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Written by Specimen
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Nov 19, 2005 at 07:52 AM |
Hello and welcome to Stangmedia. What is Stangmedia? Well it’s a new software frontend system dedicated to in car computers. These systems have many different names ranging from CarPCs, Infotainment Systems, Carputers, etc. If you installed a computer in your car, you’ll find the selection for Software Frontends are quite limited. Although things are growing at a fast rate, you’ll either find a free Frontend riddled with bugs, or you’ll end up purchasing a Software Frontend. Why would you pay over a hundred dollars for a frontend program when you probably started this project because you didn’t want to pay over $2,000 for a complete system? We’ve all been there. That is why my Software will be free.
So why is my frontend better than the rest? Well at the moment it’s not because it’s not completed yet. But I have been developing this for a good 3 years now and I have the design down solid. What makes my frontend so unique is the plugin architecture I developed for it. Everything is a plugin and anything can be added to the Software with a plugin. The GUI Controls are plugins, the Transition and Graphic Effects are plugins, the System Level Controls are plugins, well you get the idea. But the best part of all is that any plugin can communicate with any other plugin without having to write code or scripts. For an example, if you have a sliding control that you want to control volume, you just link that control to the Volume Control Plugin. The plugins aren’t just limited to GPS, MP3, DVD controls and such. The plugin architecture allows any type of control. If you have a custom hardware widget you made with its own software, you can create a plugin for it. This allows for expandability to anything that needs a Frontend. TIVO systems, Home Automation, Kiosks, Touch Screen Cash Registers, etc.
Stangmedia also comes with an SDK (Skin Development Kit). This is what’s taking most of my time. Instead of forcing users to write Skins with .ini files and manually typing every button location (23, 456, 76, 89), I’m developing the SDK to create Skins through a GUI. This allows the user to create Skins quickly and allows modifications to existing skins. No more asking the Skin Author to release the Photoshop files. All controls contain their own images that you may resize, reposition, or even replace with your own images. Just imagine a frontend world of overlapping transparent and alpha blended buttons that do not have to be square! Yep that’s right, Stangmedia can use BMP, ICON, GIF, JPEG, Exif, PNG, TIFF, WMF, and EMF images. Plus you can create a Mask to make your control any odd shape you can think of. The Skins are also free form creation so you can have ANY type of Form page with ANY controls on it. These Skins don’t force you to have a Back Button or a Home Button that’s locked on all your pages. And the pages are not specific to a GPS page or a MP3 page, you don’t specify what the page is, you just add the controls you want on it.
Ok, so here comes the questions, if you are still interested in this project and you have a ton of questions, first go to the FAQ section and see if I haven’t answered your question already. If not you may E-mail me by going to the contacts section.
Write Comment (7 comments) |
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Last Updated ( Jan 08, 2008 at 07:02 PM )
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Written by Specimen
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Nov 19, 2005 at 07:25 AM |
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If you would like to help me develop Stangmedia please drop me a line by going to the contacts link and sending me an e-mail. I need people to help make plugins which includes GUI controls, regular controls, GUI effects, and transitional effects. I am also looking for a graphics artist to help make a skin or help port an existing skin to my platform.Write Comment (6 comments) |
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Last Updated ( Jan 08, 2008 at 05:37 PM )
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