[Kde-games-devel] KDE/kdegames/katomic

[Ian Wadham]

On Wed, 30 May 2007 06:03 pm, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Wednesday 30 May 2007, Dmitry Suzdalev wrote:
> > If I understand you correctly you're suggesting some place where
> > _technical_ descriptions of themes/levels/etc are held? I.e. some
> > resource with docs&references for artists/level-makers/etc which they
> > use while creating the content?
> > And the content itself go to e.g. kde-look, yes?
>
> yep; we're going to be facing the exact same issues with plasma, btw. =)
>
That being the case, and with EDU too (as you mentioned later), lets
get off on the right foot.  What we have done to "themeize" and "SVGize"
games in KDE 4 is put together from existing KDE bits, largely by
Mauricio Piacentini, but built upon by others.  There is a full explanation
in trunk/KDE/kdegames/kgoldrunner/pics/README.  Please ignore
the stuff on XPM themes, which is a holdover until we can implement
classic/nostalgic themes properly.

For each theme there is a *.desktop file, one of which is called
default.desktop (the default theme for new players).  Mauricio chose
the *.desktop format because:

    - The Name and Description items for the theme get picked up by
       scripty and the translators.  Some of our themes already have
       Swedish and Greek translations!
    - The KConfig format is simple and should be readily understood
       by non-programmers.  Also the nesting depth of XML is not
       (currently) required.
    - The format can include any other theme parameters, especially
       those that cannot be represented in the graphics file.
    - There can be any number of graphics files in any format (not
       necessarily SVG or SVGZ).  Mauricio is using PNG for a theme
       preview, for example.

This approach is quite general, it seems to me.  Indeed there is already
talk of re-implementing Klickety (which got relegated to playground) as
a theme within KSame.  Klickety is essentially the same game as KSame
(no pun intended) but with different board dimensions and more colors.

Mauricio has added classes KGameTheme and KGameThemeSelector
to libkdegames.  The first is to find, load and decode a theme.  The
second is to drive a theme-selection page in KConfigDialog.

May I recommend this approach to you, Aaron, except that I suggest
changing the file suffix to .theme, if you can get scripty to add that.

> user data customization really isn't appropriate for techbase which is for
> software development, systems admin and eventually sys integration;
> wiki.k.o might be a decent starting place though it's harder to raise
> visibility of stuff there. techbase has been great for organizing content
> and making it easily visible.
>
> a wiki specifically for this purpose just seems .. "right" ...
>
May I suggest that the KDE main page and the KDE Look main page
include a "plug" and a link for wherever this wiki ends up, so that
interested artists can easily come across it.  I'd also suggest that
there be overviews on how it works, followed by details on how to
theme each game, EDU package or plasma desktop.

I would also like to help with the writing, if you need me.

> > README's I commited were the effort to have at least _some_
> > instructions for theme makers.
>
> which is great; documentation is next to godliness, or something like that
>
Amen to that.  We agree on something, Aaron ... :-)

BTW, congratulations to you and everyone on Techbase.  It is coming
along nicely.  I have learned such a lot from it in the last few weeks.

All the best, Ian W.