I enjoy reading the thread on the new interface (DT 2.7 - dev).
I understand that the interface will be determined by a CSS file. I am familiar with the early days of CSS but I doubt if I can make myself spend enough time now to shine my (never existing) expertise on it. I also noticed that my above average (read, unlikely to be replaced/upgraded) monitor is not full HD. It is 1680x1050.
I routinely use Darktable as the only image processing application with small touches using Gimp afterwards. I want to be able to use it easily as far as I can manage.
Now, if the interface can be tailored for specific screen sizes (and ratios, for that matter) using a CSS file, “users” can modify an existing file for their environment. It may be a good idea to prepare a facility to share those files. It can be a thread here or a link at the main site. The files will be small so I do not expect storage/bandwith problems.
Do I understand the matter correctly? If yes, is it too early for this?
Just as a tip/warning. Themes tend to fall behind unless maintained and it’s a fair bit of work just curating a list of currently working themes. A means of rating working themes or tagging them with a release is probably a good feature. A repo containing a mix of broken and working themes is annoying unless clearly advertised as such.
edit: A more ad hoc approach based on a discuss thread could have a sticky with working themes. The thread could of course point to said repo. This is just to signal the ad hoc ness and have easy feedback.
Why not simply have an internal CSS editor by which you could create and edit CSS, and also have it update in real time to see the effects of the changes?
I have the feeling that everyone’s GTK-CSS experience is a little different, so what I just suggested would be a boon and simple enough for most people to do.
Test suite to see how GTK-CSS compares with standards? Excessive, don’t you think?
Making dt appear consistent across platforms and hardware should be the priority. I have remained silent about the design because I don’t like it for various reasons but don’t want to discourage people from experimenting and getting things done. I am also not the target audience; I don’t have a stake. But I like typography and so wrote a few remarks about it.
I am merely stating the logical outcome of the OP, not saying that it should be a feature per se. The apps that I enjoy the most tend to have preference text files that I could edit and see the changes commit right away without relaunching the app.
Burnt out tired ATM. No, can’t say there are. I sometimes try to do it and then expect something to happen, only to be told by the forum that I forgot to restart or take additional steps.
Maybe G’MIC, which can change and override the commands and filters on the fly, but it isn’t exactly a photo editor. Still, it is one reason that I have developed an infinity for it.
You could change the CSS and just press F5 in a browser to see the changes? Think this would speed up work in the beginning of a new CSS style. When the style is more sophisticated I would import it into Darktable for final adjustments.
That exists already out of the box. Just start any GTK application with the environment variable GTK_DEBUG set to interactive and you can inspect the widget tree and freely modify the CSS.
Sure, I assumed there would be something of the sort; however, it is more of a dev tool than anything else. The average user won’t know what to do with it. Whereas changing margin: 10 to margin: 8 in a text file that can be seen within the app is simpler. Still would take some learning but is less of a burden on people.
There appears to be a to-do list here for the dev types on the forum :
GtkInspector is already pretty useful, but it could be even better. Here are some ideas for things to work on, in no particular order. Your help is appreciated!
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