliefs and opinions is the interesting side of working with orphaned and undocumented software.   We are experiencing  typical nomenclature issues b/c reallity is forceing to us to use the same terms to describe different functions occurring under the same hood.  

All this leading to confusion about what 16 bit this or 8 bit that we are talking about. 

To (attempt to) clear things up:  When stating " You can create your own 8-bit channel, 16-bit channel or 32-bit channel gif or png program/desktop icon", you are correct for desktop Icons via shortcuts and for assinging Icons to recognized Windows files via the Windows operating system.  

What I am doing is different .....
I am working on Ecco's internal icons - the ones that show up on Ecco's toolbar and within its interface in general - such as the folders on the Folder tree or the blue Items bullets which turn to yellow & blue mini-folders when an Item or sub-Item is Locked.   Under EE, these can be changed by changing the bitmap files that have come zipped with every EE release.  The bitmaps supplied by Slang are all Ecco's v4 Icons plus an extended  table for additional 'adds' which have included for example the 'Lock' Icon. 

There is no way of knowing what Slang knew and didn't know about Ecco's internal "graphics engine" so maybe he thought it was only 16 color?.  (Please offer a more correct term for "graphics engine" if this is incorrect.  I've seen this nomenclature used in the past but am not married to it).  

But whatever part of Ecco's internal software that renders it's bitmapped graphics - be it a graphics engine or whatever -  that part fo Ecco in V1 and v2 and maybe v3 was likely 8bit 16 color b/c all Ecco's graphics were 8bit 16 color ... uber primitive by today's standards (it was Windows 3.0 color graphics spec.).   

**I believe this conclusion to be true based on the older and newer bitmaps stored within the Ecco exe.  I used ResourceHacker to look/see.**

EVERYONE:  Recently I learned I am human.  A hard pill to swallow.  By definition I'm prone to making mistakes and logically it follows I should be open to being corrected.    I am :)    Only thing is please be sure the correction is fact-checked.   If "what you know" has been passed down by the "Ecco elders" and you are repeating what you have been told, that is fine too.  But state the information as such so we don't think we've been told "gospel truth" when that is not the case.  

No one should feel bad.  This is the process when you are dealing with orphaned and undocumented software.  It is natural that as "we" discover more about Ecco, right and wrong conclusions will be made.  Soooooo...

 Turns out internally Ecco can render 256 color bitmaps, not just 16!!!!

Viola, things get prettier.   Only hitch is the 256 colors have to fall within a defined "pallet" so what graphics-type people do in this case is create an environment based on a "color scheme" ....  you stay within a certain range of "color tones".    Pretty much the same concept Interior Designers use.  

This is what I am doing with the EverEcco template.  If all goes will I'll have pics & actual Icons by end of today (Sunday).  However, if the home team loses, I may be in a bad mood and we'll all just have to wait until Monday :)

-Mark

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