Vladstudio Desktop Wallpapers

Wallpaper clocks - specs for software developers

If you have software related to desktop management, I encourage you to add WCZ support to your app - your users will get tons of nice desktops!

What your software should do with wallpaper clock

Your software should run in the background, take user-selected WCZ package, generate an image from this package with current time information, and set this image as desktop wallpaper, every minute.

What is WCZ

WCZ is "Wallpaper Clock Zip"-file. It is ZIP file containing the following files:

REQUIRED: OPTIONAL: All images will have the same dimensions.

WCZ settings (clock.ini)

CLOCK.INI EXAMPLE: 
[Settings]
name=Big Ben
width=800
height=600
author=Vlad Gerasimov
email=vladstudio@gmail.com
description=
homepageURL=http://www.vladstudio.com
downloadURL=test (NOT USED, IGNORE)
refreshhourinterval=12
hourimages=60
ampmenabled=0

[Animation] (NOT USED, IGNORE)

[WallpaperClock] (NOT USED, IGNORE)
Explanation of variables:

How wallpaper should be generated

Every minute program should calculate: current minute, hour, day, weekday, month, am/pm, zodiac sign, moon phase.

From these values, program takes appropriate PNG files from WCZ package, and overlays them into image from BG.JPG, generating new image.

Example: suppose we have 12:34 AM Monday 5 June, (that means zodiac is Gemini and moon phase... let it be 15 of 30 :-)). Program should compose image from the following files (in this order):

If any image does not exist in skin, simply skip it (without error).

Last step is: set generated image as desktop background.

More about HOUR0..HOUR59 images

you may be confused with my explanations of how to treat 'hour' images. Let me try to sum up the different scenarios of working with hour images.
----------
variant 1: clock.ini has That means that the skin includes hour0...hour59.png and you should rotate hour image every 12 minutes.
----------
variant 2: clock.ini has That means that the skin includes hour0...hour23.png and you should rotate hour image every 60 minutes.
----------
variant 3: clock.ini has That means that the skin includes hour0...hour23.png but you should only take hour0...hour12.png and rotate hour image every 60 minutes (0..12, then 1..11).
----------
variant 4: clock.ini has

Interface - tray icon menu

When user clicks (or right-clicks) tray icon, the following menu should appear:
Example:
devspecs3

"Change Wallpaper Clock" WINDOW

There should be a folder where all WCZ files are stored. "Change Wallpaper Clock" window should list all WCZ files.

Example:
devspecs1

"Options" window

Example:
devspecs2

Resources

TIP: Calculating moon phase

The function below may give you idea of calculating moon phase. 
{Function MoonAge                                      }
{Computes age of Moon (in days)                        }
{INPUT:                                                }
{       y - year                                       }
{       m - month                                      }
{       d - day                                        }
Function MoonAge(y,m,d:word):Extended;
const
     Moon_Orbit_Time  = 29.53058;
     Moon_Orbit_Speed = 4.867;
var
   j:LongInt;
   Age:Extended;
begin
     j:=JulianDay(y,m,d);
     Age := ( J+Moon_Orbit_Speed)/ Moon_Orbit_Time;
     Age := 2*(Age-Int(Age))-1;

     if Age < 0 then
        Age:=Moon_Orbit_Time*(1+Age/2)
     else
        Age:=Age*Moon_Orbit_Time/2;

     if Age>=29.53058 then Age := 0 ;
     result:=Age;
end;

Notes


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