Re: SIZE, SHAPE, and BEHAVIOR Themability

[Kero van Gelder <gelderk natlab research philips com>]

> 1.) Size themeability
> some ungodly dimension that makes it look bad).  But maybe it would be
> good to have size "themeable" as an attribute in the .gtkrc file along
> with the pixmap -- or, at least, a "preferred size" (like in Java).   

Add the minimum and maximum size (like in Java, but now _use_ it) to
prevent the ungodly dimensions the user might try.

> Who cares?  Well, this could be an issue for handicapped (read: near
> blind, like my ultra-mypoic mother -- and, increasingly and
> unfortunately, myself) individuals who need "accessibility" features
> that make standard widgets larger than usual.  With a flexible
> architecture like this, you could a "Myopia Theme" that had widgets that
> were three times their normal size :-)  And, again, there is the purely
> aesthetic issue of having things look right for "emulator" themes like
> the Mac and Win95 ones.

For this, a maximum-size could still be too limiting, ergo, the myopia
them/size should have an unlimited maximum size (fonts are scalable to
any size you like, pictures might turn out bad, yet for those among us
who do not see well, that doesn't matter, probably (I can see very
well, correct me if I'm wrong or rude here).

> 2.) Shape themeability

[snip]

> 3.) Feel (Behavior -- or "behaviour" :-)
> 
> I know being a Java fan might not make me too popular around these
> parts

Huh?
Since Java at least _tries_ to have a nice UI-set, the discussion
about it should be welcomed here...

> One of them (as the name implies) is that "Feel" is themeable, too. 

Yes!

> This seems to be a step beyond merely theming "appearance" with pixmaps
> and rendering engines, and actually separating the look from the feel
> from the data (the whole Model-View-Controller thing).

Exactly.

> Is there any moderately easy way using the current engines to change
> the way a given component BEHAVES (e.g., get a popup menu to sort of
> "slither" out like like that annoying Windows 98 $hit (hey, I'm not
> saying YOU would actually _want_ to do this :-))?

If people _really_ want that, they should get it.

> Or do you have to subclass an existing
> component (or, worse, make a brand new one from a raw canvas) and define
> it's behavior to do such strange things in it's rendering code.

That's of course a way to get the weird popping out of (sub)windows,
but it does not help for any application that existed already.

+--- Kero ------------------ kero@dds.nl ---+
| I ain't changed,                          |
| but I know I ain't the same               |
+--- M38C --- http://huizen.dds.nl/~kero ---+