Re: 1.2 theme properties / 2.0 default theme



Owen Taylor wrote:

I spent some time over the last few days working on an
look improvements for GTK+-1.2 for a couple of reasons:

 - To have a nicer looking look for GTK+-1.2
 - To start working on ideas for GTK+-2.0's default theme
   in practice.

Creating a theme for this new look involved adding some simple
properties-in-the-style capabilities to GtkStyle so that I could
adjust geometry parameters such as width-of-scrollbar.

This was done by adding to functions to gtkstyle.h:

 void gtk_style_set_prop_experimental (GtkStyle    *style,
	 			       const gchar *name,
				       gint         value);
 gint gtk_style_get_prop_experimental (GtkStyle    *style,
				       const gchar *name,
				       gint         default_value);

These are essential a extremely dumbed down version of a facility
we'll have in GTK+-2.0 to have properties associated with
a particular GtkStyle that you can set from an RC file.


Attached is a patch (also found at:

 http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/gtk/2.0/ui/gtk+-1.2.8-theme.patch)

that implements the above functions and makes a number of
geometry parameters adjustable.

Please note that the new API that this patch introduces is
experimental - note the names; it will not be in GTK+-2.0.

A new theme that uses the patch is at:

 http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/gtk/2.0/ui/raleigh.tar.gz

The differences from the standard GTK+ look can be summarized
as briefly:

 - Complete elimation of Motif-style raised arrows
 - MS Windows style check and radio buttons
 - Wider scrollbars with shallower relief

I think it is in general a big improvement, though there are
still definitely things I want to tweak further.


I don't know if this is the direction we want to go for the GTK+-2.0
default theme or if we want to go with something more radical.
Some mockups that came out of a discussion on this subject are at:

 http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/gtk/2.0/ui/

I'm fairly partial to the look of Garrett's mockup (which basically
became his Premier theme). But it has at least one major useability
issue - you can't tell whether widgets are focused or not.


I like the scrollbars in Garret's Markup. I don't like the beveling to show focus around the button, though. I think that it takes up a lot of unnecessary vertical and horizontal space.

I also really like the radio buttons and checkboxes from the mockup labeled "Proposed" and the arrows in the spin buttons from the mockup labeled "Proposed #2." In each case I think that the UI elements are clear and easy to hit with the mouse.

I don't really like the shaded radio buttons or checkboxes in arlo's mockup. The shading makes it harder for the eye to see what is selected and what isn't.

When you say that it has a usability issue are you saying that there's no way to tell if the scrollbars have focus?

In any case, I'm really happy that you're thinking about changing this for something in the 1.2 release cycle. It will make a big difference in people's first impressions of gtk.

--Chris





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