Default theme (panel)

[Harald Judt]

Hi,

Am 30.11.2011 09:26, schrieb Andrzej:
> On 29/11/2011 19:10, Christoph Wickert wrote:
>>
>>> One minor suggestion for the next release's default theme.
>>>
>>> I think the panel should look distinctly different from the rest of Gtk
>>> applications. It's not just for "better looking" - having a panel that
>>> looks like other applications is quite confusing, especially when the
>>> application windows are maximized.
>>
>> I don't really think so, but if you want the panel to look different,
>> just follow the instructions from it's README.gtkrc-2.0 file.
>
> Christoph, I'm thinking of improving the default theme.
>
> To clarify my intentions, I'm not talking about making the panel look
> like KDE's plasma of Gnome Shell widgets. Quite the opposite. Perhaps
> just tweaking the colors a bit would do the job. The goal is to make the
> panel easier to notice among many other Gtk widgets on the screen.
>
> Look for example at this screenshot:
> http://www.xfce.org/images/frontpage/intro-1-small.jpg
> The lack of contrast gets worse when working with maximized windows.

Personally, I think the panel in its default configuration looks good 
the way it is. Additionally, I think the panel should not draw the 
user's attention, but rather not waste space and get out of the way. In 
contrast to other applications that change their position and/or layout, 
it can always be found at a pre-defined location, so you won't have to 
look for it.

> This BTW is not very different from having visually distinct controls in
> the window title bars. Perhaps we could make the panel follow the xfwm
> theme rather than the gtk one?
 >
 > Andrzej

Besides that I'm not a xfwm user, I'd rather be able to theme it using 
gtk, as is the case now. This would not be possible if it uses a xfwm 
theme. It's bad enough you have to search for a separate theme for the 
window manager if you want it to go well with your gtk theme.

However, I find that xfce4-panel feels a bit clumsy and unintuitive 
regarding its configuration. I'm quite eager to try out your new deskbar 
panel mode when it's ready and I find some time.

Harald

-- 
`Experience is the best teacher.'