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Modern And Sleek Theme For LMMS #880

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HDDigitizerMusic opened this issue Jun 23, 2014 · 166 comments
Closed

Modern And Sleek Theme For LMMS #880

HDDigitizerMusic opened this issue Jun 23, 2014 · 166 comments

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@HDDigitizerMusic
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HDDigitizerMusic commented Jun 23, 2014

LMMS has excellent features and is becoming an awesome and reliable DAW. I think we can all agree, that the next step in improving LMMS is upgrading the theme to be more slick and clean to fit with the next version.

I know a graphic designer who is willing to contribute a new theme for LMMS for free. She works for a marketing agency who have worked with many commercial projects as a professional graphic artist.

I have worked collaboratively with her to showcase the style direction that we believe would bring LMMS to the next level. You can take a look at the preview below.

unnamed

My favorite element has the be the beat pattern on the bottom. Its pretty cool how she incorporated the LMMS logo into it.

What do you think of it? Is this the right direction for a new theme? Please reply with your feedback and suggestions below. Once she get's the go ahead for this being used as the default theme in the new version, she will finish the full theme. She is also available to make changes to the style and direction once those changes have been agreed on.

@tobydox
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tobydox commented Jun 23, 2014

I like the beat pattern as well - I wonder how this would look like scaled down to the image sizes we currently have.

Maybe we could target this alternative theme for 2.0?

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 23, 2014

On 06/23/2014 05:15 AM, Digitizer wrote:

LMMS has excellent features and is becoming an awesome and reliable
DAW. I think we can all agree, that the next step in improving LMMS is
upgrading the theme to be more slick and clean to fit with the next
version.

We just did an upgrade of the theme for 1.0 and it's still getting
improved constantly. I don't think we have any need to replace the
default theme anytime soon, as it's something that is constantly being
worked on.

I know a graphic designer who is willing to contribute a new theme for
LMMS for free.

That's great. There's never too many themes. It's been discussed to
include some alternate themes along with LMMS, however... to do that, I
think we should first improve the theme browsing capabilities. It's a
bit too clunky to change themes by choosing a directory... we should
have something like the plugin browser, that shows the themes in a list,
by name (we'd need to add some metadata-file to the themes that holds
stuff like theme name, creator, copyright etc.), and possibly even
figure out a way to make it possible to change themes on-the-fly (if
it's possible to code with Qt).

She works for a marketing agency who have worked with many commercial
projects as a professional graphic artist. She is also the designer
who created the cover for my upcoming EP.

That's nice. Designing a GUI for a software is however a bit different
than designing static art. GUI design isn't just about making flashy and
fancy graphics, it's about functionality first - function always comes
before form in GUI design.

I have worked collaboratively with her to showcase the style direction
that we believe would bring LMMS to the next level. You can take a
look at the preview below.

That's all a bit too large to be very convenient for LMMS. There's lots
of stuff to fit into the LMMS GUI, most of the elements showcased there
look very nice but I have a feeling they wouldn't scale too well to the
GUI size we have.

unnamed
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/6778944/3353248/a986d4b4-fa7a-11e3-8f8b-84c6f24f91fb.png

My favorite element has the be the beat pattern on the bottom. Its
pretty cool how she incorporated the LMMS logo into it.

Yeah, well, there's the thing - that beat pattern looks nice as a static
graphic, but as an actual GUI element, it's way too clunky and
oversized. In fact, everything there is oversized. The effect front
panel is way too large, the knobs are too big... in fact, if anything,
we'd need to slim down the effect panels, to reduce the height, not
increase.

GUI design for a complex software is not the same as designing a
website. There's windowing, there's lots of stuff to fit on the screen
at the same time, wasting space just for the sake of fancy graphics is
not something that fits the first paradigm of "function before form".

My suggestion to you is that you first try to make a complete theme for
LMMS. Copy the current default theme for 1.0 - or even 1.1, if you want
all the current theming features - and then see the amount of work it
takes to create a complete, functional theme for LMMS - it's a lot more
than making a few fancy graphics... you have to also fit it all
together, make sure everything looks good in the amount of size that we
have available for each element - we're not going to start increasing
the size of elements just to get fancier graphics displayed - that's the
very opposite of "function before form".

That said, those graphics do look nice, there's a very nice style to it,
but I don't think you'll be able to use any of that for a LMMS theme as-is.

But seriously, like I said... your best bet is to start working on a
theme and see how it feels to create a complete LMMS theme. I'm
responsible for most (if not all) of the recently implemented
theming-related features in LMMS, so if you have any questions about the
CSS features or other theme-related stuff, feel free to ask.

Once she get's the go ahead for this being used as the default theme
in the new version, she will finish the full theme.

Why does she need guarantees that it'll be the new default theme?
There's room for more than one theme in LMMS. She could just as well
create an alternate theme for LMMS.

The default theme is not something you can just "drop off" like a kid to a daycare. It's not something we can outsource and be done with it. LMMS is, first and foremost, a collaborative open-source project, and the default theme is something that lives and grows with the software, it needs to be constantly maintained, and developed in tandem with new GUI features. Which is why it's something that has to be developed openly and collaboratively, with the LMMS team, so that we all have access to the development process and will be able to change things when necessary.

@Sti2nd
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Sti2nd commented Jun 23, 2014

Vesa worked hard on the current default theme 👍 And appearance isn't everything a theme is, but I would love to get my hands on a good looking theme like that! What we could do is to include two themes in LMMS, the one we have now and the one she will make. Do you think she will agree on this, @HDDigitizerMusic ?

@RebeccaDeField
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RebeccaDeField commented Jun 24, 2014

@Sti2nd Hi, I am the aforementioned graphic artist :) I agree that Vesa did a fantastic job on the theme he contributed! Because I use Inkscape you will absolutely be able to “get your hands on it” ;) I think that is a great idea! The more themes the better.

@HDDigitizerMusic
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@diizy

We just did an upgrade of the theme for 1.0 and it's still getting constantly improved. I don't think we have any need to replace the default theme any time soon, as it's something that is constantly being worked on.

We want to collaborate on this together. I think that the changes and updates that you have already made are very awesome and I agree that we don’t need to replace the theme any time soon as the default theme is something that should constantly be worked on and improved. I do think that we always have room to grow and collaborate. Like you said there is no reason to stop improving the theme.

That's great. There's never too many themes. It's been discussed to include some alternate themes along with LMMS, however... to do that, I think we should first improve the theme browsing capabilities. It's a bit too clunky to change themes by choosing a directory... we should have something like the plugin browser, that shows the themes in a list, by name (we'd need to add some metadata-file to the themes that holds stuff like theme name, creator, copyright etc.), and possibly even figure out a way to make it possible to change themes on-the-fly (if it's possible to code with Qt).

I would like it if we could help to contribute to the default theme, but if that is not possible then she will be more than willing to create an alternative. I think that your idea of adding a feature that will allow people to select different themes within the interface is awesome. This will help the other graphic artists who want to contribute themes to LMMS as well.

That's nice. Designing a GUI for the software is however a bit different than designing static art. GUI design isn't just about making flashy and fancy graphics, it's about functionality first - function always comes before form in GUI design.

That's all a bit too large to be very convenient for LMMS. There's lots of stuff to fit into the LMMS GUI, most of the elements showcased there look very nice but I have a feeling they wouldn't scale too well to the GUI size we have.

Yeah, well, there's the thing - that beat pattern looks nice as a static graphic, but as an actual GUI element, it's way too clunky and oversized. In fact, everything there is oversized. The effect front panel is way too large, the knobs are too big... in fact, if anything, we'd need to slim down the effect panels, to reduce the height, not increase.

She has experience and knowledge in GUI design and usability. She also has experience in open source programs specifically as she interned with the people who collaborated on the interface for Amarok, the KDE theme as a whole, and other various KDE projects. I agree with you about the functionality and usability, this is just a preview with larger graphics so you can see some of the finer details and we do not intend for the interface to be that big. We created this thread to collaborate on the theme so if you think that it should be less flashy or smaller we as a community can update it.

GUI design for a complex software is not the same as designing a website. There's windowing, there's lots of stuff to fit on the screen at the same time, wasting space just for the sake of fancy graphics is not something that fits the first paradigm of "function before form."

We agree that it is a bad idea to waste space just for the sake of fancy shines or glowing graphics and will create this theme with that in mind. There is something to be said about creating neat graphics that give the users a great experience, and I can see that you are thinking along the same lines because you have already included slick and creative elements in the theme that you created.

My suggestion to you is that you first try to make a complete theme for LMMS. Copy the current default theme for 1.0 - or even 1.1, if you want all the current theming features - and then see the amount of work it takes to create a complete, functional theme for LMMS - it's a lot more than making a few fancy graphics... you have to also fit it all together, make sure everything looks good in the amount of size that we have available for each element - we're not going to start increasing the size of elements just to get fancier graphics displayed - that's the very opposite of "function before form."

I have created many themes myself and understand how it works. If it would be most helpful for us to create an alternative theme, then she can do that.

But seriously, like I said... your best bet is to start working on a theme and see how it feels to create a complete LMMS theme. I'm responsible for most (if not all) of the recently implemented theming-related features in LMMS, so if you have any questions about the CSS features or other theme-related stuff, feel free to ask.

I really appreciate all of the work you have contributed towards the current theme and am seeking to collaborate. Thank you for the offer, I’ll be sure to contact you for any questions we have.

Why does she need guarantees that it'll be the new default theme? There's room for more than one theme in LMMS. She could just as well create an alternate theme for LMMS.

What she meant was she had wanted everyone's feedback before we created the whole theme. That way we don’t end up creating a theme with a certain type of button or glow, that a majority of the community just doesn’t like. We were planning on creating an alternative theme anyway, so we will just start there.

The default theme is not something you can just "drop off" like a kid to a daycare. It's not something we can outsource and be done with it. LMMS is, first and foremost, a collaborative open-source project and the default theme is something that lives and grows with the software, it needs to be constantly maintained, and developed in tandem with new GUI features. Which is why it's something that has to be developed openly and collaboratively, with the LMMS team, so that we all have access to the development process and will be able to change things when necessary.

I understand and agree. Not only have we based our theme on the work that you have already done, but she uses linux and inkscape for all of her designs, so she is completely willing to provide all of the .svg source files for all of her work so that you, and anyone else who wants to access adapt or improve on her work can. She understands how open source projects work and is not just outsourcing this. She wants to work as a contributor to the project just as you are. She is getting an account to reply and collaborate with all of you on this as well.

Thank you for your time and detail in your reply,
Digitizer out.

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

On 06/24/2014 03:20 AM, Rebecca DeField wrote:

@Sti2nd https://github.com/Sti2nd Hi, I am the aforementioned
graphic artist :) I agree that Vesa did a fantastic job on the theme
he contributed! Because I use Inkscape (another open source program)
you will absolutely be able to “get your hands on it” ;) I think that
is a great idea! The more themes the better.

Absolutely! And I think it's great that you're a graphic artist using
open source software. Huge respect for that!

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

On 06/24/2014 03:31 AM, Digitizer wrote:

We want to collaborate on this together. I think that the changes and
updates that you have already made are very awesome and I agree that
we don’t need to replace the theme any time soon as the default theme
is something that should constantly be worked on and improved. I do
think that we always have room to grow and collaborate. Like you said
there is no reason to stop improving the theme.

Yes. At this point though... I think there aren't very much things that
can be done to the default theme. Right now, when there are so many
changes being made to the CSS and theming engine and widgets and all
that, I think the default theme serves us best by being a stable
bastion, something that changes very little and when it does, it mostly
does it in the purpose of showcasing new features of the GUI, the
software or the CSS/theming engine.

I'm sure we'll at some point go through a whole new theme revamp again,
and at that time, it might be you (or Rebecca) who gets to spearhead
that initiative. For now though, I just don't think it's in our best
interest to do a huge rehaul of the default theme again... and I might
be biased as the creator of that theme, but that's how I feel about it
at the moment.

There's very little that can be done with the default theme right now,
IMO. There are some small improvements that could be done - some old
graphics that could still be replaced: the Spectrum Analyzer for one -
but I think with the graphical skills you've demonstrated, at this point
your skills would be better utilized by creating a complete, alternate
theme for LMMS. Because no matter how good any theme is (and I'm not
even saying our current one is best in the world), no matter how awesome
something is, it's never going to be everyone's favorite... there's
always differences in opinion and taste, so the more options we provide,
the better!

Only thing is, the theme engine of LMMS is currently a bit of a moving
target... 1.0 broke theme compatibility with all earlier versions, 1.1
is going to break theme compatibility with 1.0, and as for 1.2... who
even knows at this point?

I would like it if we could help to contribute to the default
theme, but if that is not possible then she will be more than
willing to create an alternative. I think that your idea of adding
a feature that will allow people to select different themes within
the interface is awesome. This will help the other graphic artists
who want to contribute themes to LMMS as well.

Yeah. I'll amend my earlier statement a bit - I'd like to get these
theme browsing capabilities in LMMS, but of course, they're not strictly
necessary for including alternate themes - they'd just make switching
them easier. Of course, if you can get a complete theme done in time for
the release of 1.1, then I see no reason not to include it with LMMS,
and I think Toby would also agree with that (based on earlier discussions).

And if you're not in time for 1.1.0, then maybe we can add it in the
first bugfix release, 1.1.1...

She has experience and knowledge in GUI design and usability. She also
has experience in open source programs specifically as she interned
with the people who collaborated on the interface for Amarok, the KDE
theme as a whole, and other various KDE projects. I agree with you
about the functionality and usability, this is just a preview with
larger graphics so you can see some of the finer details and we do not
intend for the interface to be that big. We created this thread to
collaborate on the theme so if you think that it should be less flashy
or smaller we as a community can update it.

That's good to hear. I was mainly just saying all this because I wasn't
sure if you know what all theming & GUI design entails, but it seems you
two have things well in hand.

I have created many themes myself and understand how it works. If it
would be most helpful for us to create an alternative theme, then she
can do that.

At this point, I think it would. Because it's always good to provide
options, and no one theme can possibly ever satisfy 100% of our users.
Like I said, I think sometime in the future, there will come a time to
completely change the default theme again, and I may not have the time
to do it by then (I'm starting school again next fall, so I'm going to
have less time to contribute for LMMS) but for now, I really think that
creating more options for the users, creating more and different themes
for LMMS would be the best way to contribute.

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

Also, if there are some theming capabilities that are still missing -
some things you'd like to be able to do with a theme, feel free to let
me know - if it's in the realms of possibility, I can implement the
changes for it... very large features aren't going to get implemented
for 1.1 anymore, things like svg support or such, but if there are any
smaller theming features that you'd need, it can maybe be done. It
doesn't hurt to ask, at least...

Some caveats: Qt (or at least Qt4, not sure if they've improved this in
Qt5) doesn't deal with CSS-styling very well for custom QWidgets, which
we have lots of... so we often have to use some tricks and hacks and
lots of custom qproperties in the CSS to implement theming features.
Particularly, we don't have most of our widgets using the box model -
I'm sure it could be done, but I haven't yet figured out a way how we
can read things like margins, paddings etc. from the CSS without basing
the widget on an existing, non-custom widget.

Another thing - don't ask about the subwindow titlebars... Qt doesn't
implement theming of any kind for them, and we'd have to write our own
complete titlebar widget from scratch in order to be able to change
them... in other words, it'd be a lot of work. So the titlebars sadly
are going to have to stay blue for now...

@eagles051387
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Vesa there could be some things that can be done. Why dont we give users
the ability to have a number of themes to choose from

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Vesa V notifications@github.com wrote:

On 06/24/2014 03:31 AM, Digitizer wrote:

We want to collaborate on this together. I think that the changes and
updates that you have already made are very awesome and I agree that
we don’t need to replace the theme any time soon as the default theme
is something that should constantly be worked on and improved. I do
think that we always have room to grow and collaborate. Like you said
there is no reason to stop improving the theme.

Yes. At this point though... I think there aren't very much things that
can be done to the default theme. Right now, when there are so many
changes being made to the CSS and theming engine and widgets and all
that, I think the default theme serves us best by being a stable
bastion, something that changes very little and when it does, it mostly
does it in the purpose of showcasing new features of the GUI, the
software or the CSS/theming engine.

I'm sure we'll at some point go through a whole new theme revamp again,
and at that time, it might be you (or Rebecca) who gets to spearhead
that initiative. For now though, I just don't think it's in our best
interest to do a huge rehaul of the default theme again... and I might
be biased as the creator of that theme, but that's how I feel about it
at the moment.

There's very little that can be done with the default theme right now,
IMO. There are some small improvements that could be done - some old
graphics that could still be replaced: the Spectrum Analyzer for one -
but I think with the graphical skills you've demonstrated, at this point
your skills would be better utilized by creating a complete, alternate
theme for LMMS. Because no matter how good any theme is (and I'm not
even saying our current one is best in the world), no matter how awesome
something is, it's never going to be everyone's favorite... there's
always differences in opinion and taste, so the more options we provide,
the better!

Only thing is, the theme engine of LMMS is currently a bit of a moving
target... 1.0 broke theme compatibility with all earlier versions, 1.1
is going to break theme compatibility with 1.0, and as for 1.2... who
even knows at this point?

I would like it if we could help to contribute to the default
theme, but if that is not possible then she will be more than
willing to create an alternative. I think that your idea of adding
a feature that will allow people to select different themes within
the interface is awesome. This will help the other graphic artists
who want to contribute themes to LMMS as well.

Yeah. I'll amend my earlier statement a bit - I'd like to get these
theme browsing capabilities in LMMS, but of course, they're not strictly
necessary for including alternate themes - they'd just make switching
them easier. Of course, if you can get a complete theme done in time for
the release of 1.1, then I see no reason not to include it with LMMS,
and I think Toby would also agree with that (based on earlier discussions).

And if you're not in time for 1.1.0, then maybe we can add it in the
first bugfix release, 1.1.1...

She has experience and knowledge in GUI design and usability. She also
has experience in open source programs specifically as she interned
with the people who collaborated on the interface for Amarok, the KDE
theme as a whole, and other various KDE projects. I agree with you
about the functionality and usability, this is just a preview with
larger graphics so you can see some of the finer details and we do not
intend for the interface to be that big. We created this thread to
collaborate on the theme so if you think that it should be less flashy
or smaller we as a community can update it.

That's good to hear. I was mainly just saying all this because I wasn't
sure if you know what all theming & GUI design entails, but it seems you
two have things well in hand.

I have created many themes myself and understand how it works. If it
would be most helpful for us to create an alternative theme, then she
can do that.

At this point, I think it would. Because it's always good to provide
options, and no one theme can possibly ever satisfy 100% of our users.
Like I said, I think sometime in the future, there will come a time to
completely change the default theme again, and I may not have the time
to do it by then (I'm starting school again next fall, so I'm going to
have less time to contribute for LMMS) but for now, I really think that
creating more options for the users, creating more and different themes
for LMMS would be the best way to contribute.


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#880 (comment).

Jonathan Aquilina

@Sti2nd
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Sti2nd commented Jun 24, 2014

Luckily Rebecca agreed on making a theme in addition to the default theme, so we'll still get what seems would be a delicious alternative default theme for LMMS!

@diizy Theming capabilities that are still missing: The new default knob, with the white dynamic circle.

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

On 06/24/2014 07:11 PM, Stian Jørgensrud wrote:

Luckily Rebecca agreed on making a theme in addition to the default
theme, so we'll still get what seems would be a delicious alternative
default theme for LMMS!

@diizy https://github.com/diizy Theming capabilities that are still
missing: The new default knob, with the white dynamic circle.

You change the knob graphic by replacing the .png, and the line colour
is defined by palette - for now: we were going to introduce a separate
property for line colour, but it would require subclassing all the
default knob types, which is a lot of work so it was postponed for 1.2.
You can still change the appearance of the knob, it's just that you need
to do it by modifying the palette.

The "windowText" palette colour is used for the knob lines and arcs.
Exception is the vintageKnob which is currently only used in mallets and
I believe it uses the "shadow" colour.

@oeai
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oeai commented Jun 24, 2014

Can i ask for new option for knobs and other colorful controls?
when volume (for example) changes then the color of the line around knob
or inside slider also changes from green to red (or white\blue\green)
and also for the knob pointer line.
so you just can change it dependently on different colours and set it in
some kind of design mode.
not sure if it is possible right now without css\svg support, just some
next-stage maybe.

@HDDigitizerMusic
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@diizy Sounds great. I'll totally contact you when I need some coding help. I think we have all agreed on this becoming an alternative theme.

@HDDigitizerMusic HDDigitizerMusic changed the title Modern And Sleek New Theme For LMMS Modern And Sleek Alternative Theme For LMMS Jun 24, 2014
@HDDigitizerMusic HDDigitizerMusic changed the title Modern And Sleek Alternative Theme For LMMS Modern And Sleek Theme For LMMS Jun 24, 2014
@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

On 06/24/2014 08:24 PM, Ra wrote:

Can i ask for new option for knobs and other colorful controls?
when volume (for example) changes then the color of the line around knob
or inside slider also changes from green to red (or white\blue\green)
and also for the knob pointer line.
so you just can change it dependently on different colours and set it in
some kind of design mode.
not sure if it is possible right now without css\svg support, just some
next-stage maybe.

Yeah, this isn't possible currently.

Maybe in the future, we'd first have to get the knobs subclassed (like I
mentioned earlier), and then introduce a lineColor property to the knob
subclasses. For the knob line, this could maybe be done as simply as
using a conical gradient for the knob's lineColor... not entirely sure
if it'd work that way, but it might... that wouldn't work for the arc
around the knob though, that would need to be coded in the paintEvent.

@tresf
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tresf commented Jun 24, 2014

Please keep me @tresf on copy of progress as it is made. I'm very interested in seeing progress on this and helping with the code where necessary.

As far as being the new default theme, time can only tell. Coming from someone who's contributed a few items to the existing theme, I can speak on behalf of the tremendous amount of work this stuff takes.

If you do indeed plan on sharing your Inkscape artwork with the team, please keep us posted as to how to access that.

As Vesa has illustrated, there are many areas in the LMMS GUI where larger, smaller or re-positioned widgets require code changes due to the almost purely static layouts that have been used over the years. Since these don't play nicely with dynamically sized/positioned content something as simple as re-positioning an LED can be quite the daunting task, but please don't let that hinder progress. 😺

In any case, this topic has already stirred enough interest to validate it's merit. Once you get positioned with forking on GitHub, please link us your fork. You have many interested parties. :)

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

On 06/24/2014 09:23 PM, Tres Finocchiaro wrote:

As Vesa has illustrated, there are many areas in the LMMS GUI where
larger, smaller or re-positioned widgets require code changes due to
the almost purely static layouts that have been used over the years.
Since these don't play nicely with dynamically sized/positioned
content something as simple as re-positioning an LED can be quite the
daunting task, but please don't let that hinder progress. 😺

It's less an issue of static layouts, but rather the issue I mentioned
earlier... Qt's CSS support is kind of hit and miss - it works great for
standard widgets like buttons and such, but when it comes to custom
QWidgets that use completely custom, written-from-scratch painting code,
then all bets are off...

Basically, right now I'm not even sure if we have any way of defining
something as simple as a LED position in the CSS. If we take the effect
front panel for example, all the subwidget positions (the on/off led,
the 3 knobs, the controls button) are hardcoded, and the size of the
effect panel is also hardcoded. I can't see any convenient way to have
that layout be modifiable in the CSS... we would basically need to do
something weird, like have overlapping layouts for all of the
subwidgets, then modify their margins with the CSS, and I've no idea how
well something like that would even work...

So for now, if we want to change these, then it has to be a change that
works for all themes. That's not to say that changes can't be done, it's
just that we have to figure out what works best for the GUI and the
software as a whole.

@tresf
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tresf commented Jun 24, 2014

I can't see any convenient way to have that layout be modifiable in the CSS

I'm not suggesting that. What I'm referring to is -- more generically -- a layout that allows widgets to assume their natural size and some UI behavior that allows elements to flow into eachother as needed. All conceptually of course, but this is common in most graphical tool-kits.

Here's a better explanation of what I'm referring to:
http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/29572

QT acts as our GUI toolkit and actually does have some capabilities for this but from my research it is limited. To free the programmer (where appropriate) from hard-coding element positions could have some significant advantages including common concepts such as overflowing toolbars, content rearranging to window size, etc. Again, only where appropriate, but I believe could help theming in many areas.

@diizy
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diizy commented Jun 24, 2014

On 06/24/2014 10:28 PM, Tres Finocchiaro wrote:

I can't see any convenient way to have that layout be modifiable
in the CSS

I'm not suggesting that. What I'm referring to is -- more generically
-- a layout that allows widgets to assume their natural size and some
UI behavior that allows elements to flow into eachother as needed. All
conceptually of course, but this is common in most graphical tool-kits.

Oh. Yeah, we already have that, like in the FX mixer where the size of
the channel area changes according to the size of the window, pushing
the effect rack to the side. No problem there.

Simple layout tricks like that are relatively easy, but when it comes to
complex layouts, things start getting a bit hairy...

QT acts as our GUI toolkit and actually does have some capabilities
for this but from my research it is limited. To free the programmer
(where appropriate) from hard-coding element positions could have some
significant advantages including common concepts such as overflowing
toolbars, content rearranging to window size, etc. Again, only where
appropriate, but I believe could help theming in many areas.

Yeah, reorganizing/overflowing toolbars for eg. piano roll is on the
agenda. This is one of those tricky things though, I don't think Qt has
any kind of automatic convenience classes for implementing something
like this, so it probably needs some kind of program logic for
dividing/organizing the layout based on the window width...

@musikBear
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short comment - a thought for users with sight problems, could/should also be in this scope. Vesa has mentioned color-blindness, but ..look aside from 'color', and you have a somewhat more problematic condition :D
A theme for this?
Wiki guide for theming & css possibillities needs updating. (Gues this would be a job for one of those who already know theming), before release.
And 👍 to Vesa who has made this possible in the first place

@tresf
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tresf commented Jul 8, 2014

@HDDigitizerMusic @RebeccaDeField it's been a few weeks... how is progress going on this? 🐈

@RebeccaDeField
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@tresf I have been pretty busy for the past week but I have worked on this in my free time and am making good progress. I will be posting some more detailed updates soon and if I have any questions I'll be sure to let you know :)

@RebeccaDeField
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RebeccaDeField commented Jul 20, 2014

I have been working very hard on the first round of icons for the new alternative theme that I'm contributing to LMMS. I have just finished designing the first draft of some icons to scale in Inkscape. If you have any suggestions I would be happy to hear them. :)

icons

@tresf
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tresf commented Jul 20, 2014

@RebeccaDeField, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to see these in action.

Let us know if you need any help from a code and/or testing perspective.

@RebeccaDeField
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Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely be contacting you if I have any questions. Once I get into the more major design elements there will be things I need help with. I'm more of a designer than a coder.

@eagles051387
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Love the look as well cant wait to see them in play :)

On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 7:54 AM, Rebecca DeField notifications@github.com
wrote:

Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely be contacting you if I have
any questions. Once I get into the more major design elements there will be
things I need help with. I'm more of a designer than a coder.


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#880 (comment).

Jonathan Aquilina

@Sti2nd
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Sti2nd commented Sep 2, 2014

Totally waaant 😄 🍰

@rubiefawn
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Yes. I like this. I tried making a similar theme a couple weeks ago but
inverted but I'm not a pro so it didn't turn out so well. xD I'm glad to
see such amazing improvement.

On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Rebecca DeField notifications@github.com
wrote:

Glad to hear it @Sti2nd https://github.com/Sti2nd! I've been busy
making small (but important) tweaks to make the icons clear in the program.
I'm almost complete, and should be adding a download link soon so that
anyone can use them in their alternative themes or even improve upon them.


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#880 (comment).

@emersonhsieh
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Looks good! Keep up the good work! :D

@Spekular
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Spekular commented Dec 1, 2015 via email

@SimoneIervasi
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Sorry Spekular, i saw something about the BB Editor stretching on this post, and a stretched icon isn't very good to see (for me)....however you're right, this isn't the right place, my fault👍

@RebeccaDeField
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@SimoneIervasi @Spekular I think the issue is more that it gets pixelated when stretched. You can see some of the solutions and progress that has been made here HDDigitizerMusic#1 (comment)

You're more than welcome to contribute to the conversation.

@SimoneIervasi
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Thanks Rebecca!

@RebeccaDeField
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shot-2015-12-03_12-13-40
Making lots of progress!

@SimoneIervasi
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That's beautiful!

@RebeccaDeField
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Update:
lmmsthemeprogress

As you can see, things are coming along pretty nicely. I believe that it is very close to completion. I am almost done with all of the things on my list and I will be adding some new issues. I will also be making another big comit soon.

As always, I will keep you updated and thank you for all of the support. :D

@tresf
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tresf commented Jan 7, 2016

This is shaping up nicely, thanks for sharing.

@emersonhsieh
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@RebeccaDeField The theme looks quite nice! :D

As a suggestion, the color contrast between the Sample Track segment and the black background could be bigger since it could be hard to discern the waveforms from the background.

@RebeccaDeField
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@intemerson Thanks for the feedback!

This is the section you're talking about, right? If so, we can totally do that. :)
track

@emersonhsieh
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@RebeccaDeField Yes that is the section I was referring to. Thanks!

@RebeccaDeField
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@intemerson How is this?
2

@pmache
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pmache commented Feb 16, 2016

I would switch to lmms if you implement @budislav one window concept. For now lmms seems to be ugly and hard to master. It seems archaic...

@tresf
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tresf commented Feb 16, 2016

I would switch to lmms if you implement @budislav one window concept

Please continue to use another DAW, your feedback is not helpful in this thread. 👍

Edit: your last post has been deleted. you've already made your point if you continue to post garbage on our tracker you will be permanently banned

@RebeccaDeField
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I think that budislav's work is excellent, but it may take some time to implement. I am always excited to see progress on that side of things.

This modern theme is just a re-skin of the current program, whereas he created a redesign with edits to the layout (which, like I said before is completely beautiful).

His theme and this theme are very different things with different uses, for different times. If anyone wants to help with the UI of LMMS just search for one of the many great themes that are being developed (cusis is another one) and start contributing. You can also make your own theme, now, more than ever with the changes that have been made recently. :)

@tresf
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tresf commented Feb 18, 2016

Closing as duplicate. Superseded by #2587.

This thread has run it's course and now we're at a point where we can call this new theme "almost ready". Please feel free to continue specific discussion here. The replacement thread will be used to track the milestone of how to incorporate this theme into a future LMMS build. Thanks to all for all the hard work, feedback, etc. 👍

@tresf tresf closed this as completed Feb 18, 2016
@RebeccaDeField
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Quick question: Does anyone know what Knob04.png controls?

@Wallacoloo
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@RebeccaDeField A quick search shows that it's not referred to by name anywhere in the LMMS codebase or the default theme. So it's most likely unused.

@Wallacoloo
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Scratch that though, neither are any of the other knobs referred to by name. So LMMS is probably doing something clever and concatenating "Knob" with "03" (or "02", "01", maybe "04") at runtime, making it hard to search for. So I have no way of telling if it's used or not.

@RebeccaDeField
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@Wallacoloo No problem. Thanks for searching :)

@tresf
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tresf commented Feb 21, 2016

@michaelgregorius
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Seems like that knob is not used.

The magical code that @Wallacoloo has prophesied correctly can be found here. For knob04.png to be used m_knobNum has to be 3. That member is initialized in the constructor of Knob (see here using an enum. The enum that produces knob04 is knobGreen_17 (fits the image) which can be found only two times: in the definition of the enums and in a switch statement that's superfluous because the enumeration type is not used.

@pmache
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pmache commented Mar 6, 2016

@RebeccaDeField Thank you for your reply. I understand that. And I hoping LMMS could get a proper desing. I'm crossing my fingers for that.

@tresf I see that somebody got a butthurt because truth has been spoken. I'm from community where some guys uses LMMS (ex. Loco) - I'm ok with that. I also used it, and I wishing LMMS everything best. That I have say my opinion (like some of my friends on forum) is that worse? Don't look only by the programming way. Look how typical user see things.

I'm done.

@tresf
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tresf commented Mar 6, 2016

@tresf I see that somebody got a butthurt because truth has been spoken

I'm not sure what you're talking about specifically, but if you'd like to contact me personally/directly on this matter I can investigate.

I'd much prefer we save the tracker from off-topic rants (or whatever is happening in your post). 👍

@michaelgregorius
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I have opened pull request #2644 which removes the unused knob 'knob04.png` and which also contains a proposal to rename the knob images so that they can be found better in the code.

And now I will let this closed issue rest in peace. 😉

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