[Fwd: KDE-Dot: Default Icons

[James Richard Tyrer]

http://dot.kde.org/1156093438/1156303168/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: KDE-Dot new icon theme
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 20:15:49 -0700
From: James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj at acm.org>

 > "use always the current icon set for all icons"

  NOT a good idea. JR has apparently spend considerable time renaming a 
lot of CrystalSVG icons to HiColor so that they will install as HiColor. 
Now the current icon set is going to change and someone will have to do 
the work over again.

  The reasonable conclusion is that we need to come up with some way to 
avoid this unless it was somebody's intention to force everyone to use 
CrystalSVG.

  The standard says:
  <<
  The lookup is done first in the current theme, and then recursively in 
each of the current theme's parents, and finally in the default theme 
called "hicolor" (implementations may add more default themes before 
"hicolor", but "hicolor" must be last).
  >>

  Adding more default themes before HiColor is also a bad idea unless it 
is configurable. Users (that don't use CrystalSVG) are complaining that 
that the Icon Loader doesn't properly fall back to HiColor -- that they 
get CrystalSVG rather than HiColor. Gentoo even patches to try to fix 
this but I was advised that it doesn't work.

  A suggested solution to both of these issues is that additional icon 
themes should be added AFTER HiColor as a backup to HiColor and that 
this needs to be configurable (and DeskTop specific).

  If that is done: if we don't have an icon in the chosen icon theme 
then the fall back is first to the inherited themes, second to HiColor 
and then if we are missing the icon in HiColor the themes in the backup 
list will be searched. Normally, the first one on the list would be the 
current default.

  If this is done users not wanting CrystalSVG icons will get them ONLY 
if a HiColor icon does not exist. This is what I, and other users, 
expect to happen.

-- 
JRT