Re: Pixmap Themes too slow (was gnomepad+)

[Loban Amaan Rahman <loban enigma caltech edu>]

> I'm sure there are many places the pixmap themes could be speed up. 
> 
> Why continual? why stretch? a Progress bar has three parts the start where
> the 3d highligting is different the middle and the end. When a progress
> bar is first drawn the engine should know the dimension it could make
> the start and end "caps" and make a single pixmap for full middle section
> and only copy as much as needed. This would have a problem that the border
> between the caps and the middle of the progress bar might not line up but
> that worth the speed increase or maybe that just something the theme
> designer
> has to live with.

Well, I don't know for sure, but I *think* that the pixmap theme engine was
created mainly for the *prettiness* it provides, while the gtkrc theme
engine and engine theme engine were created for the *speed*. The idea was
one would use pixmap themes if one valued the prettiness and was willing
and able to sacrifice some speed. The gtkrc and engine themes were for thsoe
who wanted themes but couldn't sacrifice too much speed.

Hence, this is not a case of "deal with it because that's the way the cookie
crumbles. Rather, it's similar to setting graphic details in
graphic-intensive games according to what kind of system one has - set it 
too high and the game suffers.

I agree the pixmap engine could be sped up in many ways, but it will still
be slower compared to gtkrc themes, no matter what is done. The REAL
problem is that the average user is not made aware of the above facts, as
the person I'm replying to, and many others, have stated. Hence, the
gnome-control-center should document that fact, not in the help pages, but
in the theme selection window itself, and it should categorize the themes
according to their type.


|       LOBAN AMAAN RAHMAN  <-- anagram of -->  AHA! AN ABNORMAL MAN!      |
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