[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Style plugins now in CVS.
From:       Mosfet <mosfet () jorsm ! com>
Date:       1999-04-24 4:32:41
[Download RAW message or body]

Well, I have finally commited the first versions of the KDE style plugin
interface as well as some theme style classes. I wrote a developers
website describing the API and configuration (and of course screenshots)
at:

http://www.jorsm.com/~mosfet/kde/kdetheme.html

If you don't have a clue what style plugins are take a look there for
lots of info.

I have not updated kcmdisplay to handle the style plugins and theme
configurations yet, so I have included some utilities I have been using
for doing so. mktheme will write out your current configuration to a
file, and settheme will apply a theme config file. So far there are two
themes located in $KDEDIR/share/apps/kstyle/themes. Both these utilities
will be removed once kcmdisplay is updated.

Once a theme is installed you have to tell KDE to use a theme capable
plugin style. So for there is only one, libbasicstyle.so, so set the
widgetStyle entry to widgetStyle=libbasicstyle.so. You can also set it
to the Qt internal styles Platinum, Windows 95, Motif, or CDE. You won't
have to do any of this once I update kcmdisplay.

You don't have to implement themes in style plugins, either. The one
other plugin I have made is libkstepstyle.so, which is a Next like
plugin. You install it the same way, except you don't have to use
settheme to install a theme configuration.

Your system must also support libtool dlopen shared libarary loading
(like kimgio uses). I have not included any kind of static linking
mechanism yet.

Anyways, good luck trying this out. Don't expect it to stable yet, tho
;-) It's still alpha code and off the top of my head I know of bugs in
themed scrollbars, sliders, and radiobuttons (mostly concerning self
masking widget pixmaps). If you are doing some important KDE2.0
development, I would use a Qt internal style until this stabalizes or
hack the bugs with me ;-)

BTW: Before anyone asks about GTK theme support, it should be possible
to include a GTK *configuration file* parser inside a plugin and two
people have expressed interest in doing so. Since KDE style plugins can
do anything they want, it should be rather simple (hint: derive directly
from KStyle). I myself won't be working on this since I am intrested in
improving KDE theme support, not handling non-KDE configs. But it should
be possible to do if one wishes to.

TODO:
* Fix bugs (this is the biggest thing. I will add a buglist to the
source... )
* Update kcmdisplay to handle the plugins.
* Continue extending KStyle to new widgets.
* Get my Theme Designer working. This is a GUI app for creating themes
that manipulates KStyleBase configuration keys.
* Fix more bugs ;-)

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]