[squeak-dev] Re: looks evolution

Steve Wessels steve at squeak.preeminent.org
Sat Apr 24 11:07:05 UTC 2010


The discussion about Skins for Squeak raises my curiosity.  As an  
author of skins packages for Squeak that go back as far as 1987/1988,  
I just want to point out that I actually like the existing colorful  
Morphic windows.  They are simple and do not distract.

The history of the Skins project is that I wrote that package just to  
show it could be done if needed, and frankly, it was the "vehicle" I  
used to teach my self about Morphic (since it was new at that time).

The concept that, if you wanted skins in Squeak, you could wholesale  
install themes from the open source Linux community, is appealing.   
Mind you, there are some esoteric and mostly unfit themes out there.

There are several reasons I have not continued to keep the Skins  
project up to date:
   1.  I actually like the existing look and feel.
   2.  It surprises me there is core demand for this capability.  I  
have always thought of it as a "goodie" and more of a personal fun  
indulgance.  I may be wrong about this impression, of course.
   3.  Bringing the Skins project up to date usually took about a  
weekend to do because the base Squeak design kept changing so much.   
So the project would drift away with other personal Squeak projects  
taking priority - including a Laser Game tutorial rewrite I keep  
promising to complete.

Mostly, I haven't kept Skins current because I like the existing  
look.  :)



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