situation with window decorations

[Frank Karlitschek]

On 27.08.2009, at 20:06, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:

> On Thursday 27 August 2009, Lucas Murray wrote:
>> Oxygen = The way the designers want the decoration (Pixel perfect  
>> and not
>> ugly!) Nitrogen = The way the users want the decoration (User  
>> customisable
>> and better usability!)
>
> let's be thorough instead of glib. here are two sets of issues here:  
> defaults
> and options.
>
> for defaults, it can be refined further:
>
> * appearance
> * usability
>
> nitrogen still left justifies the title bar text by default, but it  
> turns off
> the stripes. this all seems a bit random from the appearance POV.
>
> usability wise, i think it's a wash between the two still. neither is
> remarkably better than the other.
>
> for options:
>
> oxygen's options are minimal and also poorly laid out in the  
> configuration
> panel.
>
> nitrogen is a rather random slap-dash arrangement of things. wtf  
> does "KDE
> 4.2" mean for "Button Style"? this is what makes me most nervous about
> nitrogen: yes, it is trying to improve on oxygen, but it's doing it  
> like we're
> back in KDE 3.1 and the name of the game is "lots of features and  
> don't worry
> about the results!".
>
> if nitrogen wishes to win support, i'd suggest a few things:
>
> * don't dump it into kdebase until it's ready. that's what we have  
> playground
> for.
>
> * pay attention to the configuration options and take care with what  
> options
> are put where and how. e.g. if the options for Buttons is "KDE 4.2 "  
> and
> "Default", then there really doesn't need to be an option. the  
> wording of the
> rest of the options also should be looked at; it's far too geeky.
>
> * consider if things like a "drag handle" are needed or if that's  
> just there
> to satisfy someone's personal itch; or how about those stripes: do  
> we _really_
> need them at this point or can Oxygen keep them for those who like  
> them and we
> can be done with them in Nitrogen?

Yes. I personally don´t like the stripes. Just visual clutter.
Lets go with Albert Einstein: "Make everything as simple as possible,  
but not simpler."
The stripes are not needed at least not with compositing enabled. So  
let´s remove them.


> remembering that we _all_ pay for
> additional configuration options due to config ui and code  
> maintenance.
>
> the good things in Nitrogen? it has those Exceptions which should  
> allow us to
> tune it to work better with other applications. cool.
>
> but right now it seems like an honest attempt at compromise that is  
> leading to
> a chaotic mix of features and configuration UI. work on the  
> elegance, which is
> the ingredient that got us this far to begin with on the look front.
>
> personally i'd like to see just one window decoration in there, as  
> Frank seems
> to be leaning towards as well. can Nitrogen be that? and can we also  
> drop the
> silly "names of gasses" puns and just stick to Oxygen, so we can get  
> back to
> building brand instead of making forks?

Exactly.


>> Unless the Oxygen team can live with the customisation settings (All
>
> let's leave ultimatums out of it until we have an actual impasse.


Cheers
Frank


--
Frank Karlitschek
karlitschek at kde.org