Nemo breadcrumbs

[ghost]

I understand webster likes these arrows.I will be honest, I hate them.(please no virtual punches anymore! XD )

They look completely out of place in nemo.If at least in cinnamon these things were used in a highly consistent manner across all mint tools, then it would make some sense, but this way they just look like an alien.The arrows in the software manager, for example, look much better but also completely different from those in nemo.

So, I was wondering whether it would be possible to enable the use of border-image/background-image css properties for these breadcrumbs.Even with css, it still isn´t possible to style them correctly, and as a result they will look out of place regardless.Having border-image would allow a theme artist to get rid of the arrows.If he couldn´t get rid of them, then at least he could improve them with custom images.

I tried styling them, and I can tell there is something odd about the css available here.I cannot achieve stuff like double borders, I cannot get rid of the apparently thick border around the beginning of the breadcrumbs...
Notice how thick the border is:

[ghost]

Here are the mockups:

[ManIVIctorious]

I personally like the breadcrumbs and i think they look far better than your mockups.

[ghost]

Both of these are breadcrumbs.You mean you like the arrows?

Looking at this it seems it is "button heavy".I´ll see how it looks with less buttons.

[anandrkris]

One thing about having "Arrow" like breadcrumb is that it subtly indicates navigation. Your work tends to give a Nautilus-que feel. 😉

[ghost]

To me the arrows look horrible.I guess one shouldn´t argue about tastes in this case.
However, one thing I can more or less argue for in an objective way is the fact that these arrows look inconsistent with all other applications.

The buttons blend more in with the rest of the applications, including the control-center.
Even if the mint guys were consistent with the use of these arrows across all mint-tools, the mint-tools would still look out-of-place when compared to most other applications.

[collinss]

Although, I kind of like the arrows myself, I agree with @zagortenay333 that they should be themeable (provided that they don't break anything in the process of making it that way).

[ManIVIctorious]

@collinss Totally agree

[anandrkris]

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=163710#p841932
Never thought these bread crumbs are not liked so much that people are ready to even quit distro! 😲 Strange that small things annoy people this much! No offense to anyone but maybe devs should make it themeable as per suggestion here.

[mtwebster]

Yes and an obscure general chat forum is the best place to air these thoughts too :)

When we change something it's not because it was handed down from on high via stone tablets. We do it because we think it might be neat, or useful or add value. Two full versions later, finally we hear people don't like it!!

This is already planned to be reigned in a bit, possibly for 2.4

[mtwebster]

My point is I wish people would speak up sooner, if something is that reviled (i'm guessing not wanting to offend, etc..). Maybe we missed some clues - we just thought it was a cool idea at the time. If we're offended by user criticism, that's our fault, we need to do better (ask @zagortenay333)

[anandrkris]

@mtwebster - I posted this issue link in forums and noted it here because have seen OP being very active in Mint forums. Forum works in mysterious ways, even non-Mint users contribute a lot, thankfully!
Frankly, I couldn't care less about bread crumbs, does not distract me. I come from Windows world where everything is forced upon me. So all this configuration, theme-ability, etc is boon for me. 😄 So, have nothing much to complain and as I noted earlier i felt arrows conveyed navigation.

You meant "rein in", i suppose.

[anandrkris]

Agree, on timing of feedback and criticism is not easy to take especially when acted out of best interests. There are always going to be people who have different tastes. A project can not please all however need to maintain a balance and hear views and take best course of action based on what is possible under the circumstances. It s a tightrope to walk, nonethelesse. 😄
As long as it is backed by strong rationale and fulfils common UI paradigm, i suppose, we are good.

[anandrkris]

I agree that visual appeal and polish are imperative to any DE. KDE started a visual design group recently in that front. I feel, Mint gives due focus to UI polish and design. Am not saying it is perfect but it does not look down on UI for sure.
-> Cinnamon made it trivial to change themes in desktop and built platform for artists to innovate.
-> MDM got HTML5 support and some amazing login screens cropped into existence. Perhaps Mint needs to form a strong artists community to give more focus on issues you refer to.

Personally, what I would like to grow fast or have focus on applets / desklets that make desktop powerful and critical bugs getting addressed (Eg: Cheese effects not working got fixed in 2.2).

[anandrkris]

I agree on the aspect that it needs polish and perhaps more thought / efforts is needed but outright saying that they don't care / have not attempted about isn't justified.

In Cinnamon 2.2, I noticed that many of the icons got revamped (Backgrounds, Hotcorners, Startup Programs, etc.) Even lot of setting options were tweaked and made logical. (Brightness moved from lock to power settings.)

What I implied by those examples was that - say if Mint had not cared about UI polish, why would they bother to build support for HTML5 in the first place!

[glebihan]

@zagortenay333 : RavetcoFX is as much of a Mint guy as anyone contributing to the project.
And what you're saying is simply not true and unfair : we all do care about design, and unless my memory really fails me, we have had discussions about it with you on more than a few occasions and have listened to your input.
Sure we don't always agree with you (eg I think gnome-shell is overall ugly), but to say we don't care about design simply because not all of your suggestions were accepted is... well... worth punches in the face ;)

[M4he]

Ontopic:

The breadcrumbs can actually be made to look nice with a bit of GTK3 css theming and most importantly patching "libnemo-private/nemo-pathbar-button.c" by replacing every occurence of "cairo_set_line_width (cr, 3.0)" with "cairo_set_line_width (cr, 2.0)" which makes the borders look correctly (thin).

I'm completely puzzled how they came up with 3.0 as line width which makes the borders look out of place in every GTK3 theme.

[TaylanTatli]

As always @zagortenay333 doing best! I loved your mockups, i wish devs made some changes.

[anandrkris]

http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2014/09/new-nemo-toolbar/ - Breadcrumb pathbar has been modified. No arrow-style now. 😄
@zagortenay333 - Can this be closed?

[ghost]

Nice! I´m glad my mockups were of use here :)