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Re: [e4-dev] SWT Styling/Theming
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On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 9:24 AM, Toedter, Kai
<kai.toedter@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
a) We provide custom workbench renderers that could use internal custom SWT widgets to get the desired effect. We don't touch SWT and use internal custom SWT controls. These custom controls can only be used by the workbench renderers.
1. If these widgets cannot be used by the RCP application, wouldn't the style across the whole UI become inconsistent? For example, if the workbench used a styled menu then it seems that menus within views and dialogs should be similarly styled.
2. If these widgets are successful and people like them, there is going to be alot of frustration in general about them being internal.
b) SWT could provide interfaces and a factories that return either the current implementation or a custom implementation that might not be as native as the first one but provides enhanced L&F customization capabilities. These implementations could be used be the workbench renderers and by end users.
I thought "interface" was a dirty word in SWTland :)
My real concern here is getting into the problems that arose from CCombo - people will use the first thing that works in their immediate environment whether that is the intended use of the component or not. I'd be worried that factories would just make that happen faster.
c) I am not sure if this is possible, but SWT could probably enhance things like menu or table header with styling capabilities, e.g. background-color, gradient, and texture. The issue I see here is that operating systems might not provide these capabilities in their native widgets.
If possible (both code-wise and time-wise) this is always the best option. In covering the cases where the OS does not support something, is there a fairly comprehensive list of what needs to be styled?
As a related question, is there a policy regarding Advanced Graphics in the e4 Workbench (not all of e4)? Are they assumed to be available or is this similar to the issue of moving to Java5?
