Support and General Use > Theming and Appearance Customization

Themes Broken with 3.7: Syntax change?

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Bockrox:
I am using Rockbox on an iPod 5 video. It looks like all of my themes have broken with the upgrade to 3.7 (and a later upgrade to 3.7.1 did not fix the problem).

Some themes are very close to normal -- Pen & Paper Plus is a good example. However, most of them (even rockbox_default) are very mangled. All themes have a very raw top toolbar (like the one seen here) and most have a very small font and a very small scrolling area. Does any of this sound familiar?

I would be very happy to provide a screenshot if there is a way to do so.

What could have caused this? Did the theme format change between 3.6 and 3.7?

bluebrother:

--- Quote from: Bockrox on December 22, 2010, 02:58:51 AM ---I am using Rockbox on an iPod 5 video. It looks like all of my themes have broken with the upgrade to 3.7 (and a later upgrade to 3.7.1 did not fix the problem).
--- End quote ---

Yes. See the Release Notes for 3.7.


--- Quote ---All themes have a very raw top toolbar (like the one seen here) and most have a very small font and a very small scrolling area. Does any of this sound familiar?

--- End quote ---

You're missing the fonts package.


--- Quote ---What could have caused this? Did the theme format change between 3.6 and 3.7?

--- End quote ---

yes, it was intentional and is documented.

Bockrox:
Ah great. Thanks for all of the very useful information. (I did check the release notes previously, but didn't see anything about themes. I guess I should have searched the word "skin".)

Is there anything the Rockbox team can do to ensure more stability in the future? I appreciate that you guys are always improving this little language, but from my perspective as a user, all I know is that upgrading to 3.7 broke all of my themes. I could imagine little issues like this driving new users away from the (otherwise fantastic) software.

AlexP:
The change was for a specific reason (mostly related to internal code).  If something needs changing to make it better then it will happen, but only if really necessary.  The theme language won't change for every release.  There is sometimes a choice between maintaining compatibility and future improvements.  If it isn't possible to have both, then we go for making things better.

The change was well documented, there is a wiki page covering exactly what changes happened, we released a tool to update old theme files etc. etc.

Bockrox:

--- Quote from: AlexP on January 03, 2011, 02:27:55 PM ---The change was for a specific reason (mostly related to internal code).  If something needs changing to make it better then it will happen, but only if really necessary.  The theme language won't change for every release.  There is sometimes a choice between maintaining compatibility and future improvements.  If it isn't possible to have both, then we go for making things better.

--- End quote ---

I understand and agree. I'm definitely not against making improvements to the language -- sometimes backwards-compatibility needs to be broken to move forward. I totally understand, respect, and agree with that.


--- Quote from: AlexP on January 03, 2011, 02:27:55 PM ---The change was well documented, there is a wiki page covering exactly what changes happened, we released a tool to update old theme files etc. etc.

--- End quote ---

It was well documented for developers, but not for users. As a user, my themes broke and I had no idea why. There was no notification of the changes and no explanation for the strange behavior. From a design perspective, the software should provide good feedback -- it should make the user aware of what is happening and why.

I try not to make criticisms without offering a solution, so here's my solution: Why not provide a lightweight compatibility check like Firefox does? "This theme will not work with your version and has been disabled. Continue anyway?" Thoughts?

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