Hello all,
I was slammed for a couple of days and did not have much time to work through the universe problem I was having. Given that I can download them from http://www.squeaksource.com/UIEnhancements/ and install via the file list, I am fairly happy, unless there is a risk of getting stale files that way??
I just repeated the installation on my Ubuntu box, and there were no problems. Re previously open windows, I suspect that the #topWindow problems might be avoided by ensuring that only newly created windows are open at the time of changing the theme. For example, one can install the packages, open new workspace(s), copy text to them, open new browsers on existing methods of interest, close the old windows, then change the theme, and it seems to be fine.
Do any of you have any regrets about installing Gary's packages? I am tempted to load them into my working 3.9 image. Any reports of bad experience would be appreciated.
Without any implied lack of gratitude, the changes are thus far simply eye candy. I find the debugger's appearance to be particularly enhanced - which is appreciated because I see it so often :) As impressive and helpful as the changes are, I will stick to my long-standing assertion that Squeak's real GUI problems are feel related. Does this group want to tackle that problem? How? Do we want to adopt Gary's work as a foundation? I am tempted to vote in the affirmative on the latter, and hope that we will go further by taming the mouse-over activation and focus madness. Preferences are fine: I would not want to force convention on others any more than I want to subject my users to (what would appear to them as) random behavior as they move the mouse.
Gary's work is yet another illustration that native widgets are not necessary to achieve any particular look, and I am confident we can illustrate the same re feel. My weakening opposition to native widgets has been based in the discipline they would bring: by handing the message loop over to a binary framework, Squeak would be almost forced to play nicely from then onward. However, there is something to be said for themed design all done in Smalltalk. I just need to be able to idiot proof it.
Bill
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D. University of Florida Department of Anesthesiology PO Box 100254 Gainesville, FL 32610-0254
Email: bschwab@anest.ufl.edu Tel: (352) 846-1285 FAX: (352) 392-7029
On 9/1/07, Bill Schwab BSchwab@anest.ufl.edu wrote:
Hello all,
Do any of you have any regrets about installing Gary's packages? I am tempted to load them into my working 3.9 image. Any reports of bad experience would be appreciated.
I just installed the package. The only thing I noticed that changed was the very cool task bar. I also noticed that all the windows I had open before the change had a straight line on the top left corner as if the rounding was having an error. New windows I opened after the change didn't have this.
I am tempted to vote in the affirmative on the latter, and hope that we will go further by taming the mouse-over activation and focus madness.
After I installed the changes I noticed I *do not* have "follow the mouse" behavior anymore. It seems to be traditional windows behavior. Did someone change something?
Gary's work is yet another illustration that native widgets are not necessary to achieve any particular look, and I am confident we can illustrate the same re feel.
I agree that native/host widgets are not needed. And I'm afraid it's going to be a speed hit in the common/semi-common case.