[openbeos] Re: Visual design stuff again

On 2003-09-26 at 20:16:00 [+0200], Simon Taylor wrote:
> > On 2003-09-25 at 17:24:15 [+0200], Simon Taylor wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 2003-09-25 at 17:19, Simon Taylor wrote:
> > > > > My point is that appearing to be a complete "clone" of R5 will
> > > > > not
> > > > > please everyone. Moreover, that does not even accurately
> > > > > reflect
> > > > > what
> > > > > R1 will be.
> > > > 
> > > > Are you saying that a different UI would please everyone?
> > > 
> > > No. That is why I would like to see all the existing code kept, and
> > > an
> > > option to switch to an R5 look if so desired.
> > 
> > The look of R5 controls is hard-coded. Providing the possibility to
> > switch
> > between different looks would require massive changes, namely a
> > framework
> > to support this (i.e. a skinning framework). Since it was agreed,
> > that no
> > major feature should be added to R1, this is just not going to
> > happen.
> 
> I was thinking similar to windows XP - not a whole skinning API (there
> is a whole different discussion on whether we actually want that, but
> that is definately one for GE ;-)). Namely, the ability to switch
> between "old" and "new", both hardcoded.
> 
> My initial thought was to do this by an environment variable, possibly
> in home/config/boot/UserSetupEnvironment - Be did something similar to
> change to R4 audio subsystem.

I don't know about the audio subsystem you're referring to, but in case of 
the look of the interface, what had to be done would be to explicitly 
handle two hardcoded looks in the Draw() method of every widget class. And 
there's a good chance that for some controls this also has to be done for 
other hooks, like Mouse{Down,Up,Moved}() (maybe also for 
AttachedToWindow(), AllAttached() and perhaps even for the constructor). 
This is too ugly a hack, that I would even consider it. And it would have 
to be undone completely, when (if) we consider a more general system.

[...]
> Seriously, my last post on the topic ;-)

We'll see. :-P

CU, Ingo

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