Programmatic themes (Re: [gtk-list] Re: Color in GtkText)

[Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds kjahds com>]

On Tue, 24 Nov 1998 sml13@cornell.edu wrote:

> You see, I want my time display to have alien green digits (this is for a 
> CD Player) on a black background...but this doesn't work!  I DO NOT want 
> this to vary with the themes, so theming to this isn't an option.  I want 
> to know how to do this (and, generallly, set the attributs of any widget 
> like this) PROGRAMMATICALLY.  Any ideas?

I can't give you direct advice on doing this, but I'd like to add a
comment on this sort of theme usage.

For some time, I've been of a mind that themes should not be under program
control -- it's a user's decision what theme to use, and, much more
importantly, there is no acceptable reason for a program to use two themes
at once. (Consider themefication of buttons, and a program that relies on
differently themed buttons to indicate different button functions. I don't
think this a good idea.) 

However, it's becoming obvious that there is a one good excuse for a
program to use a specific theme: "artistic" programs that want to provide
a customized/able UI, including games, "skinned" CD players, etc. 

Moreover, this just about requires the use of more then one theme in a
program: configuration dialogs and other "normal" widget uses should be
able to use the default theme (as provided by Gtk or selected by the
user), while the "artistic" section should use the specialized theme (as
provided by the programmer or selected by the user.)

So, this seems to call for the ability to choose what the "default theme" 
is for each widget (each default being separately modifiable by the user),
and a way for programs to supply defaults. (But, perhaps not override the
base default.) Some method of theme inheritance (so that a widget inherits
the theme of its container) would be desirable.

Caveat emptor: I've not payed much attention to the actual theme code, so
I'm not sure if what I'm describing bears much relation to reality, or how
far away it might be. 

-- 
Kenneth Albanowski (kjahds@kjahds.com, CIS: 70705,126)