Re: GNUstep - look and feel

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi!


On 2020-05-08 21:37:40 +0000 Andreas Höschler via Discussion list for the 
GNUstep programming environment <discuss-gnustep@gnu.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> after fixing the little issue in NSAttributedString (our) rather complex 
> database apps (developed on and for MacOSX) seem to be fully operational 
> under Linux/GNUstep again. I tested a bunch of forms and encountered no more 
> issues. That's so cool!
> 
> Thanks a lot to Fred, Riccardo and a few others that helped to track the 
> problem down!!

A pleasure, also your applications looks nice and it is a nice example on how 
GNUstep performs, it looks very professionale, it could be a nice "success 
story".

 
> 
> However, is there anything we can do to improve the look and feel of the apps 
> a bit?

Depends on the taste!
Personally I like your screenshot a lot... there are some details where the UI 
could be tweaked and on the APp side and also the GS elements, but overall I 
like it.

> 
> 
> 
> We had Etoile running on Solaris 10 many years ago. This helped a bit. But I 
> understand Etoile is no longer maintained and probably no longer compatible 
> with the latest GNUstep sources!?

Never used it... but I GNUstep works on solaris, if you want! Keep it up and 
running. I will resume some work in the near future, stay tuned.

> Are you guys woking with this greyish NextStep look from the eighties? Or is 
> there a trick to customise/improve the look and feel a bit? It would already 
> help to have the menu at the top of the screen again (like on MasOSX or with 
> Etoile)!?

Well, personally I love the menus, so the only thing I prefer  is tweaking the 
Icons and "brightening" the GNUstep grey which is dark on some setups (gamma 
issues). It should look a little bit like the classic windows (because it 
actually copied!). But I also use WIndowMaker!

I have some themes in GAP, if you like. The best versions are in SVN, I haven't 
release them yet, maybe it is time for a clean pass and check! Once installed 
you can set them per app, or I also have developed a Module for 
SystemPreferences that replaces the old ColorScheme one.

Since now I have seen that XCfce has a classic Solaris/CDE look ("Stellar") I 
am motivated to make a matching one too... absolutely!! [*]

Others have more radical theme!

For the menus only, though,  you can just a System-wide setting (t can be set 
by the themes, but you don't need them). Open SystemPreferences, Defaults and 
look for NSMenuInterfaceStyle and play with the 3 values. WIndows style may not 
always work well, depending on how your app handles the "one" window, but try.

Cheers,
Riccardo

[*] My sparcstation 4 will be razed from old Solaris 2.6 in the next days for 
BSD.. and will be GNUStepified! But the colors had a touch....


PS: Mail written with pride on GNUMail on GNUstep