On 18.09.2009, at 03:49, Ronald Spengler wrote:

> To be clear: the default look is showing it's age. And I don't think
> the main image needs more than one theme. But I think themability is
> worth having in a base image.
>
> Also: +1 to whoever thinks Squeak should have a distinct default look
> and feel. We shouldn't try to hide the fact that this is *different*,
> as that's part of the appeal.
>
> On Thursday, September 17, 2009, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de 
> > wrote:
>>
>> On 17.09.2009, at 13:45, Göran Krampe wrote:
>>
>> (presuming some coloring scheme for different tools is still in  
>> effect - I don't want *everything* to be grey)
>>
>> +1
>>
>> - Bert -
>
> -- 
> Ron


Themability is good, and pick a unique thing by default, yes.

I was agreeing with Göran, that distinguishing tools by their color  
has been *the* unique thing in Squeak for ever, and I like it that  
way. Yes it should be toned way down to not hurt the eyes, subtle  
hints are enough, and it should be simple to turn off etc. pp., but  
leaving hints of color in the default look is a Good Thing.

I think a way to compromise is to have lists and text panes in a  
neutral color (e.g. plain white) and only apply the color on the  
window frame.

Btw, themes and per-tool colors are not at odds. E.g., 10 years ago I  
started on a theme engine named "Fur" that could adopt each Window's  
colors, even though button images and scrollbar look etc. came from  
bitmaps:

================
February 2000: I started working on "Fur for Squeak" in Dec 1999, but  
couldn't put much time into it lately. It's based on recolorable  
scaleable images - look for EdgeImageMorph at the BFAV2 Archive. I  
have scrollbars and buttons working - see this screen shot [1]. I  
wanted Fur to not require theme specific code in the image but the  
furs should be distributed in a single directory containing all images  
and a spec file. I'll just file out my stuff and put it in this  
directory for anyone to use - especially for Steve who might want to  
rip parts of my code. Although I find "Fur" is a much more appropriate  
name for SqueakSkins ;-) –Bert Freudenberg
[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20060127201337/wwwisg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/ 
~bert/squeak/fur/fur_prealpha.gif
================

Now the actual look in there was not nice even by standards of its own  
time, but then, it was just a tech demo ;) I'm just saying that  
support for coloring can be had even with themes.

- Bert -