Meet Chris Scott, creator of DashBoard

Let's get to know a little more of Chris Scott who is the creator of DashBoard, a Skinable PIM/Launcher for the handheld Pocket PC.
Take a look at a few screenshots before we move on to the interview...

The first DashBoard Skin is by the Community Skinners and is called "Formula One" which can be downloaded at http://www.deviantart.com/ The second DashBoard skin is by Neil Faulkner and is called "Chimera" which can be downloaded at http://ceskins.com/skins/neilskins.html

If you own a Pocket PC and want to color your world this is one of the hottest ways to accomplish that! read on...

Tek: Chris I have found you from being a user AND a skinner of your program called "DashBoard" I only know how fun and great of a program it is to me, however can you tell the Readers a little bit more about what DashBoard is from a Programmers POV (Point of view)?

To me, Dashboard represents the fun side of programming. It's hard to describe the excitement of taking something from inspiration to creation - programmers and artisans/craftsmen are really one in the same thing and Dashboard allowed me the ability to play both roles at the same time. Also, being able to create a program that can be stretched and twisted beyond its basic creation is really exciting. With a simple text file, skinners can create a virtual masterpiece of personalization for people's devices - far beyond the simplistic things that I initially imagined. Also, with a bit of C expertise, programmers have the ability to push Dashboard into new realms via the modular plug-in architecture of the program.

I'd have to say that I was inspired with the idea for Dashboard and found myself fortunate enough to have the talents to bring it to life. With the help of some key beta testers and some great input from the user community, Dashboard has blossomed into what it is today.

I purposefully limited the initial beta testing for Dashboard. Here are a few names that people may recognize from the PocketPC community that helped shape Dashboard's initial release - I must apologize in advance if I leave anyone out because there have been so many tremendous people helping to shape this program:

Jason provided a ton of great feedback on the initial beta's and was the only beta tester that wanted me to sign an NDA so he could send me screenshots... :)

As a fellow Christian, Dale provides me with the inspiration and moral support to keep the faith and not deviate from the path laid out for me no matter how difficult that may sometimes become. Also, Dale was instrumental in helping to promote my first (crude) attempts at skinning the Windows Media Player for Windows CE. My graphical visions have never materialized with as much clarity as my programming... :)

Larry has hung in there through all of the modifications to the initial skin parser and continues to put out a great skin designer program with his Skin Me product.

And finally, I really appreciated most of all the contributions of Alex Kac (http://www.pocketinformant.com/), Scott Seligman (http://www.scottandmichelle.net/scott/cestuff.html) and Timothy Tripp (http://www.voscorp.com/) and all the other Windows CE/PocketPC programmers who help make the community so enjoyable by continuously providing great advice and help.

Tek I have experienced the excitement on the boards when Dashboard is releasing newer versions, how does this make you feel? nervous, excited, what?

Haha - yes it can be a little bit nerve-wracking at times. I'm happy that Dashboard brings so much enjoyment to everyone but I must confess I always sit there with my mouse on the 'Send' button for a few minutes each time I'm about to send out the update notice - pondering the ramifications of what I'm about to do. I think the word that I'm looking for is probably 'overwhelming'...

As you might guess, I am unable to discuss these at this time. Let's just say that Dashboard is growing and maturing each day. Another side of this is that sometimes I really don't know where it may go. Take Landscape mode for instance, when Jimmy released his Landscape program, I really had to scramble to put in support for it. When WISBar hit the scene, it seemed like a natural extension of the program to support it. Also, I'm sure everyone can guess the normal feature lists of better Mail support, more skin enhancements, more customization of the skin and UI, etc...

Tek: What do you think of the Skinz that are being created for DashBoard? are they helping DashBoards popularity? Do you use the Skinner's Skinz?

I can't say enough good things about the skins that are being created for Dashboard. There are some exceptionally talented people out there creating some fantastic skins! Naturally, the skins help push the popularity of Dashboard and the more skins the better since people like to have variety. I'm trying to come up with some creative ways to help pay back the Skinners for all their hard work and dedication. I do use the Skinners Skinz and I usually load every skin sent to me onto my device for a trial run (and to get screenshots when they're not provided). I try to test out all the Skinz to insure that they function properly before posting them to the web site. It can be quite time consuming...

Tek: What about the DashBoard plug ins called "My Dash" can you explain briefly for the readers what exactly they are? =)

The MyDash view has always been in the program. The initial intent was to let the users vote on what they wanted to have coded into that view. As usually happens, that certainly wasn't the way it turned out. As time went by, I realized that I couldn't possibly provide all the great features that users would want for Dashboard, so I decided to allow other developers to "plug-in" to the MyDash view via a published API spec. That way, I could spend my time on the other areas. Eventually, I decided that developers should be allowed to code for any Dashboard view and not just the MyDash view. In the future, users could eventually have a variety of Agenda plug-ins to choose from or Launcher plug-ins, etc...

Development on that end is starting to take shape. It's helping now that the API is more mature and less likely to change radically from what it is today. I'm hoping that there will be a few more modules released this year to give users some more options in this area.

Tek: How does Jimmy's Landscape program effect DashBoard in regards to it's development? (Tek Readers this is a program that launches Dashboard in the Landscape mode giving it a Horizontal view rather than a Vertical view, *see screenshot up above*)

Landscape support was always on the drawing board for various reasons, but wasn't a real high priority until Jimmy released his program. I think the tight integration between Dashboard and Jimmy's Landscape is a great benefit to everyone.

Tek: Do you see the Landscape program effecting other Skinable apps? I think so myself it makes us skinners have to skin sideways now! hehehehe

Haha - yep, and it's a can be quite a challenge to do this too. I'm still trying to come up with an easier way to convert skins to Landscape, but it's hard to handle it automatically without sacrificing the display quality of the skin images. With the small real-estate of the PocketPC, it really helps when a skin is designed from the ground up for Landscape and Portrait modes separately.

I have a few ideas rolling around in my head for some more stuff, but I imagine that I'd release them as plug-ins potentially rather than completely new skinable apps. That's one of the great features of the plug-ins is the ability to have the interface skinned without having to write any of the code.

As it is now though, Dashboard and it's maintenance, improvements, support and distribution takes about 110% of my time.

I think it's great! I look at every skin able app as a potential integration point for Dashboard. In the future, I'd like to be able to offer integration support to all skinable apps so that when the skin changes in Dashboard, all apps can be notified and updated with an integrated skin to provide a very consistent look/feel to the PocketPC.

Dashboard really hasn't grown up much beyond its initial beginnings as a simple PIM / Launcher. The MyDash plug-ins provide an interesting twist to things, but not so much as to distort this vision. I'm continuing to make improvements in all areas of the program, as well as improving the memory footprint and speed where possible. However, I don't want to add features for the sake of adding features. I want Dashboard to be a solid program that with the help of some plug-ins can be the information center for the PocketPC.

Tek: Well Chris this sure has been a thrill for me and I cannot thank you enough not only for taking the time for this interview but especially for making one of my most favorite skinable programs! =)

And if you would like to find out more about Dashboard click "Here"