Abstract: Certain embodiments relate to combining or blending animations that are attempting to simultaneously animate the same target. Certain embodiments simplify the blending of animations in the application development environment. For example, certain embodiments allow animations to be used or specified by a developer without the developer having to specifically address the potential for time-overlapping animations. As a few specific examples, an application may specify animations by simply calling a function to change a property of a target or by sending a command to change a public property of the target. Certain embodiments provide a blender that intercepts such function calls and commands. If two animations require a change to the same target at the same time, the blender determines an appropriate blended result and sends an appropriate function call or command to the target. The function calls and commands need not be aware of the blender.

Abstract: Certain embodiments relate to combining or blending animations that are attempting to simultaneously animate the same target. Certain embodiments simplify the blending of animations in the application development environment. For example, certain embodiments allow animations to be used or specified by a developer without the developer having to specifically address the potential for time-overlapping animations. As a few specific examples, an application may specify animations by simply calling a function to change a property of a target or by sending a command to change a public property of the target. Certain embodiments provide a blender that intercepts such function calls and commands. If two animations require a change to the same target at the same time, the blender determines an appropriate blended result and sends an appropriate function call or command to the target. The function calls and commands need not be aware of the blender.

Abstract: Methods for rendering effects of graphical components of a graphical user interface are provided. One method includes defining a screen display having one or more components. The method also includes defining a start state for at least one of the one or more components and defining an end state for at least one of the one or more components. An operation of determining if a component identified for transition includes a defined start state and a defined end state is also provided. The method determines a transition type for the component that that has the defined start state and the defined end state and identifies an effect type based on the determined transition type. To render, the method includes (a) altering a graphics state at a time interval and (b) painting the component for the identified graphics state at the time interval. The method repeats (a)-(b) until the graphics state matches the defined end state.

Abstract: A computer implemented method for transitioning a component between graphical user interface screens is provided. The method initiates with identifying a start state of the component within a transition panel. An end state of the component is identified within the transition panel and timer logic is triggered to periodically call a transition engine. An effects engine is called in response to the triggering and a next state of the component is rendered into an animation layer. The next state of the component is then displayed. A transition framework is also provided.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed that download a vanguard-installation-bundle to a computing platform responsive to a set of platform characteristics of the computing platform. The vanguard-installation-bundle includes executable data that includes a platform-dependent set of executable data and a platform-independent set of executable data. The platform-dependent set of executable data is configured to enable execution of the platform-independent set of executable data by the computing platform. The platform-independent set of executable data includes an application program and a sufficient library. The sufficient library is a subset of a reference library. The platform-dependent set of executable data is also configured to invoke installation of the reference library on the computing platform. The method automatically executes the platform-dependent set of executable data on the computing platform and also automatically invokes installation of the reference library on the computing platform.