Re: Look and Feel

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 10 Feb 2005, at 23:33, Raphael Bosshard wrote:

> Jeremy Tregunna wrote:
>
> > On 10-Feb-05, at 2:29 PM, Raphael Bosshard wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > > First of all; I would welcome a new icon theme, as I would a new 
> > > default look.  I like the OpenStep-Framework and enjoy programming 
> > > in Objectiv-C. But it just makes no fun if your applications look 
> > > like time-warped from the 80ies.
> >
> >
> > They're not that bad.
> No, they are not. I'm exaggerating. But truth is that I don't see any 
> differences between the GNUStep version (it was 0.2 something I think) 
> that was shipped with my first GNU/Linux CD back in '97. Back than, 
> the focus was to recreate OPENStep for Linux. But a lot of things have 
> changed since.
>
> I know that GNUStep has the ability to use themes. But what I am 
> talking about it the default theme. NO matter how may themes there 
> are; the first impression is always the default theme. And the current 
> theme is not very impressive.

Having used both NeXTstep and MacOS-X (which I use daily), I can 
confidently say that for me the NeXTstep theme is more usable (better 
to sit in front of and work with all day) and far better than 
windows-xp (which I'm also forced to use occasionally).

That's why I strongly want the standard/default GNUstep look and feel 
to be *very* close
to the old NeXTstep one.

That being said, I take the point about it not being particularly 
eye-catching.
While eye-catching looks do not generally make for great usability, the 
initial impression
they make can attract people to the project.

So ... why not aim for two basic looks so that themability is easily 
demonstrated by showing screenshots of them side by side.  One you can 
'use all day' and the other with which you can 'impress your friends' 
:-)

I think that would be better than trying to produce lots of different 
themes.