Re: Camaelon <-> GNUstep

[Gregory John Casamento]

All,

Sorry to reply late to this thread... :)

-- Richard Frith-MacDonald wrote:
> I *like* the default scheme much more than other systems... so I find  
> the argument about changing the look to attract developers very  
> unconvincing.  However, providing screenshots of alternative color  
> schemes won't do any harm and might help.
 
Here's a reply from one of the people from my blog right after I announced nib 
compatibility (I hope the original poster doesn't mind, but it was posted to my 
blog publically):

"Wow, very cool. The one thing that always bugged me about GNUstep, and the one 
thing that alwawys stops me from using it is the UI style; hardly up-to-date by 
anyone's standards. Are there any plans to create a more modern-looking theme? 
Not necessarily an OS X clone, but something that's a little more visually 
pleasing...

This could also be the one thing holding GNUStep from becoming mainstream, 
IMHO."

This is the most frequent criticism I hear concerning GNUstep.    I've heard it 
from two companies that were planning to port their apps to GNUstep.  I also 
heard it from another company which wanted to create new apps for GNUstep by 
itself (and perhaps port from GNUstep to Mac OS at a later date).   I also hear 
it from people whom I show GNUstep to occasionally.  While many like the look, 
some don't.  Unfortunately people will almost always gravitate to something 
because it's attractive, in spite of what it's technical merits underneath 
might or might not be.

GNUstep, I believe. needs a theming system which is flexible and extensible.   
This will allow people to make new themes that make GNUstep look like whatever 
they want it to.  I would, personally, prefer a significantly updated NeXT look 
to be the default theme (think about what NeXT's UI might look like, if NeXT 
hadn't been bought by Apple).

Later, GJC

--Gregory John Casamento

----- Original Message ----
From: Richard Frith-Macdonald <richard@tiptree.demon.co.uk>
To: Marc Brünink <mbruen@smartsoft.de>
Cc: GNUstep Discussion <discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 5:56:16 AM
Subject: Re: Camaelon <-> GNUstep


On 25 Aug 2006, at 10:16, Marc Brünink wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I guess everybody knows it already:-) Yesterday evening we  
> installed etoile on Solaris 10. And it was the first time we took a  
> look at Camaelon. Now I just have to yell across the list:
> "ITS GREAT!"
>
> Actually Camaelon fixes one of the three things I really hate about  
> GNUstep. I will express it in 4 tiny letters: G R E Y

The GNUstep GUI has had user definable colors for a very looong time.  
You can change colors on a per-user (or per application for a user)  
basis by simply adding new system color specifications in the  
defaults system See the NSColor documentation.

> Now I'm wondering why this was not synced into GNUstep yet.  
> Actually I did not look at the code but I guess it is gooood code.

Because Nicolas was not happy with the state of his Camaelon code,  
and wanted to reworlk it before merging it in, and hasn't found time.

> Sometimes I have the feeling that every third email on this list is  
> about having not enough developers. And how to attract more. I  
> think this is pretty easy: Do not use grey! Its not about the  
> codebase and clean or functional code at all. Its about the look  
> and feel.
> If it looks bad most of the people will not even look deep enough  
> to see  the code. They will just vanish.
> However if we have a good look and feel (without installing an  
> additional bundle) people will come, take a look take a closer look  
> and finally will see the code. Even if everything is broken: At  
> least they have seen it! And the most important thing: They will  
> come back.
> (Do anyone remember the gorm 1.0 announcement at slashdot?)

I *like* the default scheme much more than other systems... so I find  
the argument about changing the look to attract developers very  
unconvincing.  However, providing screenshots of alternative color  
schemes won't do any harm and might help.



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