Customization gnome3

[Chris Jones <cjns1989 gmail com>]

I have been evaluating gnome-shell v3.4 on a debian sid/unstable test
system over the last couple of weeks and I'm having a bit of a difficult
time deciding on a customization strategy.

After changing font settings via gnome-tweak-tool, I noticed that the
top panel and Overview were not affected.

I also noticed that setting the keyboard theme/profile to emacs had no
effect on the Search field in the Overview: Ctrl-A for instance selects
whatever you have already typed instead of emulating the Home key¹.

Regarding fonts, a bit of digging revealed that copying the system's
gnome-shell.css to $HOME/.themes and editing it was an effective way to
change gnome-shell's default font-family and fontsize.. only to lose
those changes on the following day.

What happened was that I had downloaded/installed a new theme under
$HOME/.themes that provided its own gnome-shell.css, thereby overriding
my font customization (nothing wrong with that.. except that the css
specified the default Cantarell font..! ).

Concerning fonts, and bringing gnome-shell in line with the choices
I made for GTK, the "method" that I have adopted is that if I install
a new theme, I just grep the folder² and edit whatever files specify
font-family and fontsize if necessary. 

Since everything else in gnome3 is pretty much a dream come true³, I was
wondering if some central desktop customization tool that would let you
set a common "look and feel" is in the works, or at least part of the
developers' objectives.

Thanks,

CJ

¹ So far I haven't figured out how to do that.. suggestions welcome!

² Not a bad thing in itself, to prod stuff you download from the outside
  world.. 

³ Honestly.. it's been ten years I've been waiting for a DE that looks
  like something I might be able to work with..

-- 
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