Garoo is the developer of the skinnable clock Ghrone, but also responsible for something called “NextSTEP for Windows” and working on a new mystery project, Kang. Our top-reporter Doreen caught up with the man in a dark alley in a shady suburb of Marseille.

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Tek: Hello Garoo, Thanks for taking the time for this interview it is much appreciated =)

Garoo: Well, you're welcome. Thank _you_ for the trillions of people who'll fall in love with me in this interview and download Ghrone and propose to me and offer me their spare kidneys and … um, let's stick to downloading Ghrone :)

Tek: Yes let's do, since I don't feel like thinking of kidneys just right now… hehe

Tek: Well of course some people have never heard of Garoo so lets begin with who you are and maybe some information on your background as a developer?

Garoo: Uh, beginning to be rude as soon as the second question? :o) Well, I'm French, I just turned 26, and I spent five years in computer science engineering school… Not that I learnt that much there, but I always liked computers and graphics and stuff, so that's where I ended up (imagine how the world would have been different if I had gone to a design school like I wished).

Tek: Me rude? nah just “very” nosey (and to carry on in that direction) when did you first become interested in Developing programs?

Garoo: Well, goes back far: My father bought a computer, like, 20 years ago (Oric Atmos) and, to have programs for it, we had to type Basic code from printed magazines (would be fun if modern freewares came that way, too). So, even though I did not have a real interest in developing stuff myself then, I already had an experience with typing long pages of code. Then (I'll skip some of my computer history) I started programming on Microsoft's QBasic that came with one version of MS-DOS… Since my main interest is graphics, what I wanted to do was something cute — actually, it was already a clock, with blinking gizmos and stuff. Pretty nice for QBasic and for the time. And that's when I went to theengineering school.

Tek: What steps did you first take to learn how to accomplish this? Did you purchase self teaching programs, or take classes or what?

Garoo: Well, I always mostly learnt by myself. Learnt Basic from typing programs and trying to understand them, and then I evolved to every language I learnt, by reading books and documentation. Even when I was in computer science school, I generally learnt the new languages before we had classes. Since I had an advantage by knowing Basic ahead of the others, I learnt Pascal while they learnt programming, and then I learnt C, then C++ and Windows programming. All from books.

Tek: Do you have unfinished projects sitting around on your Hard Drive?

Garoo: I haven't started that many different things… The only thing that's currently on my hard drive are the two programs under development, Ghrone and Kang. Apart from that, I don't think there's much.

Tek: What kind of program or programs have you completed?

Garoo: When I started with Windows programming (that was Borland C++ on Windows 3.1… wow, I'm that old a programmer… just saying “Windows 3.1” feels weird) I made a NeXTstep-like interface, surprisingly named “NeXTstep for Windows.”

Tek: Would you share some information about this program or programs that you have developed so far?

Garoo: I was quite proud of it… At the time, there wasn't much done on windows customization. My program displayed a vertical dock with icons (I'm pretty sure the last version even supported drag and drop), and there was a sticky menu that just copied the NeXTstep Workspace menu with links to common window functions. But the cool thing is I really managed to make it look like NeXT: the buttons, the window captions and stuff, everything was NeXT-like. And that, again at a time when there wasn't anything like a windowblinds. And then I guess I got bored, or just out of time, so I left it aside, and other NeXT-like and Mac-like and whatever-like programs started appearing on the Net and there wasn't much point to mine any more.

Tek: Oi! (crae speak) would you be willing to share a few screenshots of that program with us?

Garoo: Sure, great idea!

Tek: well not really my idea, but let's see em! =)

Tek: Thanks for sharing those, (see what happens when people put things aside for too long?) okay now what kind of ideas are you currently brewing in your head if any for new stuff?

Garoo: Well, there's the program I just begun coding, Kang. It's going to be a big piece of code, so I have no idea when there'll be anything like a first release… I don't like to talk about projects that have not even begun to take shape, but let's just say the idea starts from Apple's macOS X dock, and extends to allowing enough customization to achieve just about anything with moving icons.

A bit like what Stardock's objectBar is to the macOS menu. Much more ambitious than just a clock :) I only hope there'll be a 0.1 beta by the time this interview goes online, but that depends on the load of other projects (websites, graphics, stuff) that I'm working on concurrently, And my motivation. And moon phases. And I'm not even sure what I want to do will be possible, performance-wise, with windows video drivers.

Tek: And about Ghrone? can you give us a brief description of it?

Garoo: Sure, Ghrone is a freeware transparent clock. That doesn't sound like much, but the important part about it is, it uses the real transparency functionalities that were introduced in Windows 2000 (and XP). So, instead of having an opaque and blocky clock on your desktop, you can have an antialiased and semi-transparent clock floating wherever you want.

You can choose to display it above all the other windows, so that you can have the clock always visible, yet you will be able to see through it, and click or drag through it. Or you can have it display under other windows, just displaying the time over your desktop wallpaper.

It is not only skinnable, but also customizable: with the same skin, you can change the clock size from 10% to 200%, and change the color, brightness and opacity of the clock and its background — separately. So you don't need to download new skins to make Ghrone blend perfectly with your desktop.

Okay, I'm sounding like a commercial, but I'm proud of my program, so I just want people to use it :) I don't want to talk too much about the future because I have many projects going on at the same time and don't know when Ghrone will evolve, but future functionalities should include timers, alarms, and ultimately a complete calendar. But all that will require some patience. The most immediate (and necessary) addition will simply be displaying the date on the clock.

Tek: Why not let us post some screenshots of it shall we? =)

Tek: I actually use this clock and love it, I fade it into my desktop and love that it's big but not intrusive on my desktop, (but really needs an alarm with a pop up animations that the user can create themselves, okay now that I got another dig into you garoo of what I'm waiting for!) hehe

Tek: Do you plan on using this skill as a financial means for your future or is this skill mainly your hobby?

Garoo: I'd love to make some money out of it, but, well… I don't know. I've never considered that seriously — mainly because I'm French, and the French tend to, um… enjoy free stuff and not pay for anything :o) whatever I do, there's no doubt there will always be a free version. If I do get money from my programs, it will be either by making them donationware, or providing a separate “Plus” version. I don't know what could separate the free and extended versions of Kang, but I'm already considering the possibility of adding complete calendar/organizer functionalities to a Ghrone Plus version… I only need the motivation of thinking there would be enough people out there who would buy it.

Tek: Are there programs out there that you wish you had developed, and if so which ones catch your eyes?

Garoo: Lots… But most of them I would never had the courage to code… I'm not into huge projects. There's one that I probably would have been able to code: CursorXP. Really great concept, and I remember being interested in fancy cursors as early as the game 7th Guest, that had animated 3D cursors, eons ago. So that's one idea I really wish I would have had. But then, by the time I even got my hands on Windows 2000, CursorEx already existed.

Tek: What developers are your mentors

Garoo: Hmm… no, no mentors. Just me. As I said, always learnt by myself and all… so… dunno. I don't even know that many individual developers.

Tek: How did you enter the skinning community?

Garoo: Everything I did on computer always related to graphics and making cute stuff for the screen or whatever, so when I found out about skinning programs, I just instantly loved it. Guess the first thing I got to was Winamp, just like everybody… That, and the fact that I fell in love with NeXTstep screen captures in magazines, were my original motivations for starting in this field.

Tek: How did you get involved on skinnables.org?

Garoo: When I completed the first version of Ghrone, I posted a message on the Virtual Plastic messageboard, and someone (I think plastic himself) suggested me to check out skinnables.

Tek: What is your opinion on skinnables.org

Garoo: It's a great idea… I don't know much about the online developing community, so I don't know if there are many sites like skinnables for generic apps. But what I can say is it's a great tool for the skinning community. And I personally don't even use half of its resources (because I'm my own tester, and my own skin designer) so I guess this site is even more important for the other programmers :)

Tek: Are you part of the Dev Team?

Garoo: No… I would love to, but I know I couldn't do it. I have a very particular working schedule (working on each of my projects about one week every two months), so I know I'm not reliable enough to work in a group. And anyway my personal projects are already progressing far too slowly; it wouldn't be reasonable of me to sign up for more work. So I'm like every one else, looking forward to see what the team will come up with :)

Tek: What role does skinning play with your development, does it get your ideas flowing when you look at skinz? or you just develop, and the skinz are secondary?

Garoo: Pretty much integral role, since my programs are based on the idea of skinning. I'm not very much interested in making productivity software, I think everything's been done there. Internet apps, the same. So I just focus on making cute things that allow everyone to customize their desktop.

Tek: What skinning sites do you as a developer visit?

Garoo: I don't know, if I really go to sites “as a developer” I'm mostly a user… so I'll say skinnables.org, tek, shell city, and wincustomize that provides skins for every program I use (except Ghrone :o)) (well, and Trillian),

Tek: What? you haven't heard of LOS? (okay alittle plug there sorry?) hehe

Tek: Well I have to say this has been fun getting to know some more about you Garoo, and I along with Tek wish you much success with all the current and future projects you work on! =)

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— Doreen, March 2002