please do not hardcode look and feel in apps

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Hi,

Please do not do change look and feel of widgets in apps, unless you
have an app-specific reason to do so.

For example, some people disable the separator in GtkMessageDialog. Do
not do this per-app. Open a bug report like a sensible person:

  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68938

Then we will make a consistent, maintainable fix that addresses the
problem for the whole desktop.

If we change our mind on what we want as default, or decide to make it
themeable, or whatever, then app-specific hacks will fuck everything
up. Plus, changing defaults from the library is the one guaranteed way
to end up with inconsistency.

An example of an app-specific reason for changing look and feel is "my
app has a notebook above the separator, so there's no need for an
extra separator." An example of a non-app-specific reason is "I don't
like separators in dialogs ever."

Avoiding app-specific hacks is one of the many reasons the HIG should
recommend what the toolkit makes easy, even if we are also
recommending changing the toolkit via bugzilla. Do not mix the a) in
the b) or we have a maintenance disaster that handicaps our ability to
move forward.


Disagreements with, or suggested improvements for, the libraries go in
*BUGZILLA*. *NOT* in the HIG. Pretty please. Nothing in the HIG should
require cutting-and-pasting boilerplate
modify-the-toolkit-in-trivial-ways code all over creation.

The HIG is information on how to properly write apps, not a tool for
arguing with the library maintainers, and not a treatise on the ideal
UI design. Designs go in RFCs, arguments/bugreports/suggestions go in
bugzilla or on mailing lists. Deployable, maintainable, finished
suggestions go in the HIG.

I hope the necessity of following this guideline is clear and that
maintainers will enforce it for their modules.

Thank you.

Havoc