phoenix splash screen?

saberunit02 · Post by **saberunit02** » November 19th, 2002, 11:34 am

Anyone know how to enable the splash screen at startup for phoenix?

seb · Post by **seb** » November 19th, 2002, 11:44 am

As far as I know, there is no splash screen at all for Phoenix, and I don't think it's really needed.

saberunit02 · Post by **saberunit02** » November 19th, 2002, 11:53 am

Personally, it just feels awkward to click on my phoenix shortcut and not receive a visual response that I actually clicked on it. It seems like the program is not responding when in fact it is. Plus, I would like to create a customized splash screen just like I have for mozilla.

thenightfly42 · Post by **thenightfly42** » November 19th, 2002, 12:45 pm

For those systems where there is a pause before launching, this would be beneficial. This way we know that the mouseclick worked. I'd like a splashscreen option.

flii · Post by **flii** » November 19th, 2002, 2:14 pm

i have mixed feelings about this, but after sorting through all possible solutions in my mind, i realized that only four things (that i can think of, anyway) let the user know something is happening:

1. splash screen
2. mouse changes to hourglass (or your theme's equivalent)
3. program actually pops right up
4. empty bar that fills in as something is downloading/installing (n/a in this case)

i know there are probably more, but that's all the common ones i'm finding atm. phoenix doesn't give the splash screen, doesn't change my mouse to the waiting icon (at least for me), and doesn't pop right up, either. i know several times i have almost clicked on the phoenix button again because i thought i must have misclicked.

would putting in an (optional!) splash screen make the browser size much larger? i know trimming the download size is a major goal.

thenightfly42 · Post by **thenightfly42** » November 19th, 2002, 2:34 pm

Flii wrote:would putting in an (optional!) splash screen make the browser size much larger? i know trimming the download size is a major goal.

I'm thinking just a small box, reusing the Icon file that already exists, and plain text for the browser name and maybe a build number.

flii · Post by **flii** » November 19th, 2002, 3:00 pm

well, what i meant by making the browser size much bigger was the actual code they'd need to put in the browser to make a splash screen of any sorts pop up.

saberunit02 · Post by **saberunit02** » November 19th, 2002, 3:01 pm

Nevermind, I figured out how to enable the splash screen. You need a bmp called phoenix.bmp in your phoenix.exe directory. Next, you add "-splash" at the end of your windows shortcut path to enable it (e.g. "C:\programs\browsers\phoenix0.4\phoenix.exe -splash"). mozilla had a similar option with "-nosplash" to disable the splash screen. So I figured that I give "-splash" a try and it worked.

flii · Post by **flii** » November 19th, 2002, 3:03 pm

oooh now that's a GREAT idea. those who don't want it don't have to dl it, and those that wanted it in the first place can create the custom ones they wanted.

i'm glad you found that! *runs off to edit her shortcut button*

mesostinky · Post by **mesostinky** » November 19th, 2002, 3:28 pm

I personally don't see the need for a splash screen. First off IE doesn't have one, and I'd be willing to bet if you took a poll most people who use Phoenix are coming from IE. Second, Phoenix launchs pretty quickly even on an older machine its hardly a long period of time like the old M series of Mozilla builds.

mfk · Post by **mfk** » November 19th, 2002, 3:36 pm

Only bloated programs use splash screens; they are absolutely useless. The whirring of the HD, the HD access LED, and the hourglass icons are sufficient cues to indicate that a program is being loaded.

Post by **djst** » November 19th, 2002, 3:37 pm

Flii wrote:oooh now that's a GREAT idea. those who don't want it don't have to dl it, and those that wanted it in the first place can create the custom ones they wanted. i'm glad you found that! *runs off to edit her shortcut button*

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the developers remove this feature eventually, because the code that checks for phoenix.bmp probably slows down the startup process a bit. Or let me rephrase that: I hope that the developers remove this, because I just want Phoenix to start as fast as possible!

darksheer · Post by **darksheer** » November 19th, 2002, 3:39 pm

agreed....all a splash screen does is add time to the loading process.

You guys want phoenix to load quickly...why waste processor time and about 500k of ram to load (of all things) a BMP file!

flii · Post by **flii** » November 19th, 2002, 4:18 pm

lol well like i said, i had mixed emotions about the splash screen. however, when loading phoenix i still have a little time to wait before it pops up, and i like the small splash i stuck on there. however, i most definately agree that it should be null when phoenix loads so fast we're all amazed that it didn't psychically realize we were going to push the phoenix button, it loaded so fast. (well, that's *my* hope anyway. :-P

)

scratch · Post by **scratch** » November 19th, 2002, 4:20 pm

mesostinky wrote:I personally don't see the need for a splash screen. First off IE doesn't have one, and I'd be willing to bet if you took a poll most people who use Phoenix are coming from IE. Second, Phoenix launchs pretty quickly even on an older machine its hardly a long period of time like the old M series of Mozilla builds.

Actually, IE *does* have a splash screen on systems where it's not already loaded (no active desktop). Try IE without Active Desktop on Win95 or WinNT4 and you'll see the (ugly) splash screen. The only reason it doesn't have one on other systems is because it's already loaded and just needs to open a new window, which takes almost no time.