Re: [linux-distros-dev] customize gtk theme makes eclipse 100% more usab

[Sebastian Gurin <sgurin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi pantelis, nice to switch opinions... I reply between lines..

On Fri, 22 May 2009 17:40:35 +0300
Pantelis Koukousoulas <pktoss@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Sebastian Gurin
> <sgurin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi Pantelis,
> >
> > my opinion about your point is:
> >
> > 1) it is not intuitive, for a common user, that gtk theme is responsible of defining this properties (most users will first go to eclipse's window->preference->appearence and try to futilesness configure from there)
> 
> Agreed, but are programmers "common users"? OTOH eclipse is of course
> used for many more things than an IDE so you are certainly right.
> 

note that not all programers are linux or even gtk users... :)

> >
> > 2) in a normal gnome environment (ubuntu's and opensuse's, for ex) ALL of the themes installed (clearlox, crux, glider, synchronicity, default, highcontrast, etc) waste vertical space in eclispe tree views (imho the principal annoying thing of eclipse linux) My self didn't know till now that there exists a theme gtk-qt that fix this. (but, think about it, why should I know that?)
> 
> For what is worth, it is KDE users that use gtk-qt.
> 
> If all the normal gtk themes are broken, is this a problem only for
> eclipse or for other apps too? 

if you make something like

$ MY_ECLIPSE_GTKRC=~/eclipse/eclipseGtkRc
$ GTK_RC_FILES=$GTK_RC_FILES:$MY_ECLIPSE_GTKRC
$ GTK2_RC_FILES=$GTK2_RC_FILES:$MY_ECLIPSE_GTKRC
$ eclipse &

and write the gtkrc hack to ~/eclipse/eclipseGtkRc, you are able to customize current gtk theme but only for that eclipse instance. So the sollution has not to be invasive to gtk themes or to other applications...

> If there is at least one more app with
> problems then it might be a better choice
> to fix at least one gnome gtk theme imho (preferably all / the most common).

As I said, I don't think the sollution has to be noted in other apps .

> 
> >
> > 3) it seems that t eclipse is doing nothing to improve eclipse+linux user experience in this way....
> >
> > I think eclipse shoud define an appropiate theme customization and at least give the user the oportunity to use it. Believe me that several unexpierienced-in-gnome users will appreciate something like that!
> 
> That would be nice. Perhaps there can be a "gtk theme configuration
> plugin" for eclipse developed here in linux-distros.
> (This might mean though it will only be in e.g., Fedora and Gentoo and
> not in the official tarballs)
> Or eclipse could be more explicit in telling users that it is Gtk they
> should be looking at, if they have theme problems.

both coud be valid sollutions. A simple shell script like I show bellow can be an alternative too (I will try to refine and test a little more about this one and send a fix). My point is that in the current state of things, even for an advanced swt, eclipse, gtk, programmer it is difficult to figure it out how to adjust this waste of space... 

> 
> Cheers,
> Pantelis
> 


-- 
Sebastian Gurin <sgurin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>