Color Picker Panel for Desktop Sidebar

Version 3.2, released on February 27th, 2006.

DOWNLOAD (from the Extension Exchange)

Version 3.2 includes (February 27th, 2006):

• This version was developed by kdam who fixed a bug in the details window which crashed DS when using the panel in builds 109+.

Version 3.1 includes (June 14th, 2005):

• Fixed a bug reported by antu^jamban concerning the settings' saving mechanism.

Version 3.0 includes (April 25th, 2005):

• Cross in the center of the zoom box, to indicate the mouse cursor.
• Details window has a link to open the Windows' color chooser (thanks to KeithI ).
• Details window is auto-pinning.
• Flickering is reduced.
• Change the update frequency of the panel. Values are in milliseconds: 1000 ms = 1 second.
• Memory optimization.

Version 2.3 includes:

• Resizing of the zoom box - independent from the color box size.
• Fixed a little problem with the installation - not something serious.

Version 2.2 includes:

• Zooming, including change of the zooming rate.
• Resizing of the color box.
• Click on the state line changes the panel state from locked to unlocked and reversal.

Version 2 includes:

• New rectangle with the color of the hovered pixel and the former selected color.
• New display of locked / unlocked.
• New Details Window with the last five selected colors.
• Improved resource usage.
• The panel saves its status and the last picked color.
• Fixed a bug when moving a panel, the hotkeys stop functioning.
• Panel adds fields also when it's locked.

You may need to restart your computer after installation. This is not very clear right now, and I'd like to hear reports about the installation.
Special thanks to antu^jamban, my beta-tester and main ideas-creator and GoMa and Keith who helped me alot with bug fixes.

IMPORTANT: If you upgrading from version 1.0 or 1.1 please restart DS and Windows after the panel installation, since a GDI leak has been discovered in the previous versions.

Version 1.5 new features:

• Fixed a bug in the hot keys feature.
• A new hot key (Win + C) for copying the panel content - similar to clicking on the panel.

Version 1.3 new features:

• Details window is now updating together with the panel itself, as requested. Special thanks for GoMa for telling me how idiot I am.

Version 1.2 new features:

• Fixed a GDI objects leak, which causes very strange bugs in DS and Windows. Please, UDGRADE to the new version as soon as possible.
• German translation has been added thanks to chrisskhc.

Version 1.1 new features:

• Panel defines unique strings for translations - fix the conflict with How Long Until panel.
• New panel format - 16-bit integer as requested.

Translators - pay attention! The new version changes some dslang values.

Panel features:

• Shows RGB values of the pixel which your mouse is hovering on.
• Shows Hexdecimal value (for HTML developers).
• Shows the mouse coordinates.
• Details window shows the RGB values, the hex value and a box which is covered with the selected color.
• Pressing WinKey + Z will stop updating the panel. Pressing again will refresh it.
• When clicking on the panel, RGB value or Hex value is copied to the clipboard (user can choose the RGB format).
• Multilingual panel.

I want to thank mattisking for examining the panel and helping me.

Any suggestions, requests and feedbacks will be gladly accepted.

Have fun!

there is sth bad with this link, i.e. it doesn't work

Not my problem
Maybe Neil knows what the problem is.

Remove the link and then add it again.

Already tried.

Meanwhile put a link to the File Forum and add the new version to there.

It still doesn't work.

How did you do it? I can't believe that even the File Forum doesn't work with it. Try to change the name of the dspackage and see if it still do it. I have no idea why this happens.

Strange!

That's exactly like this emoticon:
Someone tries to prevent you from distrobuting this panel Just kidding.

Nada for me as well.

Not if you change the xml file. You should read my explanation about how to create an instalation file for a panel in the SDK forum You should change $PACKAGE to the name of you panel. That way you can change the dspackage name however you want.

Sure, but I'm lazy.

Ok, I just tried to help. Have you already asked Neil ?

I changed first post. It works now.

Neil, why does the forum reject colorpicker.dspackage?

I ment that you should have send him a PM but nevermind.
It works but it doesn't add the panle after installation. (Maybe I did something wrong).

There are also some problems with the properties menu. You should check it.

Nice panel. I just wish it could show the selected color inside the panel and not in the details window.

What's the issue? The panel downloaded and installed perfectly for me.

I submitted here a file called "colorpicker.dspackage".
When people started to d/l it, they got "page not found" error.
Now I changed the file name, and everything's OK.

Okay...I got it. Prism - Note when I added it, the panel title was How Long Until Panel.

Beautiful little panel. Now I can design my windows for certain resolutions by looking at the cursor position.

A request: One of the programming languages I use requires colours to be specified this way: (65536 * Blue) + (256 * Green) + (Red)

Can you add that as a display option or better yet (although more complicated) allow the user to enter a calculation and display the results of that calculation?

One bug....
When I select all the options (show RGB, show HEX, and show position), only the last selected item gets shown. For example, if I check RGB and screen coordinates, only the X and Y values are shown.

Otherwise, the detailwindow display is very nice. The Win+Z key feature is great as well. Nice job. Like I_M said, when you add the panel, it has the name "How Long Until Panel" by default. I think you forgot to change it in the SetCaption method....Well done!

Very nice!
One option I would like to see though is when you pin the details window, its values (and the preview) will change. Right now when you pin the details window and move your mouse, the value stays the same.

Concerning the How Long Until panel name - I think it's DS bug.
My panel use this code in order to set the caption:

Did you install the How Long Until panel?

I think so, I'll check when I get home.
EDIT: Yes, I have the How Long Until installed.

Could you please launch Color Picker, and then launch How Long Until?

If I do that, I see "Color Picker" as the caption of HowLongUntil. When I remove the ColorPicker HowLongUntil still stays with its wrong caption. If I then add another HowLongUntil, it has "Color Picker" as its caption as well.
If I then remove them both, and add another HowLongUntil, it still displays as "Color Picker". If I add a ColorPicker, it's displayed as "Color Picker" (not "How Long Until"). The captions do not change when I restart DS.

I think that DS loads the dslang files, and stores in memory all the messages.
For example, my both panels use "PanelName" message in different dslang files.
If DS loads the How Long Until panel first, it'll use its "PanelName" message, instead of the same message in the right dslang file.

I think that DS should load the messages only from the dslang file which is specified in the dsplugin file, and not refer to previous loaded dslang files.

You're right with your explanation I think.
It's like DSSKIN - you have to name your items, for example, ColorPicker.Item1, instead of just Item1, to ensure there are no conflicts with other panels.
Look at the main language file - the panel specific object are named panelName.actionName.

I think I'll release the panel again.
However, IMHO, it should be fixed.

I think you should call it "Combined integer values", not sure though.
P.S.
Neil, are you sure it's not (65536 * Blue) | (256 * Green) | (Red) (bitwise OR instead of addition)?

The app in question is PowerBuilder.

GoMa: Yes. (65536 * Blue) + (256 * Green) + (Red) gives a unique integer value for any 16-bit colour.

So to prevent misunderstandings - let's take (200, 100, 50) as an example.

You say that the calculation should be like this:

65536 * 50 + 256 * 100 + 200 = 3276800 + 25600 + 200 = 3302600.

Am I right?

Well, here's a known issue:
If you stop the panel from refreshing, and then change the information which it'll show, the panel won't update the view.
Therefore, before changing anything please check if the panel is in refreshing mode.

it is most certainly updating

little-hacker version
(Blue << 0x10) + (Green << 0x08) + (Red)
anyway in hex such calculations look less complicated

U see decimal numbers and multiply operation, but look at it like on bits and shift operation - it really looks less complicated and is much easier to understand

Here is what it looks like...(Unrelated, the panel properties dialog has the "How Long Until" caption as well)