theming issues

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

(warning: wired sillyness follows)

If we're on the topic of themes, I might point out the Smooth Engine - a
slight variation of that (to be a more normal grey tone) would actually
be excellent I think for a default GTK or GNOME theme - the default now
is too dated; feels like 1995 or something... ;-)  A very clean
refreshing modern new look for GNOME 2.4 might do a lot for users,
psychologically, since little things like that seem to have a lot
larger  effect on people than it should.  ~,^

There's also a ton of themes that depend on the engine, which is
something to consider, since installing an engine is _not_ something a
"normal user" can do.  Hell, even I find it a pain - I wonder if
pkg-config could be used to set the default install prefix of themes in
the ./configure script?  Or heck, why can't people install theme sin
both /usr and /usr/local and have it just work?  It was hell when I
packaged for Arch Linux, because i had to patch the sources to get it to
look in both /opt/gnome/... and /usr/...

Also, did the theme picker ever get the "You are trying to use a theme,
but do not have the appropriate theme engine installed" dialog dicussed
during pre-2.0?  What about some kind of way to auto-install theme
engines - is it possible to install a theme engine in the user
directory, and if so, would it be feasible (not necessarily easy) to
detect an engine package in the theme installer and build/install it? 
What about if the packages were required to carry a little meta-file
describing the build/install process and such, kinda like a .spec file? 
And does non-RedHat, stock GNOME change GTK1 themes when you select a
theme in the preferences area, or just the GTK2 theme?

Also also, on the theme installer, is more work planned on having an
easier non-engine theme install?  This "download some random .tar.gz and
hope it works" is kinda sad; a real mime-type for themes (just for the
sake of an icon for user recognition, and to let Nautilus be able to
install-on-open) would be great.

I still see advnaced gnome users get confused over the interaction of
all those theme pieces (especially when it comes to gtk stock icons,
altho those are going away in gtk2.4); users would probably also
understand better "GNOME Theme" or "Desktop Theme" versus all these
little pieces.  I know we have metathemes, but I don't ever see any
anywhere outside of gnome-themes - and why should theme authors bother
when the GNOME control center makes it so easy to skimp on it?  Not to
mention "metatheme" is a rather, well, silly name.  The only way it
makes sense is if you understand that it's a bunch of components, which
it should be trying to hide.  ~,^

Sorry for the excessively verbose babblage.  My brain is dumping core or
something, I think.  ;-)

-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.