Rockbox Technical Forums
Support and General Use => Theming and Appearance Customization => Topic started by: JdGordon on March 03, 2010, 01:57:20 PM
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starting a new thread to talk about some changes I want to make to th cabbiev2 theme.
I want the changes for two reason:
1) the default theme should show off as much of the skinning possibilities as possible (to act as a bit of a demo for themeres)
2) the default theme on the mini is hard to read. i.e too much info on the small screen.
What I've done is slightly updated the classic_statusbar sbs to take over the list title and display it centered and bold, and have the current track info displaying as bold in the WPS.
This change obviously doesnt make sense for all targets, so if it get support which targets should it be changed for?
oh, this theme isnt on the themesite yet because the skin buffer isnt big enough for fonts on the mini2g yet :/
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I disagree about the "show off as much as possible" aspect.
I think though that there's no harm in showing off quite a bit in the default theme, as long as it never gets in the way of making it one of the most useful/usable themes we can provide.
That being said, I don't really see anything wrong with these changes, and would be for tweaking Cabbie in similar ways to show off some of these newer features on other targets as well.
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1) the default theme should show off as much of the skinning possibilities as possible
I completely disagree here. The default theme should be what a default should be: a sane value suitable for most people. If we want a "show-off" theme we always can create such a theme and maintain it in svn along the default theme. Not sure if it's worth the effort though. Artists have made great themes in the past without such a "show-off" theme.
2) the default theme on the mini is hard to read. i.e too much info on the small screen.
I disagree again. I'm using the default cabbiev2 since quite a while on my mini and IMO its quite readable. The only thing I've changed is that I removed displaying of album art (as some of my music folders do include album art jpg files).
What I've done is slightly updated the classic_statusbar sbs to take over the list title and display it centered and bold,
Does this mean that there will always this "Rockbox" title, especially if in the file browser? I wouldn't like that: I want to see the current folder and always having a "Rockbox" title on the screen is simply waste.
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Does this mean that there will always this "Rockbox" title, especially if in the file browser? I wouldn't like that: I want to see the current folder and always having a "Rockbox" title on the screen is simply waste.
obviously not, that would be bloody stupid
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I would like to see the default theme updated. It would be nice to have it show off multi-font for instance.
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I disagree about the "show off as much as possible" aspect.
What I meant was that where it makes sense we should try to make use of some of the more advanced tags available.
I mean on targets with a big enough screen the default shuold have a sbs, and maybe use the playlist viewer instead of basic next track info. multifonts when there are lots of text lines close together, etc.
I obviously didnt mean to make sure we do get every avilable tag in the one screen no matter how stupid it looks.
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I didn't think you did. I just meant that I think we should err on the side of usability, rather than err on the side of "fancy." There's a broad spectrum of things that can be done without being miserly in our use of tags, and without just stuffing every last one on there either. I just wanted to state which way I'd like to lean.
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An "all-in-one" theme might be helpful for those wanting to create a theme. Sometimes a functioning example that can be picked apart will illustrate more than a manual.
Still, I would agree that the theme should be usuable.
Perhaps each release can have a basic, usable theme incorporating only theme changes new to that release.
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Just some considered use of multifont would be of great benefit to Cabbie, I think. I used it on iPod Video for a long time, and it's a good solid theme but it would definitely benefit from a font size bump for the title and artist information.
A nice SBS would be good as well, but I know there's been work on that in another thread.
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I don't see why updating everything that can be themed to be themed would be a bad idea, as long as it was done well. I know when I first started making themes myself I had to borrow bits and pieces from other themes until I really got a grasp on how everything went together. It would be nice to have a theme that incorporates as much as it can while still remaining usable and clean, even if it wasn't set as the default.
Maybe it's time to start working on a theme for inclusion in Rockbox as something to show off the available theme features..? Rather than updating cabbie to theme everything possible, it might be better to make a new theme and leave cabbie a little more simplified, at least until the code matures a little more and cabbie starts to look old.
As for cabbie, it might not be a bad idea to make use of multifont in some instances, and a base skin for the menus wouldn't be too bad an idea either since the old statusbar is rather tiny on the larger-screened DAPs. Anything else could probably be left as is as long as the base screen is set up correctly.
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the annoying thing with using a base skin is that on the smaller screen targets (the mini and nao especially) there isnt really a good reason to waste the screen space on a pretty bar like on the bug screens... but using a sbs means you have to use classic_Statusbar.sbs which isnt as configurable as the inbuilt bar.
So what I plan on doing is adding a tag to show the inbuilt bar (rather ironic seen as i was hoping to kill the thing off only a few months ago :p )
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So what I plan on doing is adding a tag to show the inbuilt bar (rather ironic seen as i was hoping to kill the thing off only a few months ago :p )
I still think it should go out. I see no reason for a tag to show the inbuild one. That's always available through the .cfg (even if the inbuild one is just a .sbs file).
I too think that cabbiev2 should get an sbs, at least on somewhat bigger screens.
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i meant have the tag specify the viewport to draw it in so the sbs to add the title like I had would ismply be:
%V|0|0|-|8|0|-|-|
%si
%V|0|8|-|12|1|-|-|
%?Lt<%ac%s%Lt>
%Vi|0|20|-|-|1|-|-|
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The only change I'd like to see in Cabbiev2 is that a common status bar style is used across all screens (especially menus/WPS). I guess the "status bar" icons used on the WPS would be the best option, although may need shrinking a little.
Similarly, I'd prefer that they were always at the top (or bottom); it seems odd that the status "moves" at the moment.
pondlife
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%wi lets us do this much simpler...
%Fl|2|12-Adobe-Helvetica-Bold.fnt|
%V|0|0|-|8|0|-|-|
%wi
%V|0|8|-|12|2|0|3|
%?Lt<%ac%Lt>
%Vi|0|20|-|-|1|0|3|
is all thats needed for the sbs for this update (and with a view conditional viewports we can have the bold centered title without forcing the statusbar out of where the user wants it
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I disagree about the "show off as much as possible" aspect.
i totally agree with this!!
maybe we can call the new version that shows everythign Cabbie v3? i like the way cabbie v2 is right now on my gigabeat
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i totally agree with this!!
maybe we can call the new version that shows everythign Cabbie v3? i like the way cabbie v2 is right now on my gigabeat
there already is a cabbie v3. What about something like Cabbie Fancy?
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there already is a cabbie v3. What about something like Cabbie Fancy?
Or "Flabbie"? :D