The most frequently requested addition to further, and the most basic
design decision, is the question of customizability.
Here is the fundamental problem with a program like further:
The advanced user wants absolute customization. Any configuration
language I write will be inherently limited.
One solution is to say "fully customizable-- just edit the source".
Why not use a scripting language? Because then, I rewrite all of the
plugins fully in the scripting language, and I'm back to having no
customization at all, except for those willing to edit the source.
Ideally, we'd somehow be able to release "themeballs" or whatever
they're called in enlightenment-land, and you'd get a nice desktop
complete with a background and configured text.
Right now, the default further setup only makes a few assumptions:
- you have two fonts: "tahomabd.ttf" and "georgia.ttf"
- your background is dark
- you have a /usr/share/gnome-terminal icon (and gnome-terminal is your
terminal)
All of the text operations are using full white, with varying alpha to
get distinct shades.
My current thoughts are this:
- Configuration could be a bunch of variables. Anything advanced would
require editing the source.
The plugins (we need a better name than "plugins") should be simple
enough to edit.
- Variables can be overridden at a variety of levels, ie:
sys::font = "tahomabd"
sys::fontsize = 8
sys::background = "halo.jpg"
launcher::command = "gnome-terminal"
# switcher, xmms control, etc just use sys_font by default
xmms::fontsize = 10 # override xmms font setting
- But now, we already hit a problem:
# do we need simple math operations?
xmms::position = display::width - xmms::width
xmms::fontsize = sys::fontsize - 2
And soon, we're back to scripting languages.
Blah.
BTW, I have a bunch of code to commit to CVS... just needs a little
fixing up. The switcher *actually works* now, and it has lots of neato
animations and scrolling.
More to come, I think.
-- Evan Martin - martine@speakeasy.org http://www.speakeasy.org/~martine_______________________________________________ Further-devel mailing list Further-devel@lists.sourceforge.net http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/further-devel
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