ONGOING DEFAULT THEME CONTEST!!!

[crzyboyster]

saratoga: Are you seriously considering commiting some ports of the theme? I think that the ipod video port would be best for this purpose as it looks great and is very well refined and most users use an ipod video, so it would get lots of bug checks in the process.


EDIT: I just made some bug fixes to the ipod video port. It seems to be very elegant and polished right now (with now bugs visible on the simulator). It seems to be the best canidate right now for commiting.

[pondlife]

I'm VERY late to this, and will admit to not having read all 43 pages (besides a search), so hope this hasn't already been debated, but...

I'd prefer the status icons to be at the top of the WPS, mainly because that's where the status bar lives.  (Going forward, with viewports, I'd like to see this moved to the status bar, with the time instead of the rockbox logo and a a disk activity icon.)

Anyone else agree/disagree?

Oherwise I really like this theme, and am using on H300 with nimbus-12.fnt (which is as small as my eyesight will allow).

pondlife

[GodEater]

I actually prefer them where they are currently.

[AlexP]

I too prefer them at the bottom, but think the gigabeat ones are perhaps a little large compared to the font.  Nonetheless, good work everyone!

[Yotto]

I'd prefer the status icons to be at the top of the WPS, mainly because that's where the status bar lives.  (Going forward, with viewports, I'd like to see this moved to the status bar, with the time instead of the rockbox logo and a a disk activity icon.)

That sounds like 2 more chapters of the WPS tutorial

[crzyboyster]

Actually, I like everything where it is right now as well. I think that the theme itself is done and ready to go.

Interestingly, I read this on the front page:

Add viewport capabilities to all the LCD drivers, and adapt scrolling code. This is the firmware/ part of FS #8385 - the changes to the WPS code still need more work and will be committed at a later date. NOTE: There are no user-visible changes with this commit - just the infrastructure.

So here's my question: Does this mean that we can add viewport capabilities into ports that need it before committing them?

And I will be packaging all of the ports into one zip and preparing screenshots for them as required by http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SubmitWPS

And will this really need to go in the tracker or can it just be put on the wiki page?


EDIT: The renaming on some of the ports is still a bit off. I'm updating those right now.

[yapper]

I'd prefer the status icons to be at the top of the WPS, mainly because that's where the status bar lives.

I prefer the status information at the bottom, as it seems the 'natural' place. This might be due to many OSs using the bottom for status display, also many TV channels display time/weather/stock tickers in this area. Maybe the status bar should be moved to the bottom?

crzyboyster: the 'final' version of Viewports may be some time in being completed, so for the purposes of Cabbie 2, it's probably best to forget viewports, particularly as the WPS part hasn't been commited yet.

[crzyboyster]

We really don't need viewports, but some ports can be optimized with them after they are committed. I think that the theme is pretty much finished.


EDIT: I'm going to start combining them into one zip soon after taking screenshots of the finished versions.

Meanwhile, is there anything else that needs to be done or does anyone have any suggestions before I officially "end" this project?

And I should mention that ZincAlloy is currently busy for this week and isn't available for help or the final steps. He has given me permission to keep on going with this theme.

[saratoga]

I looked at the WPS stuff yesterday very briefly.  It looks like you add an entry for your theme to the WPSLIST file (i believe thats what its called) and then at compile time it checks the resolution of your target and picks the right files for the screen based on the file names.  So I guess the next step is to put everything into a single zip like the included rockbox themes and then test it by compiling a build and checking to see if the theme still works once its compiled.

Has anyone put the files into one large zip yet?  If not, I'll try and get a chance to look at it tomorrow.

[DancemasterGlenn]

Just downloaded the newer version of the theme, and it's looking great. In terms of looks, I think the only thing that seems less polished than it could be is the volume slider... the icon looks great, but would it be possible to add in even more icons to aid in even smoother transitions when adjusting the volume? It might not make sense in ports to smaller screens, but I think the ipod video version could definitely benefit from the added frames. Everything else is looking really smooth, I'm excited for this upcoming adoption as the default!

EDIT: Another thing I was wondering... if this becomes the default theme, could the regular splash screen at startup be reworked to have the dark gradient in the background instead of the white that is used currently? The dark background looks really good with the usb graphic that shows up when I plug in my ipod, and I think it would also look really cool behind the Rockbox logo, further adding to the uniformity of the theme itself as the default. Doable? Anyone else feel the same?

[GodEater]

Just downloaded the newer version of the theme, and it's looking great. In terms of looks, I think the only thing that seems less polished than it could be is the volume slider... the icon looks great, but would it be possible to add in even more icons to aid in even smoother transitions when adjusting the volume? It might not make sense in ports to smaller screens, but I think the ipod video version could definitely benefit from the added frames. Everything else is looking really smooth, I'm excited for this upcoming adoption as the default!

Though this might be technically possible, the more images the WPS has to load, the longer it takes to display. If this is to become the *default* WPS at some point, we don't want people having to wait an age before it shows up for the first time. Currently I think we have a good trade off in terms of speed / prettiness. If it's not good enough for you personally, then by all means add more images to a version that only you use - but we don't want more in the candidate for default WPS.

EDIT: Another thing I was wondering... if this becomes the default theme, could the regular splash screen at startup be reworked to have the dark gradient in the background instead of the white that is used currently? The dark background looks really good with the usb graphic that shows up when I plug in my ipod, and I think it would also look really cool behind the Rockbox logo, further adding to the uniformity of the theme itself as the default. Doable? Anyone else feel the same?

This would be well outside the scope of a new theme since it would require actual code changes as well as WPS/Theme file editing. It's certainly something we could look into though.

[JdGordon]

I cant remember if I've asked this already (or if someone has actually fixed this yet...) but that post about asking for moreee volume icons reminded me of this...

can it be fixed so we have a 0dB and a >0dB icon? something that is obvious like a red bar or something?

[yapper]

The >0dB condition has been covered by using a red bar for colour targets, and the mono/greyscales show a '!'

[linuxstb]

I'm also late, and haven't read all 43 pages, but agree with Pondlife about the statusbar - it just seems wrong to have it at the bottom...

When Rockbox has the ability to theme the status bar, is the intention that this theme would locate the main statusbar at the bottom of the screen as well, to match the WPS?  It's this inconsistency that I don't like.

[DancemasterGlenn]

To be fair, it seems the vast majority of rockbox themes have their status icons all over the place in any given theme. I'd say that this placement is excellent at least in the sense that every icon is on the same line (not that I dislike any theme that places them on different lines, but doing it this way allows for one line of larger icons over two lines of half-sized icons, for example).

But that's probably not what you're referring to. You would like the icons to be along the top, like the main menu statusbar? I suppose it would be nice o see a screenshot, but I don't think it would looks as good. Currently the theme has a good amount of images that surround the text (now playing on top, album art on the left, icons on the bottom). Placing the icons on top would make the top and left look overly cluttered, and it would probably look like all the images were just pushing the text out of the way, even though that's the most important part of the WPS. I just don't think it makes sense.

You do have an extremely valid point that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have the main menu statusbar at the top, and the WPS statusbar at the bottom. However, they currently look so different that I hardly even associate them with each other. Because of that, the inconsistency hasn't been that big a deal. However, I was hoping too to have that statusbar be skinned, so it's definitely a concern for future implementations of rockbox if it turns out to be that big of a deal. In my opinion, the fact that you can turn off the statusbar on the main menu negates its importance somewhat. I personally almost never use it, except perhaps to quickly check the time. I also value the menu space to see all of my songs and options, so even if it was skinned, I'd probably prefer to keep it small, and out of the way. Honestly, unless I saw a really excellent way to implement it, I think the best themed statusbar in the main menu would be right where it is, in the same size, but slightly nicer looking. If it really needed to be consistent, it could be placed at the bottom of the screen instead of the top, but how about an option of where to place that statusbar instead (top, bottom, left, right)? If that were to be implemented by someone, then there would be no inconsistency at all, for any theme. People with their WPS statusbars could place their main menu statusbar wherever made sense for them. This is out of the scope of this project, I know, but I'm just thinking about the future, and making a case for the icons to be on the bottom. I think they belong there.

Sorry for talking everyone's face off...

EDIT: just to be clear, my suggestion for an option for placing the statusbar at the top/bottom/sides of the screen was referring to the main menu bar, and not the cabbie bar. Hence why I said it would be out of the scope of this project. Hope that won't confuse anybody.