unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ted Gould <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2010-06-07 at 19:47 +0200, Martin Gräßlin wrote:
> Am Montag 07 Juni 2010, 19:03:18 schrieb Ted Gould:
> > I think that with increased popularity the speed of growth in the Linux
> > desktop is growing exponentially.  I think that applications that aren't
> > using one of the major toolkits will quickly find themselves out of sync
> > visually with the rest of the desktop no matter what.  Sure, you can
> > point to CSD as a realization of this, but in reality almost everything
> > Linux desktop-wide is creating the same effect.  Applications that want
> > to be promoted in distros really need to be in a major toolkit.
>
> Please tell that the OpenOffice.org developers ;-)

I think as KOffice improves they'll find out on their own :)

> > I think that you're missing my point here, it isn't about tabs.  But
> > about applications being able to use the integration between these area
> > in new and interesting ways.  One example is how Chrome had some really
> > neat ideas about how tabs should work.  They won't be the last.  Saying
> > that KWin has solved the tabs problem does not mean that the generic
> > issue is solved.
>
> I think you missed my point. It isn't about tabs, but it shows that we are not 
> restricted to the window decorations, but that we can offer way more with 
> decorations. E.g. take the "Windicators". Implementing those inside the 
> decoration would make much more sense than inside the window. If it's in the 
> window decoration it is available to all windows, no matter which toolkit and 
> no matter how broken it is.

Yes, and since they're app specific -- the app needs to control its
window decoration.  But, that's not really the point either.  The point
is that applications can innovate.
 
> > > > On the integration front, there is currently no way to reasonably make
> > > > the window have a texture that integrates cleanly with the title bar.
> > > > Even something as simple as a hash pattern would likely end up looking
> > > > awful much less something sophisticated like the brushed metal look in
> > > > many OS X applications.  I'm not saying we should do either of those,
> > > > but the fact that we can't is a little ridiculous.
> > > 
> > > And also this is not true. Just again look at KDE. We are able to blend
> > > the widget style with the decoration. In the same way we would be able
> > > to do a pattern or a Mac OS X like theme. E.g. look at Bespin [0].
> > 
> > Bespin is a great example.  Why can't the application generated circles
> > extend into the title bar?  I think it would be really cool if they
> > could.
> They could. See for example: 
> http://picasaweb.google.de/mgraesslin/KWin#5408316722032062114
> 
> The screenshot is a little bit bad as the background has circles, too. But 
> it's the only screenshot I have around at the moment.

Ah, the ones on the previous link didn't have any.  How does the
application tell the window manager how to draw it's title bar with
generated circles?  Do you have to make some sort of XBitmap to pass the
title bar or is it process embedded with XEmbed?  Can the app make the
title bar any color it wants and/or the same color as the buttons?

		--Ted

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part