[Cuis] [ANN] Cuis-ExtraThemes

[Juan Vuletich]

Hi Folks,

David, I'm really happy you're doing this! As Casey said, our themes 
were mostly to show what could be done, but they are not polished.

(abridged and interleaved).

Casey ransberger wrote:
> ...
>
> With just a little bit of tweaking, we could unload my contrast-dark 
> and replace it with Wintermute in the core system, I think. Wintermute 
> is the better art in this case, or that's my opinion (from this 
> screenshot) anyway. You mentioned running into problems; can you 
> elaborate? I like this and I want to help.
>
> What do you think, Juan? Folks? Outside of the default theme (which 
> should send a thematic message about the intent of Cuis) I really feel 
> that the rest of the themes are disposable fodder to be tweaked or 
> replaced by better ideas.

The default theme is also open for enhancement! It is a bit better than 
the other ones just because I spent a few hours making it look nice. But 
it can always be improved, and maybe replaced, if we have something 
better. We are building this system, nothing is carved in stone.

An idea that came to me suddenly is that if we had enough good looking 
themes, each release of Cuis could include a different theme by default, 
so people would see different stuff. Not unlike Windows does, where each 
release has a distinctive look, but also keeping all the other looks, so 
users can chose their preferred one.

> Overall: great work, David! Once the sun goes down, this may soon be 
> my new default.
>
> On May 22, 2012, at 2:24 PM, David Graham <david at unthinkable.org 
> <mailto:david at unthinkable.org>> wrote:
>
>> On 5/22/12 2:51 PM, Casey Ransberger wrote:
>>> Fantastic! Comments below. 
>>>
>>> On May 22, 2012, at 12:12 PM, David Graham <david at unthinkable.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I mostly use a slightly tweaked "GrayTheme", but it's a bit too bright for late-night coding sessions, so I created a dark theme named Wintermute (similar to TextMate twilight) and posted it to github.
>>>>         

Great! BTW, the intent of the GrayTheme was just to make it look like 
the default Mac look, for people who get scared with colors...

>>>> https://github.com/davidgraham/Cuis-ExtraThemes
>>>>
>>>> I prefer a dark background without a picture for this theme, but didn't see a way to get remove the desktop picture from the theme class?  I've just been evaluating "World backgroundImageData: nil" before changing the theme.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm happy to add anyone to the contrib list for this repo, just drop me an email.  I thought it would be nice to have a generic package for additional or beta themes.
>>>>
>>>> I ran into a couple minor issues that I plan on taking a closer look at.  Should I submit them to the Cuis repo issue tracker anyway?
>>>>         

I'd suggest the use of the issue tracker to be rather liberal.

I mean, if you find an issue (bug or not), and can make a fix quickly, 
then opening an issue is optional. If you think the issue needs to be 
documented to avoid it in the future, or for other Squeak forks to take 
advantage of it, or any other reason, then open an issue. Another reason 
for opening an issue could be that the issue is important enough to be 
part of the release notes of the next Cuis release. Or you can choose 
not to open an issue, if you prefer that.

On the other hand, if you're not doing the fix right now, or you're 
don't doing the fix at all, then please open an issue so it is not 
forgotten.

>>> First off, awesome choice of name for your theme! (For the uninitiate, it's from an award-winning science fiction novel called Neuromancer.)
>> Thanks.  I don't know why it popped in my head while thinking of a 
>> name, but it seems to fit.
>>
>>>  Makes me want to create a theme and call it TheBollards;)
>>>       

It seems I had little sci-fi in my life... I celebrate a good name, that 
people like, even if I don't get it!

>>> WRT background image, I never implemented that in Theme, because I didn't have a good way to put image data into a Theme subclass. 
>>>
>>> Of course I forgot all about it, and then I wrote ContentPack. Now that you've reminded me, may I suggest: perhaps we should think about doing a touch of integration between Theme and ContentPack (since they're both already in the core of the system.)
>>>
>>> If you get the graphic into the system with a ContentPack, it shouldn't be too hard to add something to your Theme subclass that references it. 
>>>
>>> If we do support backgrounds in theme, I do think we should put the new behavior on Theme and make Theme reference the default background image. That way we do everything exactly the same way.
>>>       
>> Sounds good to me.  I'd rather avoid having end users deal with files.

Of course. I fully agree. Please do it this way. Each theme should have 
an appropriate background (image, solid color, InfiniteForm).

>>> Thoughts, anyone?
>>>
>>> Casey
>>>
>>> P.S.
>>>
>>> I'm having a hard time getting to a laptop lately, so I won't be able to try it today. Can I have a screenshot? :)
>>
>> Here you go (also on the github wiki):
>>
>> <Wintermute.png>

Very nice!

Cheers,
Juan Vuletich