Re: Look and Feel

[M. Uli Kusterer]

At 15:15 Uhr +0000 13.02.2005, Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
> I do find it convincing enough to say we should have options to customise
> things (themes) at the behavior layer as well as pure appearance.
> While I have no desire for an ms-windows theme myself, I strongly believe
> that the system should allow others to build such themes if they wish, and
> would support the inclusion of a them engine and a variety of themes as
> part of the gnustep core.

 The problem with certain advanced degrees of theme-ability is that 
it can make it very hard for application developers to provide a 
consistent user interface if each one of them is using a theme that 
behaves differently. While algorithmic consistency from the code's 
side is possible, themeing can really become a hindrance when help 
files and documentation describe certain UI elements and your users 
can't recognize them in their theme.

 Still, a certain degree of customizability is a good thing, and I 
think a good theme engine should be flexible enough to implement a 
simple GUI like, say, the Atari ST's just as well as a graphically 
fancy one like MacOS X. Similarly, making sure things stay flexible 
enough to have both a top-menu-bar, window-local menu bars or 
palettized main menus are definitely of benefit to the theme engine.

 On the other hand, do you really want a Windows theme, or a Mac 
theme? I don't think so. If it looks like Windows but behaves like 
GNUstep, it will confuse users more than it'll help. If a third party 
wants to create a Windows GUI, sure, they can do that, but I think 
that the defaults that ship with GNUstep should be similar enough to 
recognize one based on pictures of the other.

 The theme engine will be there, so if users want to shoot themselves 
in the foot by installing "Mahogany black woodwork with blue LEDs", 
don't stop them (heck, they may be advanced users who know enough to 
actually cope with the new UI). But provide sensible defaults and 
make it clear what the recommended "official party line" is. That 
way, even beginners or end-users who aren't programmers and geeks 
like all of us here will have a consistent, usable experience.
--
Cheers,
M. Uli Kusterer
------------------------------------------------------------
       "The Witnesses of TeachText are everywhere..."
                   http://www.zathras.de