Re: Re-inventing Metatheme

[Carlos 'Fjrb' Almeida <fjrb netcabo pt>]

> > If I choose the Jungle metatheme and then customize the background, is
> > the Jungle theme still selected?
> > 
> > That question is just as hard to answer however you implement
> > things. If you can come up with an answer, then I bet it's just as
> > possible to implement the answer given my cheesy implementation as it
> > is with some more overengineered implementation. e.g. maybe the answer
> > is "the last metatheme you manually selected" or "the metatheme most
> > like your current settings" - both implementable with my cheesy
> > approach.
> > 
> > Whether you present metathemes as a kind of theme (with a list of
> > themes and an active theme) or as a bundle of prefs to apply
> > write-only, is a UI issue that's orthogonal to how you implement.
> 
> IMO, for an easy-to-use version, see the Themes control panel that was
> shipped with Windows 98 and before that in the Plus! pack for Windows
> 95. It was easy to use, and one could easily override parts of the
> theme.
> 
> I'm pretty sure someone could do some screenshots for us to use.

Basically it offered normal theme support plus replying to havoc's above
question with yes. Even a theme with all options (components) removed
but one, was still that theme, and it offered options like this.

->Whatever theme selected

(x) Wallpaper
(  ) Fonts
(  ) Sounds
(X) Window borders

etc ...

What windows never did, was to have two themes, and be able to leech
fonts from one theme while still getting Wallpaper and Window Borders
from another theme. You had to do it by hand. Not sure about how useful,
but it's about how you think about a theme. You can think of it as a
rigid thing (which if done by competent artists looks great and it's
shame to see ripped apart) or as a set of components, nothing more - and
while i can see the purpose of the first, my experience has been that
people want to customise the heck out of things, especially UI things.
Another note is, that even as a pure components and virtual theme which
can be ripped, and could be compiled \ meshed with others by the user,
it's always that theme and can be meshed as well as put back to form
again seamlessly, and the user is free to use the theme unchanged, so
basically the Theme as a pure virtual set of components goes a long away
to please both crowds.