[as-devel] Suggestions and Possible Improvements
Rigos (rigos@eisa.net.au)
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 18:40:27 +1000
Hi!
Well, I have been thinking for quite a long time about some
things I would like to see in AfterStep and some good things
which would make it a lot better. I have been waiting for quite
a while to be on at the same time as allanon__ or sasha_ or nekked
(even though he doesn't seem to be doing much coding atm). I have had
no luck so I decided to post all my thoughts on here and hopefully some
of them
could be implememented.
BUG FIXES:
1. Making it so that the option for no space around titlebar buttons
works
properly. I have noticed that there is still a small gap next to the
buttons at
the very start and the very end of the titlebar. (If you need some more
specifics
I can send a screenshot and explain more.)
2. Various GNOME fixes. I understand that nekked is busy at the moment
and he is the one that did the original code so it might be a while for
these "bugs"
to get fixed. The ones that I have noticed are -
Sometimes when AfterStep and GNOME start GNOME says it can't connect to
the session and no elements of gnome start.
Some small bugs with AfterStep and the gnome pager applet. Sometimes
windows
won't show up in the pager, and also sometimes they won't leave the
pager once it
the window has closed.
There are a few others which I can't think of right now.
3. When using the WM style for titlebutton spacing (no space around
buttons) part
of the background color of the titlebar shows through on the sides of
the button. (Again
I can send a screenshot if having trouble understanding.)
4. Also when using the normal button spacing there is a space to the
left and right of the
buttons on the edges of the tilebar. It would be better if you could
specify how much spacing
there was between the start of the buttons and the edges of the
titlebar.
IMPROVEMENTS:
1. Having an option to turn off the text in the windows inside the
pager.
2. Introducing frames for all parts of AfterStep. Menus, Balloons, etc.
Tildouf has partly
already done a patch for this so I don't think this will be too much
trouble.
3. Add an option for having frames surround the whole windows including
title bar.
4. Add code for allowing scaling of pixmaps for titlebars, and other
backgrounds. I have heard
that people are concerned that this will slow everything down, but if it
is an option then only
people who are willing to live with the slow down will have to use it,
and people who like a fast
environment can just use the normal tiling options.
5. Make it so that it is possible to have title bars that don't cover
the whole width of the window.
For example you could have a titlebar that took up only 50% of the
titlebar and would be resized
depending on the size of the window.
6. Make it so that there is an option for the title bar to be made up of
3 (or maybe more) seperate parts.
This would mean that you would have a middle section, and two end
sections.
7. Make an option so that the part of the titlebar which has the text
underneath is a seperate part which
can have a different titlebar background. An example of a use for this
would be for a Mac OS theme where
the title bar becomes blank underneath the text instead of just the same
line texture going right underneath.
8. Add a new MyStyle into the look file for where you can put the
pixmaps/backgrounds to use for vertical title
bars. This would mean that each window that had vertical titlebars could
have different textures and text than
the normal ones. This way it is now it is impossible to use a tiling
texture for the top titlebar and expect it to
work on a vertical title bar. It would tile it normally which wouldn't
look right for a vertical title bar.
9. Add some new gradients to MultiGradient. Possibly a square gradient,
circular gradient,
diamond gradient.
10. Add option in wharf so that when you specify an entry you can also
specify the tile
to use for the wharf tile. (This might already be a feature I don't know
about.)
11. Add an extra option to have a highlighted button for titlebar
buttons. This would mean
that when the mouse cursor goes over the button the pixmap would change.
12. Possibly move some of the config parts from feel to the look file.
Such items would be the definition for
what titlebuttons do, and what the different clicks on titlebar do. This
would allow for easier theming.
13. Allow for gradients to be like BackPixmap 130. ie. showing through
to the root background.
14. Allow for transparent pixmaps to be used on titlebar backgrounds.
This would work
well with some of my above suggestions.
Well that is all that I can think of now. I'm sure I've missed out some
of what I meant
to say.
I hope that you will consider implementing some of these features, and
bug fixes. I'm sorry that
I can't help do them myself, but I can't code in C/C++ (yet.)
Thanks for reading through all this :)
--
||-===[Daniel Rigos]====[rigos@eisa.net.au]====[ViPA]===-||
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| as.themes.org maintainer | vipa@themes.org |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| www.dandenongs.com | info@dandenongs.com |
| assistant site admin | daniel@dandenongs.com |
||----===================-------=====================----||