Re: [gdm-list] face-browser proposal for new gdm

[Oswald Buddenhagen <ossi kde org>]

On Fri, Nov 23, 2007 at 12:35:29PM -0500, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> On Nov 23, 2007 11:50 AM, Frederic Crozat <fcrozat mandriva com> wrote:
> > Well, I must say I seriously hope the xml format will be kept.
> >
> > It is one of the few things which allows us to have almost the same
> > greeter theme file between kdm and gdm. It would be a pity to loose it
> > (and even more to not be able to have a graphically appealing and
> > themable greeter).
> 
> The semantics are poorly documented, hard to understand and difficult
> to use.
>
nah, it isn't that bad.

> The format also has limitations that make many interesting designs
> impossible to implement (e.g. the fact that size-changes of elements
> at runtime are very poorly handled, leading to broken situations when
> translated strings vary in size).
>
that's mostly an implementation issue, no?

> The implementation on top of GnomeCanvas has serious drawbacks, e.g.
> for accessibility.
> 
indeed.

> I believe the current thinking wrt to themable greeters is to offer a
> sane dbus interface that facilitates writing alternative greeters
> rather than offering explicit theming support.
>
bah. you can't tell *that* to an artist. also, it's silly to duplicate
95% of the code just for a slightly different look.

now that after five years or something i finally finished the theming
support in kdm to make it official in kde 4.0, i'd be interested in
keeping it for some time, of course.

note that i have made some minor improvements to the format. assuming
that the gdm themer didn't get much love in recent times, i'm possibly
even technologically ahead. :)
of course, i also have a working solution for plugging the alternative
authentication method widgets you are pondering these days.
unfortunately, i didn't document anything yet (good thing you remind me
;). to still get an idea of what i'm talking about, look at my
variation of the circles theme at
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/kdm/kfrontend/themes/circles/
the code itself is in
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/kdm/kfrontend/themer/
if you think you can read c++. ;-)

areas for improvement:
- configurability of the themes: i found the display modes way too
  limiting. the display types are better, but still far from perfect. my
  main approach is to have standardized element names and have the
  greeter hide/show them based on external logic.
- yes, accessibility. i even might be able to embed proper buttons into
  the theme to allow for tab-navigation, etc., but the themes have no
  representation for the focused state. i assume there is more to it.
- theming the xdmcp chooser mode? the screen locker program?

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