I'd like to post an idea about a new concept that IMHO could be added to plasma. For the last weeks I'm having lots of free time at work, and no computer at all, which has resulted into creative thinking about new possibilies of plasma. In fact, I've thought about some different things, but I'll start with this one. <br>
<br>The purpose of posting it, providing that I have very little experience coding on KDE/Qt (I usually do just plain C or C++) is to not keeping these ideas just for myself. I don't want it to sound like: "pleazzz pleezzz implement my awesome idea" (although it would be great). Maybe someone finds it useful or I can just get some hints about how to implement it myself. Well, the point is just to broadcast the idea to the plasma comunity.<br>
<br>I know that maybe it's not a good time to post this message since the main plasma team is still hibernating after the plasma sprint in Milano, but i'd welcome any kind of feedback.<br><br>-----------------------<br>
<br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Plasma Faces: <span style="font-style: italic;">The Concept</span></span><br style="font-weight: bold;"><br>Faces are specific "themes" for a certain plasmoid (i.e. analog clock, battery)<br>
<br>The aim is to give the user the power of changing the look of any specific plasmoid without changing the look of the rest of plasma elements.<br><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">How does it work</span><br>
<br>Each different face is embedded in a single file (.face, .plasmaface, .whatever)<br><br>This file contain the graphic elements (mainly SVGs) needed to give that plasmoid a new look. Now with WoC, they can contain also stylesheets for the widgets of the plasmoid.<br>
<br>Plasmoids that are faceable set the structure with the list of items that the file must have. Then, the different elements of the file are extracted as it is currently done with themes.<br><br>When a face is installed, plasma registers it in asociation with the plasmoid that the face is aimed for.<br>
<br>In the plasmoid configuration, the user can select one of the faces that are associated to that plasmoid, or the default look, given by the plasma default theme or the plasmoid author.<br><br>Faces can be installed via HotNewStuff, or simply downloading the face file.<br>
If a face file is dropped onto the plasmoid of interest, it gets installed (if it wasn't installed before) and applied.<br><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Examples of Use</span><br>
<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">The analog clock.</span> Although each plasma theme contains a default clock face, users will likely change this look without having to change the whole plasma theme.<br>For example, Annie (I've found that examples make a stronger effect if I give real names :p) wants to have a stilized big analog clock on the desktop, but a high contrast one on the panel.<br>
Chuck likes the fluffy-bunny theme, but also the slim-glow clock.<br>Jessie likes to change the color of the clock depending on its emotional state.<br><br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The weather applet.</span> Different icon sets for the sun, clouds, rain, etc. can be implemented this way.<br>
<br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The panel.</span> Bill likes to use the new KDE4 on his Gentoo box, but somehow, he prefer a windows-like green&blueish panel.<br><br style="font-weight: bold;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;">New plasmoids.</span> A brand new atonishing plasmoid has been created, but the different themes haven't all the graphic elements that it needs. The author has created two different graphics sets.<br>
<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Photo plasmoid.</span> Currently, frames of the photo plasmoid, depend on the plasma theme in use, but they don't look so integrated as the other plasmoids. The user can choose between rounded and square frames changing an option in the config dialog. This seems a bit restrictive:<br>
Jack wants a polaroid-like frame.<br>Jean an old-fashiones photo one.<br>Square and rounded frames can also be implemented as faces<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Possible objection:</span> "If someone wants a new look for a plasmoid, he can just create a different plasmoid. That's what plasma DataEngines and Plasmoids are about".<br>
<br>The analog clock, the fuzzy clock, the digital clock etc, are different clock concepts and, therefore, they're implemented as different plasmoids. But to have the same analog clock with a different look doesn't worth to duplicate a plasmoid.<br>
<br>It also doesn't make sense to duplicate the weather applet just to have a different icon set. The weather plasmoid could implement it's own mechanism to choose between icon sets, but then, why not to make a global way available to all plasmoids that want to use it? <br>
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