MAKI?

MAKI(Make A Killer Interface) is a scripting language unique to Winamp3 that allows you to add special effects and functionality beyond the limits of XML. In the Advanced section of this tutorial, we will go in to much more depth on the subject, but for now let's just know what it is and use some scripts that were already made.

Play/Pause

If you remember, when we created our Control Buttons, we intentionally placed the Pause Button directly under the Play Button with the intention of using a MAKI script to make them both usable. Create a new folder in your skin and call it "scripts". Copy over play2pause.m and play2pause.maki from the scripts folder in parts.zip. Now to include our script, we add this line to the bottom of our cbuttons Group, just before the </groupdef> Tag:

<script id="p2p" file="scripts/play2pause.maki"/>

It's as easy as that. Reload the skin and the script is done. Now when Winamp is playing a song, the Pause Button will show, and when stopped or paused, the Play Button will show.

Old Timer

By default, Winamp strips any leading zeroes from the Timer. For example, if the current song has been playing for three minutes and fourteen seconds, Winamp would display "3:14." With this script, it will now display "03:14." This script was written by ThePlague, who named the script "Old Timer" since the Timer in the Winamp3 betas had the leading zero. This isn't a major necessity for a skin, but for some it helps keep the skin feeling balanced. Copy the oldtimer script files to the skin, add this line just above the </layout> Tag in player-normal.xml:

<script id="oldtimer" file="scripts/oldtimer.maki"/>

Main

This script can be found in the Default skin. While we could just reference it from our skin, it is safer to include it with our scripts. The Default skin changes with every release, so it is not safe to assume that the script will always be there. We're using this script because it adds a lot of functionality to the skin. After including this script and refreshing our skin, the Control Buttons, Seek Slider, and Volume Slider will all send messages to the SongTicker. To include this script, we copy the file to our folder and add this line to the bottom of our Layout, just before the </layout> Tag:

<script id="mainscript" file="scripts/main.maki"/>

With that little effort, we've modified our skin to make it look and act more like we wanted it to. All that remains of the Beginner area now is the Conclusion.