Re: GUADEC Theming API meeting minutes

["Robert Staudinger" <robert staudinger gmail com>]

On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 5:42 PM, Alberto Ruiz <aruiz gnome org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> this is a summary of the issues discussed and the roadmap about a new
> theming API for Gtk+ at GUADEC:
>
> Current situation:
> ------------------------
>
> Misc:
>  * Engines are too dependent on widget implementation details
>  * Proper color inheritance for widgets (use case: slider text on
> dark themes is white instead of black)
>  * Color naming is highly confusing
>  * Style can't be easily updated depending on different values of
> properties (invisible notebook background, possible merge of scrollbar
> and h/vbox widget)
>  * Hard for artists to create themes right without writing an engine
>  * Widgets are not transparent by default
>  * The detail string is too static and once you choose one detail you
> can't change it without breaking the engines
>
> OS Integration:
>  * Dynamic gtkrc properties not supported and, right now we parse
> snippets on code and those strings are not updated if the engine is
> changed which makes the current code quite hard to read and maintain.
>
> Roadmap:
>  * Create a CSS engine to play with it and see how far can we go with
> flexibility in the artist side (Andreas to make mockups of the new
> syntax and figure out how to implement it afterwards)

Thanks for the heads up. To avoid duplication of efforts, I am working
on such a theme engine for some time and have been discussing issues
with Benjamin, Andreas, Jakub and others.

Code: http://bzr-playground.gnome.org/~robsta/gtk-css-engine/
Screenshot: http://www.gnome.org/~robsta/gtk-css-engine/01-first-roundtrip.png

I think gnome-themes-list is an appropriate place to discuss it, if
anyone's interested in details and/or plans.

What exactly is meant by "mockups of the new syntax" by the way? I'm
planning to use a strict CSS subset.

Best,
Rob