Re: [REPORT] gnome-backgrounds & bg capplet

[Thomas Wood <thos gnome org>]

On Wed, 2004-11-17 at 14:05 +0100, Luca Ferretti wrote:
> This is a quick and dirty report about stuff that don't work very well
> or could work better. Here the summary:
> 
>      1. No translatable strings
>      2. wrong bg color for translucent 
>      3. use fill screen instead scale
>      4. don't remove system bg
>      5. pkg-config integration
> 
> Details
> 
>         1 - I suppose the xml.in files miss the needed underscore for
>         translation. If you run "intltool-update -p" in po/ directory
>         the potfile is not generated. This means that you can't
>         generate/update local po files

I actually marked strings in the xml files for translation yesterday, so
please run cvs update :-)

Unfortunately however, this isn't going to be any use because gnome-
background-properties doesn't support i18n of the xml files. So we need
a patch for gnome-background-properties if it is going to support this.

>         
>         2 - #76848F and #7F7F7F are default GNOME bg colors (see
>         libgnome/schemas/desktop_gnome_background.schemas). Don't you
>         think is better use those for translucent backgrounds?

Certainly this needs fixing, although the colours should always be a
matter of preference. I will probably patch them with #76848F for the
moment, but I am open to any other colour suggestions from the HIG
palette.

>         
>         3 - IMHO is better use fill screen for non tiles wallpapers. The
>         scale option in fact leaves a small uncovered strip near top and
>         bottom panel (on my screen at least).

That is probably because you are using a non-standard resolution. By
that I mean a resolution that does not have a 4:3 ratio. Unfortunately,
1280x1024 is not 4:3, it is 5:4. This is a problem because it seems to
be popular with TFT manufactures. I have been considering including 5:4
ratio backgrounds because of this, but I do not want to add or duplicate
too many of the backgrounds.

>         
>         4 - the remove button works on those bgs too. Is it a reasonable
>         behavior? Note that those bg are automatically added to the
>         capplet list: if I remove one, I don't know where I can find it
>         again.

The backgrounds are added to the system wide list, so if you delete it
from the capplet under your username, it will still be available to
other users. I think this is reasonable behaviour for users who perhaps
don't want a particular background in the list. The backgrounds are
installed into $(datadir)/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome so should normally
be accessible to any user to add to the capplet again.

>         
>         5 - It's reasonable install a gnome-backgrounds.pc file? And
>         it's reasonable depend on gnome-control-center? Something like
>         
>                 if exist gnome-control-center.pc then
>                      install xml 
>                      install pixmaps
>                 else
>                      install pixmaps
>                 fi

I don't see what benefits this brings, other than a few less files if
the user doesn't have gnome-control-center. However, if the user doesn't
have gnome-control-center then they probably don't really want to
install gnome-backgrounds.

> 
> 
> Misc Proposal
> 
>       * could we move gnome-desktop/pixmap/gnome-background-image.png
>         here in memory of sisob?

Although this is a nice image, I don't think it can be used as a desktop
background. It's too small to be stretched/scaled, and too "busy" when
tiled.

>       * what about SVG images? Take a look to Lila background package on
>         gnome-look.org

I actually have a SVG version of one of the images in gnome-backgrounds
at the moment (GNOME Black), however I didn't include it since librsvg
does not render it the same as inkscape or sodipodi. Also, including SVG
backgrounds creates a dependency on librsvg which is not yet a mandatory
dependency within GNOME.

>       * what about move here folder's tiles that currently are in
>         nautilus? Of course someone should update nautilus code too.

This is a good idea, but the only concern may be that the nautilus
developers will not want to depend on gnome-backgrounds for the tiles. 

>       * Can I propose leather tile in
>         http://linuxart.com/dir/stuff/wallpapers/synth/ ?

Certainly, it could possibly replace the grass tile since that is
probably a bit too bright to be of any use as a background (and no doubt
very un-HIG too).