From: thisguyisi <thi...@ea...> - 2003-09-12 04:29:48
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int...@li... wrote: >Send Interfacewm-discuss mailing list submissions to > int...@li... > >To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/interfacewm-discuss >or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > int...@li... > >You can reach the person managing the list at > int...@li... > >When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >than "Re: Contents of Interfacewm-discuss digest..." > > >Today's Topics: > > 1. Thoughts about IWMTheme (Chris B. Vetter) > >--__--__-- > >Message: 1 >Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:01:47 -0700 >From: "Chris B. Vetter" <ch...@we...> >To: int...@li... >Subject: [Interfacewm-discuss] Thoughts about IWMTheme > >Hi there, > >the following are some thoughts with respect to themes as currently >implemented in IWMTheme and the resulting effects... (ok, that's a bad >introduction, but what I'm talking about should become clear in a >moment :-) > >The themes, as they are right now, basically consist of images, >including the minimize/maximize/close buttons as well as the title- and >resizebar. > >Now, I've been playing with themes and, frankly, the results pretty much >suck. It's not IWM(Theme)'s fault. You will see the same effects when >you use any other window manager that offers themes. > >GNUstep has its own theme engine, Chameleon (or whatever it's called). >However, it only changes the gradients of a window's interior, including >menus. It does not touch titlebars. > >The effect is, that you use the window manager's theme engine to change >the overall look (titlebar, resizebar, buttons) for a window, and >Chameleon for the interior. However, GNUstep menus will retain their >NeXT'ish look, while the window manager may use an Aqua-like titlebar >for a "regular" window. > >The over-all look will end up quite ... shall we say ... "colourful" > >Duh! > >Ok, now, I've been looking through -gui (thanks to a tip from Matt Rice) >and found that NSColor uses a dictionary to store the colours for >various aspects (including menu titlebars, yey!) in NSGlobalDomain. > >That leaves us with (at least) two options (borrowed from Ian :-) > >[quote] > >1) Have the GNUstep developers concede and modify the way that the > menus behave, at least when IWM is running, and request a titlebar > for menus while keeping the menu client open. > >2) Go back and modify 3 or 4 classes in IWM to clone the native look > of GNUstep menu titlebars, pulling the defaults you mentioned below > for color information. > >[unquote] > >Personally, I don't think (1) really is an option for us, so we should >go with (2). > >However, instead of ditching themes (which, generally, people seem to >like a lot) completely or even just partially, I think they should be >modified to use an RGB (instead of an image) or whatever colour. > >Since IWM is the first GNUstep-based "application" launched, we take the >values from the theme's Plist and write them back to NSGlobalDomain, so >other GNUstep-based applications can use them. > >As a result, the over-all look will be much more pleasant to the eye. > >Well, I hope this sums it up so everyone knows WTF I'm talking about... > >Any comments? > > > Put my vote down as a "Theme-Lover". :-) So you are suggesting IWM be "trained" to grab theme info on startup, and set the global color values, so any subsequently launced GUI element (Window/Panel/Menu) can draw itself with the selected theme's colors? However, currently themes utilize static images instead of adjustable "colorfills", which leads to a patchy appearance in the end? Perhaps Chameleon can be extended to handle all "themographic" issues with the GUI, and IWM (and any other GNUstep app) could use Chameleon's "themographic services". Then IWM could be distributed with Chameleon as a helper app? Please don't hurt me, I'm a doctor, not a programmer Jim! J/K. :-) Seriously though, I don't read/write/program C or Obj-C as yet and am considering learning. So you could lump me in the "potential user" category. Hopefully my comments will prove interesting or amusing, rather than annoying. Best Regards, -thisguyisi |