Lessons from Themes

xbury.cs at clearstream.com xbury.cs at clearstream.com
Thu Dec 2 03:22:09 EST 2004


Frank,

>Note that this was discussed previously, and it is unlikely that a real
>"OS X" appearance will be possible under Windows, although you might
>think they could get close enough to at least deal with button border
>offsets, field offsets, etc...

First of all, windows 2000 doesn't offer an XP theme.
So, all you can do is simulate Windows 95 technology (9 years old!).
Second, if RR is going to be multiplatform, or even just WinPlatformed
you can't prepare the GUI for the other environments without investing 
into
that platform. 

There is no OSX GUI for windows and the differenses for offsets are 
enormous IMOHO.

The MacOS platinum GUI (note there is no MacOS7 GUI) is absolutely 
horrible in RunRev over windows! Doesn't feel at all like a Mac! And I
was hopping to replace explorer with a Finder of my own ;))

The GUI that looks great in Windows 95 is only a bit changed when in 
Win XP (usually 1 pixel here or there) but with OSX, it's as far as 10
pixels for a TabButton, 4 pixels for an option menu and all scrollbars
are different!

The fonts is yet another story! What looked great in Win32, looks 
completely unprofessional in OSX. Text is no longuer aligned to its
base as it was in windows (in the case of a label field with a row of
buttons in a horizontal line). Not having a vertical text alignment 
is also a needed feature...

While this may be normal as far as font changes, it means that all the 
text heights are different across platforms and nothing is aligned 
anymore. 

So far, this means that I have to rethink ALL my geometry again in 
ControlsN2O... Dreadful...

Even across Win95 and WinXP look and feel the differences are 
significant even in terms of "features". For example the groups
are no longuer opaque if there isn't a border! XP theme buttons 
are not automatic either...

So in a few words, the Look and Feel is nice to have but rather useless
unless your clients haven't upgraded their PCs or Macs for the last 
5 years! Even GIMP or Gnome or KDE is not implemented... Anyone
still using motif?

My only solution right now is to build a OSX GUI with OSX screenshot
parts to make sure they dont overlap! And the right solution might be
to just make a MacOSX stack, and a WinXP version separately.

And that's not very efficient! There's a lot of things to consider 
regarding 
this including customer satisfaction on your end. What will be their first
impression?!! 

All your suggestions and tips are welcome!

regards,
Xavier

On 01.12.2004 17:37:19 use-revolution-bounces wrote:
>My "Look and Feel" list under Rev 2.5, OS X, has these options:
>
>Default Appearance Manager    (let OS X do the work)
>MacOS Platinum Emulated
>Windows Emulated
>Motif Emulated
>
>Note that this was discussed previously, and it is unlikely that a real
>"OS X" appearance will be possible under Windows, although you might
>think they could get close enough to at least deal with button border
>offsets, field offsets, etc...
>
>On Dec 1, 2004, at 11:36 AM, MisterX wrote:
>
>> Hey scripters!
>>
>> As i imagined, the appearance-manager in RunRev doesn't tell you
>> everything!
>> ;)
>>
>> Fields that look far apart enough in Windows dont in OSX...
>>
>> I was wondering if there is a plan to make the OSX Aqua GUI available
>> for
>> testing
>> multiplatformness Appearances in stacks? IOW, add XP and OSX to the
>> "Look
>> and feel"
>> sub-menu of the View menu...
>>
>> I'll make a theme for it before holding my breath but seems kind of
>> not fair
>> we
>> can't visually style our apps for OSX from windows.
>>
>> Similarly, you can't preview the XP theme when in windows 2000. Is that
>> possible on
>> the mac side?
>>
>> Should I bugzilla this enhancement request?
>> Has anyone requested it before? I'll gladly vote 20 on that!
>>
>> Yes, ThemeN2O is coming ;)
>>
>> cheers
>> Xavier
>> --
>> MonsieurX.com -- Rev in Style!


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