Customizing GWorkspace and other apps

[Rubens_Septimus ()]

Hello !

I try to understand customizing with GNUstep :

1°) Icons : is a clean way to customize icons in GWorkspace ? I tried to do so on a draft system (virtual box) before installing GNUstep on my real computer. But it was dirty, because copying file icons in the system domain results in many disadvantages :
1) Other people can't chose their icons or can't revert to the classic ones ;
2) When upgrading, the customized icons will be lost.

So I thought the User domain was the good way, but putting icons files in ~/GNUstep/Icons/ gives no result. Any idea how to achieve this ?

Are the 48x48 size and the tiff format the only ones supported ?

2°) Theming : I received some answers in the gnustep-discuss list about Camaelon, so I don't add anything here because David  said a great work will be done on Summer code... Waiting.

3°) How I can get windows bar to look different, for example, with pretty color buttons like on Mac OS X ? Is a way to do this from "defaults" directive ?

4°) Maybe this is not dealing with customization... With Wmaker-GNUstep, some apps are awfully designed like OpenOffice 2.4 (black rectangular hole on the top of the window and no integration with services from GNUstep apps). Maybe this is due to Wmaker, not GNUstep. Is there a way to get the Mac OS X neo-office or Camino working on GNUstep to get a little more integration with design and relationship between GNUstep apps and others ?

[Fred Kiefer]

Rubens_Septimus wrote:

> Hello !
>
> I try to understand customizing with GNUstep :
>
> 1°) Icons : is a clean way to customize icons in GWorkspace ? I tried to do
> so on a draft system (virtual box) before installing GNUstep on my real
> computer. But it was dirty, because copying file icons in the system domain
> results in many disadvantages :
> 1) Other people can't chose their icons or can't revert to the classic ones
> ;
> 2) When upgrading, the customized icons will be lost.
>
> So I thought the User domain was the good way, but putting icons files in
> ~/GNUstep/Icons/ gives no result. Any idea how to achieve this ?
>

There is one other way to customize icons, that is by using a mapping to
a different file name in the nsmapping.strings file. You find that file
in the GNUstep/System/Library/Images directory.

> Are the 48x48 size and the tiff format the only ones supported ?
>
You may use different sizes or formats.

> 3°) How I can get windows bar to look different, for example, with pretty
> color buttons like on Mac OS X ? Is a way to do this from "defaults"
> directive ?

You will need to program that yourself, but it shouldn#T be to hard, if
you know what you want.


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[Rubens_Septimus]

Fred Kiefer wrote:

Rubens_Septimus wrote:
> Hello !
>
> I try to understand customizing with GNUstep :
>
> 1°) Icons : is a clean way to customize icons in GWorkspace ? I tried to do
> so on a draft system (virtual box) before installing GNUstep on my real
> computer. But it was dirty, because copying file icons in the system domain
> results in many disadvantages :
> 1) Other people can't chose their icons or can't revert to the classic ones
> ;
> 2) When upgrading, the customized icons will be lost.
>
> So I thought the User domain was the good way, but putting icons files in
> ~/GNUstep/Icons/ gives no result. Any idea how to achieve this ?
>
There is one other way to customize icons, that is by using a mapping to
a different file name in the nsmapping.strings file. You find that file
in the GNUstep/System/Library/Images directory.

> Are the 48x48 size and the tiff format the only ones supported ?
>
You may use different sizes or formats.

> 3°) How I can get windows bar to look different, for example, with pretty
> color buttons like on Mac OS X ? Is a way to do this from "defaults"
> directive ?

You will need to program that yourself, but it shouldn#T be to hard, if
you know what you want.

Thanks, Fred. I will try the nsmapping.strings. It seems cleaner than my first attempt.
For the other suggestion, I will wait a little to learn more about Objective-C and so on...

Patrick

[Rubens_Septimus]

Rubens_Septimus wrote:

Fred Kiefer wrote:

Rubens_Septimus wrote:
> Hello !
>
> I try to understand customizing with GNUstep :
>
> 1°) Icons : is a clean way to customize icons in GWorkspace ? I tried to do
> so on a draft system (virtual box) before installing GNUstep on my real
> computer. But it was dirty, because copying file icons in the system domain
> results in many disadvantages :
> 1) Other people can't chose their icons or can't revert to the classic ones
> ;
> 2) When upgrading, the customized icons will be lost.
>
> So I thought the User domain was the good way, but putting icons files in
> ~/GNUstep/Icons/ gives no result. Any idea how to achieve this ?
>
There is one other way to customize icons, that is by using a mapping to
a different file name in the nsmapping.strings file. You find that file
in the GNUstep/System/Library/Images directory.

> Are the 48x48 size and the tiff format the only ones supported ?
>
You may use different sizes or formats.

> 3°) How I can get windows bar to look different, for example, with pretty
> color buttons like on Mac OS X ? Is a way to do this from "defaults"
> directive ?

You will need to program that yourself, but it shouldn#T be to hard, if
you know what you want.

Thanks, Fred. I will try the nsmapping.strings. It seems cleaner than my first attempt.
For the other suggestion, I will wait a little to learn more about Objective-C and so on...

Patrick

Well, searching nsmappings.strings on Ubuntu only reports /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep/nsmapping.strings, but that file don't deal with dir or app icons...
There is a /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images (apparently path with System are deprecated) but no nsmapping.strings inside. So the only way seems to make a backup of the old icons and copying in the shared folders the new icons. Did'nt find how to use mapping files.

[Hubert Chathi-2]

Rubens_Septimus wrote:
> Well, searching nsmappings.strings on Ubuntu only reports
> /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep/nsmapping.strings, but that file don't deal with
> dir or app icons...
> There is a /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images (apparently path with System are
> deprecated) but no nsmapping.strings inside. So the only way seems to make a
> backup of the old icons and copying in the shared folders the new icons.

On a Debian-based system, /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images should be a symbolic
link to /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep (assuming that Ubuntu hasn't messed
up the Debian packages).  If it isn't, something is messed up.

--
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[Fred Kiefer]

Rubens_Septimus wrote:

>
>
> Rubens_Septimus wrote:
>>
>>
>> Fred Kiefer wrote:
>>> Rubens_Septimus wrote:
>>>> Hello !
>>>>
>>>> I try to understand customizing with GNUstep :
>>>>
>>>> 1°) Icons : is a clean way to customize icons in GWorkspace ? I tried to
>>>> do
>>>> so on a draft system (virtual box) before installing GNUstep on my real
>>>> computer. But it was dirty, because copying file icons in the system
>>>> domain
>>>> results in many disadvantages :
>>>> 1) Other people can't chose their icons or can't revert to the classic
>>>> ones
>>>> ;
>>>> 2) When upgrading, the customized icons will be lost.
>>>>
>>>> So I thought the User domain was the good way, but putting icons files
>>>> in
>>>> ~/GNUstep/Icons/ gives no result. Any idea how to achieve this ?
>>>>
>>> There is one other way to customize icons, that is by using a mapping to
>>> a different file name in the nsmapping.strings file. You find that file
>>> in the GNUstep/System/Library/Images directory.
>>>
>>>> Are the 48x48 size and the tiff format the only ones supported ?
>>>>
>>> You may use different sizes or formats.
>>>
>>>> 3°) How I can get windows bar to look different, for example, with
>>>> pretty
>>>> color buttons like on Mac OS X ? Is a way to do this from "defaults"
>>>> directive ?
>>> You will need to program that yourself, but it shouldn#T be to hard, if
>>> you know what you want.
>>>
>> Thanks, Fred. I will try the nsmapping.strings. It seems cleaner than my
>> first attempt.
>> For the other suggestion, I will wait a little to learn more about
>> Objective-C and so on...
>>
>> Patrick
>>
> Well, searching nsmappings.strings on Ubuntu only reports
> /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep/nsmapping.strings, but that file don't deal with
> dir or app icons...
> There is a /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images (apparently path with System are
> deprecated) but no nsmapping.strings inside. So the only way seems to make a
> backup of the old icons and copying in the shared folders the new icons.
> Did'nt find how to use mapping files.
>

No idea what version of GNUstep you have installed and how you installed
it. Anyway there should be a nsmapping.strings file in the directory
where your images are stored. And this file should have a similar
structure to this:

NSSwitch = common_SwitchOff;
NSHighlightedSwitch = common_SwitchOn;
NSRadioButton = common_RadioOff;


This is the mapping from a logical image name to a physical. This
mechanism was intended to provide a mapping from Next image names to
GNUstep image files, but it could be misused for theming as well, by
redefining one physical name into another. This wont allow you to just
change the path to the image directory (this can only be done via
changes to NSBundle), but enables you the redefine the used images on a
one by one basis.


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[Rubens_Septimus]

Fred Kiefer wrote:

Rubens_Septimus wrote:
>
>
> Rubens_Septimus wrote:
>>
>>
>> Fred Kiefer wrote:
>>> Rubens_Septimus wrote:
>>>> Hello !
>>>>
>>>> I try to understand customizing with GNUstep :
>>>>
>>>> 1°) Icons : is a clean way to customize icons in GWorkspace ? I tried to
>>>> do
>>>> so on a draft system (virtual box) before installing GNUstep on my real
>>>> computer. But it was dirty, because copying file icons in the system
>>>> domain
>>>> results in many disadvantages :
>>>> 1) Other people can't chose their icons or can't revert to the classic
>>>> ones
>>>> ;
>>>> 2) When upgrading, the customized icons will be lost.
>>>>
>>>> So I thought the User domain was the good way, but putting icons files
>>>> in
>>>> ~/GNUstep/Icons/ gives no result. Any idea how to achieve this ?
>>>>
>>> There is one other way to customize icons, that is by using a mapping to
>>> a different file name in the nsmapping.strings file. You find that file
>>> in the GNUstep/System/Library/Images directory.
>>>
>>>> Are the 48x48 size and the tiff format the only ones supported ?
>>>>
>>> You may use different sizes or formats.
>>>
>>>> 3°) How I can get windows bar to look different, for example, with
>>>> pretty
>>>> color buttons like on Mac OS X ? Is a way to do this from "defaults"
>>>> directive ?
>>> You will need to program that yourself, but it shouldn#T be to hard, if
>>> you know what you want.
>>>
>> Thanks, Fred. I will try the nsmapping.strings. It seems cleaner than my
>> first attempt.
>> For the other suggestion, I will wait a little to learn more about
>> Objective-C and so on...
>>
>> Patrick
>>
> Well, searching nsmappings.strings on Ubuntu only reports
> /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep/nsmapping.strings, but that file don't deal with
> dir or app icons...
> There is a /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images (apparently path with System are
> deprecated) but no nsmapping.strings inside. So the only way seems to make a
> backup of the old icons and copying in the shared folders the new icons.
> Did'nt find how to use mapping files.
>

No idea what version of GNUstep you have installed and how you installed
it.
 Anyway there should be a nsmapping.strings file in the directory
where your images are stored. And this file should have a similar
structure to this:

NSSwitch = common_SwitchOff;
NSHighlightedSwitch = common_SwitchOn;
NSRadioButton = common_RadioOff;


This is the mapping from a logical image name to a physical. This
mechanism was intended to provide a mapping from Next image names to
GNUstep image files, but it could be misused for theming as well, by
redefining one physical name into another. This wont allow you to just
change the path to the image directory (this can only be done via
changes to NSBundle), but enables you the redefine the used images on a
one by one basis.

Well, my GNUstep is now a regular installation from Ubuntu Hardy.
I seems /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf now replaces the source mechanism previously used from Makefiles/GNUstep.sh.
In that conf file they say :
"# These GNUSTEP_*_ROOT variables are obsolete, and will be removed.
GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT=/usr/System
GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT=/usr/Local
GNUSTEP_NETWORK_ROOT=/usr/Network"

Well about nsmapping.strings, there is only one and it is where I said and it complies with your description. Maybe I misunderstood it's usage : I thought it could handle things like common icon files path like Home_Folder. But, if I understand well your explanation, only the icons for theming the appearance  in the UI. So you tell me about NSBundle. Where can I find more about it ? (I'm a very newbie !)

Thanks for your attention.
Patrick

[Rubens_Septimus]

Hubert Chathi-2 wrote:

Rubens_Septimus wrote:
> Well, searching nsmappings.strings on Ubuntu only reports
> /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep/nsmapping.strings, but that file don't deal with
> dir or app icons...
> There is a /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images (apparently path with System are
> deprecated) but no nsmapping.strings inside. So the only way seems to make a
> backup of the old icons and copying in the shared folders the new icons.

On a Debian-based system, /usr/lib/GNUstep/Images should be a symbolic
link to /usr/share/pixmaps/GNUstep (assuming that Ubuntu hasn't messed
up the Debian packages).  If it isn't, something is messed up.

Yes. You are right :

patrick@andromede:/usr/lib/GNUstep$ file Images
Images: symbolic link to `../../share/pixmaps/GNUstep'

So People on Ubuntu did their job.

[Hubert Chathi-2]

Reubens Septimus wrote:

> Yes. You are right :
>
> patrick@andromede:/usr/lib/GNUstep$ file Images
> Images: symbolic link to `../../share/pixmaps/GNUstep'
>
> So People on Ubuntu did their job. =)

Nah, they just didn't mess up my packaging. ;)

By the way, if you want to replace the default images, you should look
into dpkg-divert.  It allows you to tell dpkg to write the files to a
different location, so you can keep your local replacements.  You should
probably do that anyways, if you're going to be editing
nsmapping.strings, otherwise, when you reinstall/upgrade gnustep, then
it'll replace nsmapping.strings.

--
Hubert Chathi - Email/Jabber: hubert@... - http://www.uhoreg.ca/
PGP/GnuPG key: 1024D/124B61FA   (Key available at wwwkeys.pgp.net)
Fingerprint: 96C5 012F 5F74 A5F7 1FF7  5291 AF29 C719 124B 61FA


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