Blender is a way to build Cappuccino theme files using CSS. It converts a CSS file into a Cappuccino Theme Descriptor file.

This is an early release so there are guaranteed to be bugs. Nevertheless, I think it is useful at this point.

Installation

Until Blender gets included in narwhal, you must install using:

[sudo] tusk install https://github.com/chandlerkent/Blender/zipball/master

Blender also requires Jison, so if you haven't installed it do so:

[sudo] tusk install jison

Usage

Blender includes a command-line utility called blend. To use blend:

Usage: blender.js [OPTIONS] INPUT_FILE [OUTPUT_DIR]
Compiles a CSS file to a Cappuccino category of a theme file.
 -t THEME: Set the theme name. Overrides anything set in CSS file.
 -c CLASS: Set the class name. This will be used to create the category.
 -h --help: displays usage information (final option)

Blender will output a Theme Descriptor file in the specified OUTPUT_DIR (or current directory if none specified) whose name is CLASS (default ThemeDescriptors) + THEME (default DefaultThemeName) .j. So for example:

blend -t Aristo -c ThemeDescriptors Aristo.css -> ThemeDescriptors+Aristo.j

Category

As you may have noticed by now, Blender does not create a full Theme Descriptor file. It will only create a category of a specified Theme Descriptor class. This is because a Theme Descriptor file may also need to define sizing for the Theme Showcase. In order to support this, Blender instead creates a category which has methods to retrieve the theme values for each control. These methods should then be called from within the actual Theme Descriptor class.

For example, the following CSS:

button {
    line-break-mode: CPLineBreakByTruncatingTail;
    image-offset: CPButtonDefaultHeight;
    text-color: var(TextColor); 
    min-size: 0.0 24.0;
    max-size: -1.0 24.0;
}

when blended with:

blend -t Aristo Aristo.css

will create a category file:

// ThemeDescriptor+Aristo.j

@import <Foundation/CPObject.j>
@import <AppKit/AppKit.j>
@import "ThemeDescriptor.j"

@implementation ThemeDescriptor (Aristo)

+ (CPString)themeName
{
	return @"Aristo";
}

+ (CPArray)buttonThemeValues
{
	var themedValues = [
		[@"line-break-mode", CPLineBreakByTruncatingTail],
		[@"image-offset", CPButtonDefaultHeight],
		[@"text-color", [CPColor colorWithRed:79.0 / 255.0 green:79.0 / 255.0 blue:79.0 / 255.0 alpha:1]],
		[@"min-size", CGSizeMake(0.0, 24.0)],
		[@"max-size", CGSizeMake(-1.0, 24.0)],
	];
	return themedValues;
}

@end

which then should be used in the main Theme Descriptor file:

// ThemeDescriptor.j
@import <Foundation/CPObject.j>
@import <AppKit/AppKit.j>

@implementation ThemeDescriptor : BKThemeDescriptor
{
}

+ (CPButton)themedStandardButton
{
    var button = [[CPButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 60.0, CPButtonDefaultHeight)];
    [self registerThemeValues:[self buttonThemeValues] forView:button];
    return button;
}

@end

@import "ThemeDescriptor+Aristo.j"

Notice the call to [self buttonThemeValues]. Also notice the @import "ThemeDescriptor+Aristo.j" at the bottom of the file to include the generated category.

Why?

Before Blender, creating a Cappuccino theme required writing really awkward code. It was a hassle and unfamiliar to most people. Objective-J is not particularly suited for this.

People (designers) know CSS. They can feel at home using Blender.

How?

Blender uses Jison to parse the CSS file into an AST-like data structure. Blender then "compiles" the file into an Objective-J category.

Example

See /tests/Aristo.css and /tests/AristoThemeDescriptor.j for an example. These files are an (almost) complete port of the Aristo theme to CSS.

TODO: Add more examples.

TODO

• Support private classes that begin with _
• [DONE] Find a way to make it easy to generate a ThemeDescriptor for a showcase
• .j -> .css?
• Squash the (many, I'm sure) bugs
• Test