Re: GNOME Theme Package Proposal

[Luca Cappelletti <luca cappelletti gmail com>]

Hello,
your propose is very interesting.
I've some idea to improve you proposal.

I think we've to be not so closed to gnome needs but develop a super
class that, next future, could be propose to freedesktop.org


> 
> There is no mime-type or file format for packages that contain themes
> and
> artwork that control the appearance of the GNOME desktop. Historically,
> if an
> author has wanted to distribute a theme he has made, then it is just a
> case of
> zipping up the directory of the theme. However, these days authors
<snip>

Totally agree.

<snip>

I think that instead to reinvent a binary file format, it's better to
use a renamed tar.gz or tar.bz2 or like .deb an 'ar' archive.
In this way we can use the same daily development tools. 

<snip>

> 
> A New File Format
> `````````````````
> The directory structure should look something like this:
> 
> .
> |-- background/
> |-- gtk/
> |   `-- gtkrc
> |-- gtk-2.0/
> |   `-- gtkrc
> |-- icon/
> |   |-- index.theme
> |   `-- scalable/
> |-- index.theme
> |-- metacity-1/
> |   `-- metacity-theme-1.xml
> `-- splash/
> 
> This should then be wrapped up in a gzipped tarball and given the
> extension
> .gtp (Gnome-Theme-Package).

Why don't use something like .theme it's more readable to all.
A .theme could be 'the' standard for every theme out there (Gnome,
KDE, skinnable applications, Mozilla etc etc).
We could embed the structure into a something closed to a resource 'Bundle'

I've an initial propose like this (not so far to a Bundle):

MyGnomeTheme.themes
|Contents/
|--- Gnome/
|           Resources/
|               background/
|               gtk/
|                   gtkrc
|                icon/
|                    index.theme
|                    scalable/
|                index.theme
|                metacity-1/
|                    metacity-theme-1.xml
|                splash/

So that if you need to develop a them for KDE you should do something like:

|Contents/
|    KDE/
|        Resources/
|            ..../

Or ,like bundles, you can embed any resource you need because the
engines could parse the section they need (Gnome, KDE, application
specific one, etc etc).

This could be the basis to propose freedesktop to adopt it as a common
standard for general purposes skinning.

To start without pain we can embed into this like-Bundle Resource
folder the same structure tha nowadays Gnome use for it's themes.
A Meta descriptor could be provided into the root package to provide
more meta description (like the DEBIAN resource folder into a .deb
package)

Then you can tar.bz2 that package and rename it into a something like
.themes or .skins or .somethingwithcompleteandclearpostfix (but not,
please, gtp or 3 characters cryptic postfixes...we're into an UTF8
world!!).

Did you?

bye,

Luca Cappelletti


-- 
---
Luca Cappelletti
Infodomestic.com

"...Together we stand, divided we fall."

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