Custom widgets for lxde applications

[Stephen Smally]

Il 24/08/2012 21:47, PCMan ha scritto:
> On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 3:27 AM, Stephen Smally <eco.stefi at fastwebnet.it> wrote:
>> Il 24/08/2012 21:05, Julien Lavergne ha scritto:
>>
>>> Le 08/24/2012 07:37 PM, Stephen Smally a écrit :
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So my question (and proposal) is: Is a standard lxde widgets library a
>>>> good thing?
>>>> I personally don't like when a gtk app require another library for
>>>> widgets (such as libxfce4ui), because it looks to me like an added
>>>> weight. However, i started appreciating this with the granite library
>>>> (used for elementary os widgets), and i started thinking about a lxde
>>>> library seriously (i called it liblxui, but i don't like the name a lot).
>>>> In my plan, the library should be:
>>>> * Written with Vala (simple development + C and vala api) and Gtk3
>>>> * Themed within Box (or whatever) via css, using another Gtk theme the
>>>> widgets won't look strange.
>>>> * Lightweight, of course, just few widgets (about 5 or 6), no Services
>>>> or patches as in granite
>>>
>>> IMO, one of the main advantage of LXDE is that it's gtk + glib only,
>>> using stock features of those libraries. Starting by introducing a
>>> strong dependency on a specific library, and it will end like Xfce or
>>> Gnome, an integrated desktop, with a lot of common and specific
>>> components. So, what's the point to create yet another integrated
>>> desktop ? LXDE will loose one of it main advantages.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Julien Lavergne
>>>
>>
>> Yep, this is the main cons.
>> Actually, XFCE apps are bound not only by libxfceui, but also because they
>> store information with xfconf, rather than use gsettings or individual
>> config files.
>> Also liblxui wouldn't probably be used by every lxde app, some of them don't
>> need particular widgets (lxpanel for instance). Instead of have same widgets
>> reincluded in each app, we have a set of common widgets.
>> Let me clarify it with an "equation":
>> full project (core + widgets) <=> core project + widgets (liblxui)
>>
>> If a user want to build its own desktop environment, *he will obviously
>> encounter apps which follow different guidelines and are designed
>> differently, so the point of liblxui is to have a consistent experience
>> across lxde.
>>
>> Stephen Smally
>>
>>
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>
> It's not bad to have a common UI library providing basic UI building blocks.
> However, don't name it liblxui. That makes people think that it's an LXDE lib.
> Name the lib else, please. Soomething like libgtk-ext let people know
> that it's a small extension of gtk.
> In the beginning of the project, we tried to avoid dependencies.
> That's the reason why LXDE exists. I, however, noted some cases where
> a common UI widget is required but not provided by GTK+.
> For example, a widget showing preview for image file. It's such a
> common thing done in every program, but it's just not provided by
> gtk+.
> Your idea, actually, is why xfce has libexo and libxfce4-ui.
> We want to avoid dependencies as much as possible, but if the proposal
> make sense and "proven" to be as lightweight as the current solutions,
> I'm not particularly against the idea.
> Please tell us what will be in the library and what will be its dependencies.
> I personally think that it should only depends on gtk+ and has a name
> witrhout "lx" or "lxde" in it.
> Maybe this is the reason why nowadays we have libgnome-ui, libxfce-ui,
> and libexo. Now gnome people killed libgnome-ui and moved its
> functionality into gtk directly. We still have them, but it's part of
> gtk+ anyways.
>
> Technically having one small lib won't have impact on overall
> performance. It's more a political issue than a technical one. People
> will think this way, "See? now lxde has as many dependencies as
> gnome". It's not reasonable, but it's a real issue. This is what we're
> going to avoid.
>
> Thanks.
>

Got it.

At the moment i plan just a couple of widgets:
* An about dialog following the Rafaellaguna mockup
* A Pathbar (similiar to the nautilus breadcrumbs)
* A compact menu button(not sure about this, it may be useful, but 
probably not lxde-wide)

The widgets are designed with the compactness in mind, so maybe 
libcompactui[-gtk] is a suitable name...
Anyway, i plan a simple Widgets collection, i do not plan any deep 
integration with each lxde component.