2005-03-31, 05:39 PM
One issue w/ skins always seems to be compatibility w/ plugins, obviously. Maybe just having a theme option would be a flexible alternative.
This would be a control panel option that, in additions to skins, would just do the backrground and button color. I think all it would take to do this is make the exisiting deafult blue skin dynamic and read the background and color from a master setting (and I suppose a list of font choices & colors could be done in same way).
The pulldown, instead of skins, would be just different backgrounds it finds in the background folder. I'm assuming GB could be made to just read all images in a dir by extension (jpg,gif).
This wouldn't replace the skins, as they are transformations of the look. This wouldn't alter any positions, just look of the exisitng display.
The real benefit is two-fold:
1) This allows even just the casual user to create a custom look for themselves. I do this now as far as dropping in backgrounds, and it's cool to do because it is easy (I use a greyscale version of the flat blue). It also gets it to look how I like it. I think everyone is so used to being able to do themselvs w/ their computer background, it would just extend it to GB.
2) It would allow those w/o programming expertise but w/ an idea to make theme combos to offer. This would increase the base of ppl contributing to GB, the number of look options, and overall participation.
This would be a control panel option that, in additions to skins, would just do the backrground and button color. I think all it would take to do this is make the exisiting deafult blue skin dynamic and read the background and color from a master setting (and I suppose a list of font choices & colors could be done in same way).
The pulldown, instead of skins, would be just different backgrounds it finds in the background folder. I'm assuming GB could be made to just read all images in a dir by extension (jpg,gif).
This wouldn't replace the skins, as they are transformations of the look. This wouldn't alter any positions, just look of the exisitng display.
The real benefit is two-fold:
1) This allows even just the casual user to create a custom look for themselves. I do this now as far as dropping in backgrounds, and it's cool to do because it is easy (I use a greyscale version of the flat blue). It also gets it to look how I like it. I think everyone is so used to being able to do themselvs w/ their computer background, it would just extend it to GB.
2) It would allow those w/o programming expertise but w/ an idea to make theme combos to offer. This would increase the base of ppl contributing to GB, the number of look options, and overall participation.