I want to play on Saturn!

In case you missed it, Nikhil has posted a screenshot of the new Web Matrix.  Looks pretty cool, but I'm wondering about the theming comment.  Now, is web matrix simply taking advantage of the built in windows theme, or are they doing something magical to give their app a new theme. 

My guess is the old watercolor theme from some of the Whistler builds makes a comeback in Longhorn.  If you are curious, you can download a hacked together theme from TweakXP.  Note, the copy from TweakXP isn't for the weak of heart.  It involves replacing your uxtheme.dll in recover mode with a version hacked out to enable custom themes...

[Phil Scott's WebLog]

I wouldn't call it magic, but if you look through the code using Reflector then you will notice that they have an entire managed UI framework (codename Saturn) with all kinds of bells and whistles.  There are all kinds of goodies like the syntax editing control, enhanced versions of nearly every single Windows.Forms control, XP style menus and toolbars, etc, etc.  Basically, Web Matrix is their playground for cool stuff and we are not allowed to play.  :-(  It's very obvious that they have spent a ton of time building this framework out.  It would be awesome if we could play too!

3 Comments

  • Maybe I'll finally get my wish - it's not even a big one.





    I want Microsoft to let us have the controls they used to build Visual Studio. Studio has nice tabs and menus - why do I have to turn to 3rd party software to get the same look?

  • I believe Saturn was the old code name for Web Matrix. But that still doesn't mean we should be able to play with some smooth UI features.

  • Yes, I am using the Watercolor theme on XP. It just happens to suit my tastes better. Web Matrix just picks up the theme you have chosen for your desktop now.





    The controls or UI framework referred to are essentially extensions to existing Windows Forms controls... some with very minor improvements, and others with more stuff. Some of them should be usable in add-ins, and other plugins for Web Matrix. Speaking of Visual Studio UI components in the comment above, these were built using native code, and therefore aren't the managed Windows Forms controls that you'd be able to automatically use.





    Btw, speaking to the use of Reflector... Web Matrix comes with a class browser too! ;-) I know Lutz - he's just down the hallway and we have interesting discussions from time to time about our two classbrowsers...

Comments have been disabled for this content.