Re: mxflat-tabbed

[Janek Kozicki <janek_listy wp pl>]

Scott Scriven said:     (by the date of Tue, 5 Aug 2008 21:08:03 -0600)

> * Christopher Bratusek <nano-master gmx de> wrote:
> > You'll find it here: http://freshmeat.net/projects/mxflat/
> 
> Based on its screenshot...
> 
>   http://c.fsdn.com/fm/screenshots/32704.png
> 
> I'm guessing it won't be easy after all.  This is probably the 
> most complicated theme available.  There are two issues to figure 
> out:
> 
>   - With user-configurable buttons and positions and such, it may 
>     be difficult to figure out where exactly the title area is...  
>     So far, the position of the title area has been hard-coded 
>     into the user's tab config, so the problem is getting the tab 
>     code and the theme code to communicate.

Ouch. That may be a problem indeed. The tab code cannot read the
variables in a theme? (because they don't exist in not-tabbed themes?)

Fernando, do you have any idea how to do that?


I think that the best (and only?) solution is to ask theme about
that. it would be sth like a pixel position of tab-bar-start and
tab-bar-end. It will define a space on bar saying where tabs are
allowed to be (we are assuming that titlebar is on the top
of the window, because better don't go into such details, yet).

In case of mxflat there needs to be another option in the -ui theme
config. And user would specify explicitly where tab-bar starts and
ends.

 
>   - The title area has no visual edges, so I'd have to add 
>     something to put between tabs.  This would also end up on the 
>     left and right edges of the overall title area; not just 
>     between tabs.  So, at least some visual changes are probably 
>     needed, unless people prefer having no separator between tabs.

For start you can just make it a black line of 1 pixel. Just to get
it work.

Later, it will be very compatible with whole mxflat theme if you
assume that a separator is a vertical line of custom color and custom
width, where width=0 pixels means that there is no separator.

 
> Both of these would be much easier if I knew more about sawfish's 
> lisp code.  I'm kinda stumbling in the dark.

ask questions. Probably I can't answer, but others can :)
 

> I also suspect that some other options will break, like the 
> ability to use non-centered titles.

So I think, that you should make a copy of mxflat, like 

  svn cp mxflat mxflat-tabbed

And there work on it. Thus it will be possible to compare original
and modified one during debugging.


But don't do that yet. Better put tab code into trunk, with anything
which works. We can go back to mxflat after a release, and when more
people will test your tabs, and perhaps submit patches that improve
them :)

-- 
Janek Kozicki                                                         |