On Fri, 12 Nov 1999, Michael Han wrote:
> Previously from Scott Scriven...
> >Here are a few differences, off the top of my head:
> >
> > - You can have a system-wide configuration which can be
> > overridden or modified by users' individual configurations.
>
> I think this is really important, too.
Well I haven't implemented system-wide config as yet. (on to do list)
>
> > - It separates "look" from "feel" by putting input bindings in
> > their own file.
> >
> > - You can switch themes from a menu, without restarting fvwm.
Mine does that....
>
> This is nice. Basically, themes ought to be set-able with a:
> Read theme/theme
> or something like that. That means that decors, etc. of the existing
> theme should be destroyed before reading, and that, to be safe, before
> creating any new structures, a well-behaved theme should destroy
> itself. Fortunately, Dominik's working on Style so that they apply
> immediately without issuing Recapture... Hope it's ready for 2.4.
> Would make theming a lot easier. Otherwise all themes should conclude
> with a Recapture.
Yup. Mine do that too.
>
> Really, most of this junk can be automated by designing some built-in
> functions that all themes load, like "_DestroyThisTheme" and
> "_ReadNewTheme".
>
> > - Themes can be randomly selected upon startup.
> >
> > - Themes do not include wallpaper, but it should be easy to
> > incorporate them using the "bkgd" script on my page. (for
> > example, set a random "green" background with a green theme)
>
> FvwmBacker seems to be perfectly alright for this purpose. It relies
> on an external program like xv(1) or display(1) for setting background
> images. On the upside, it's desk-aware (soon to be page-aware), and
> FvwmTheme/Colorset compatible.
I personally think random backgrounds silly. Especially on my resource starved
old 486. But I conceed that some would find such frivolity irresistable.
>
> > - 12 themes are included; more will come as people make them.
> > Two of these were from fvwm.themes.org, the rest are mine.
> >
> >One problem: It currently requires windows to have 4 title
> >buttons, a menu on the left and minimize-maximize-close on the
> >right. This gives a consistent feel, but restricts visual
> >freedom for theme designers.
>
> I remember this one being troublesome to me too. On the one hand,
> window buttons are, without doubt, behavior-related, but they also are
> an important part of the GUI look. It'd be silly if you have a classic
> MWM button layout (0 for menu, 1 for maximize, 3 for minimize) and you
> loaded a Win95-style button theme... the buttons would look like they
> did things other than what they did, unless you rebound the actions...
> bad news, IMHO. Perhaps there's a way to preprocess so that the theme
> Does The Right Thing WRT the buttons the user has chosen to bind. I'm
> not even sure if that's possible, but it certainly seems the most
> desirable thing to do. (In case it's not clear what I mean by "Does
> The Right Thing", I mean that the theme should provide a set of
> buttons for: menu, min, max, close. It should add buttons where they
> belong.)
I can set as many buttons as I like or don't like in my themes. With each theme
having appropriate layouts. e.g. my Mwm has buttons 1,2 & 3 ; AfterStep has
buttons 1,2, 3 & 4 ; Win95 has buttons 1,2,4 & 6 etc...Each button has it's
key bindings set as appropriate in the themes decor file. So AfterStep buttons
do what buttons do under the AfterStep WM, likewise Mwm., Win95, etc... My own
customized theme has multi-function buttons that have several key bindings
apiece.
>
> Any comments, further ideas, etc.?
> --
All this is not only possible/achievable, but also a lot more that hasn't been
mentioned yet. Such as.....
On my 'to do list':
Create-A-Theme module
Change-A-Theme module
Save-A-Theme module
Load-A-New-Theme module
and Load-User-Specified-fvwm2rc-Config via dynamic menu selection, with
a 'hotkey' to return to my configuration as desired, thus enabling painless
testing of others configs. I see these features as being just as desirable.
I will implement them as time permits.
Contributions and/or suggestions most welcome. If anyone cares to send me
their "themes" I will gladly insert them into this config, leaving due credit
intact. It will help me design ways to "read-in" new themes and to learn what
people expect/want.
awol
"If all the world's a stage, where do they harness the horses?"
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Received on Fri Nov 12 1999 - 03:59:47 GMT