..on or around Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:04:13PM -0700, Dylan McCall said: > Simple screenshot to show off: > http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3945/yayfu2.png
just quickly i'd like to show my vote for that screenshot. it really does 'open up' the desktop as you suggest, prioritising the application content over the window manager. a frustrating thing about Human, and GNOME in general is just how in-you-face all those title bars are - all these horizontal stripes of rich colour, the density of which accumulate with every new window. it really dominates far too much i think. it's too heavy. to these ends it would be good to see before-and-after screenshots with several 'typical' applications open. it may help to make your case. that said what is seen in your screenshot may not be at all practical - especially for those that aren't power users and know the minimise/maximise key combinations by heart. regardless, it is refreshing to see. cheers, -- julian oliver http://julianoliver.com http://selectparks.net messages containing HTML will not be read. ..on or around Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:04:13PM -0700, Dylan McCall said: > Hi! > > Sorry, this is a tad rambly, but I feel like pushing some thoughts... > > I have spent a bit of time tinkering after discovering that I never use > Metacity's window buttons. Pulled them out by editing metacity's stuff > in gconf... I even tried removing the window titles by editing the > theme, but it turns out I can't live without those. Changed to a > different Metacity theme (Plano), although Human's theme was doing well > with shrinking down the title bar. I think the results were quite > striking. My thought was that programs usually have their own Close > buttons and don't need the WM one. I hate redundancy, so naturally had > to do it. (I also never use Minimize, instead bouncing windows to new > workspaces when I don't need them for the task at hand. Need a button > for that...) > > The impact this fiddling has is kind of interesting: It makes me forget > about windows and just see a program's own interface. Although people > are pretty stuck in the crazy ways of window close buttons, I really > think "simple" like this is how window decorations should be. By all > means, they can add titles to my windows and work to keep them easy to > tell apart, but far too many themes are instead striving to be noticed. > Nobody cares about the window; it says nothing and is really just a > superficial adjustment. The important part is the interface inside the > window. Being noticable is the job of the GTK theme and only the GTK > theme. > > Something else that interested me was the effect of not having a border. > Even with the same Human-Clearlooks GTK theme, having a different > Metacity theme really made a difference. It kind of opened up my > desktop, where the current Metacity theme seems to put everything into > enclosed tanks, this one gives programs all the space available. I guess > I could just go out and say "it looks Macish", although the same effect > is possible with a theme that doesn't have the trademark silver gradient > at the top. Besides which, the only thing Macish here is that it looks > plain amazing. > > Back in time even just a little, this type of theme was impossible > because the way to get drop shadows was Compiz, but Metacity's simple > compositor is finally bringing drop shadows to the masses! With drop > shadows defining windows, we don't need borders except as little > resizing handles... > > Simple screenshot to show off: > http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3945/yayfu2.png > > Another notable thing there, in my opinion, is what that still does for > the GTK theme, even in its simplicity. This one is built to blend with > the GTK theme, thus creating flow like we have with the rest of > Clearlooks. However, this is finally a part of a window we can > completely expect to be there, which is not the same for toolbars and > menubars. With Human-Clearlooks, I can see trouble is being had in > creating a flowing gradient because of that lack of predictability, but > the effect can be achieved gracefully if the gradient happens with the > Metacity theme. In essence, Plano is built to simply close the rough > edges around GTK's presence, rather than to impose its own style on the > windows. > > Anyhow, I guess my point is that Metacity themes are very powerful > things, and it would probably be worth pondering a fresh one for > Intrepid Ibex. Obviously wouldn't fit Hardy, since the aim is not for a > full theme re-imagining there and because Metacity's compositor is > experimental at this point in time. However, I think Metacity themes > could do with as much attention as GTK ones! > > Bye, > -Dylan > -- > ubuntu-art mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art -- ubuntu-art mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
