Re: GEP-2 Theme Sets (aka Metathemer)

[Jonathan Blandford <jrb redhat com>]

Calum Benson <calum benson sun com> writes:

> On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 21:01, Jonathan Blandford wrote:
> 
> > > Well, as Soeren said, it just makes it quicker to 'undo' an illegible
> > > (or just plain unpleasant) font.  If you only have the 'Apply Font'
> > > button, you have to go back and select a different theme (or perhaps
> > > just add a 'Revert' button to the dialog) to restore some sanity.
> > 
> > How does the font toggle button interact with the Font dialog?
> 
> Well, if you checked the "apply font" button in the Theme Set capplet,
> presumably it ought to apply whatever fonts the theme specified and
> update the relevant settings in the font capplet.  And if you unchecked
> it again, it should reset the font capplet settings to what you were
> using before.  Or am I missing something...?

Well, I wasn't sure how you were going to 'restore' the old one.  What
happens when I check the 'apply font' toggle, then go to the font dialog
change the font, then uncheck the 'apply font' toggle.  Or should the
act of changing the font automatically uncheck it?  Maybe that will work.

> > Oh.  Hmm...  Lemme think about that.  That's probably doable, though it
> > could also cause problems the other direction.  If you get the theme in
> > an awkward state, you might have trouble switching it out.
> > Also, it might be a bit disorienting to people.  Perhaps a 'Change your
> > resolution' style confirmation dialog in the old theme is needed?
> 
> Yes, perhaps that would be a less risky solution, although I have to
> confess I'd probably find it kind of annoying... I always do in Windows,
> but equally I'm always reluctant to switch it off in case it saves me
> one day :)  (It never has yet, though...)

That feature drives me nuts.  Lets not consider it, then.

> > I would really like to see us have a 'Set up a11y initially' dialog.  I
> > think that would solve a lot of these problems, and genuinely be pretty
> > useful.
> 
> Yes, eventually it would, although I'm not sure there's a *huge* need
> for it until we have the heavyweight tools in there like GOK and
> Gnopernicus.  But yes, even now, just with accessx and theming options
> to set up, it could be a potential timesaver.

Well, I'm not going to write it now.
Maybe someone will and do it for us, though.

> > > Yes, as I said in the original mail, you'd probably have to at least
> > > hide the whole right-hand side part by default with that design.  Which
> > > as you say might mean it would be better in a sub-dialog or a separate
> > > capplet altogether.  I doubt if we could really decide that without
> > > saying how many people we expect just to use Theme Sets without tweaking
> > > the sub-themes, and how many people we expect just to mostly ignore it
> > > and set all the sub-themes by hand anyway... usability study, anyone? :)
> > 
> > Ugh.  I need to come up with something soon.  I want to be done with
> > this this week.
> 
> Well, if I was going to make a snap-choice between those two options,
> I'd say stick it in a sub-dialog, if nothing else because we don't
> really have a disclosure widget for expanding dialogs sideways :)

I ended up putting it in a list.  There's a somewhat older shot at
http://webwynk.net/~jrb/files/newtheme5.png

Thanks,
-Jonathan