Desktop Theme Spec

[Toma]

On 21/04/2008, Patryk Zawadzki <patrys at pld-linux.org> wrote:
 > On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Toma <tomhaste at gmail.com> wrote:
 >  > Hey folks,
 >  >  Sorry for jumping in late in this thread, but if you have a look at
 >  >  what Enlightenment is doing, youll see some interesting ideas on all
 >  >  this. A few points,
 >  >  1. E17, ETK and EWL themes are all in separate 'edj' files, that are
 >  >  basically image and program containers. As such, they're actually
 >  >  binary themes. What this allows is the theme 'engine' to be built
 >  >  around the images so all animations, transitions and actions can be
 >  >  enclosed in the theme itself.
 >
 >
 > What kind of code is there in edj? Is it portable between arches? If
 >  not, why not use .so?
 >


edj files are compiled Edje files. You can read all about Edje here..
 http://wiki.enlightenment.org/index.php/Edje
 All compiled Edje files can be used on any system regardless of arch.


 >
 >  >  2. In  E17 itself, the widget layout is entirely dependant on what the
 >  >  theme creator does. This has been used to create some rather drastic
 >  >  themes. And appearance changes. The widget layout is set by the
 >  >  program creator with EWL and ETK (the 2 different toolkits based on
 >  >  EFL)
 >
 >
 > Most theme creators are not programmers and I believe that's a good thing.


Alot of theme creators in E17 are the same way. The simply copy other
 themers code and replace the images, much like a standard GTK theme.
 The more advanced themers can do simple tweaks to other peoples code
 and change images. Ive done it once, then I decided to do one from
 scratch and people have so far used code from both of them. Its a very
 simple language.


 >
 >
 >  >  3. The edj file can be decompiled with easy for editing and re-themeing.
 >
 >
 > How often do you see Photoshop masters running around and
decompiling files? ;)
 >


Wherever Edje is used,  you will find the edje_cc, edje_decc, and
 edje_recc programs to open Edje files. Last I checked, Photoshop
 doesnt open .tar.gz files ;D


 >
 >  >  Please keep other desktops in mind and not limit the discussion to KDE
 >  >  and Gnome.
 >
 >
 > Sure.

Thanks!


(Sorry, forgot to reply to all)

 >
 >
 >  --

>  Patryk Zawadzki
 >  PLD Linux Distribution
 >