Is there a way to get a kde3 color scheme into kde4?

[Duncan]

Matthew Woehlke <redacted> posted
h42te5$svi$1 at ger.gmane.org, excerpted below, on  Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:08:52
-0500:

> Duncan wrote:
>> Matthew Woehlke <redacted> posted
> 
> Thank you ;-).

Yeah, I missed it in my first reply, and felt guilty when I read your sig 
and realized what I had done. =:^(  But that makes me all the more 
conscientious about it now, and has me rethinking my automated 
attribution formula as well, tho I have to thing about it a bit more 
before actually changing it for the general case...

So you got me thinking, which is good. =:^)

>> When I asked about the color scheme, I was actually thinking about the
>> active kde3 scheme, not importing from say kdelook or the like.
> 
> Hmm... given that we can't know what $KDEHOME for KDE3 is, that, as you
> say, is the hard part.

<brainstorming> Well, using the literal substring $KDEHOME in the path 
would be one solution, but admittedly an ugly one for the "ordinary 
user".  Perhaps a bit less ugly would be just using the ~/.kde*/share/... 
form... but honestly, while it'd work, it's still too ugly and scary for 
our "ordinary user"...

>> 1) A UI element (popup, label, whatever) suggesting the default user
>> paths [...]

> Given what Import does, I'm not sure where, or if, such a UI element
> should be placed. This sounds somewhat more like fodder for
> documentation (userbase.kde.org?). Would that be sufficient?

That was my dilemma as well.  Certainly, userbase documentation would 
help.  (OTOH, I've browsed around there and honestly haven't found it 
very useful or workable here... much of it is way basic, generic 
descriptions of kde apps, etc, and while I keep seeing people referring 
to putting documentation for issues I imagine myself looking for on 
userbase, I don't seem to be able to simply access that level.  It's 
likely that I'm making something way complex out of the simple thing in 
front of my nose, but never-the-less, it has been mildly frustrating and 
therefore has been something sitting on the todo list to ask about, when 
I got the chance, if I didn't stumble upon the key to it all somehow 
before I got around to asking about it.)

What I'm visualizing however would be either a help button by the import, 
explaining the default location and that it's just that, default, the 
user may have to adjust it, or working it into the help page and the 
what's this help.  (The button is something I've seen used in other apps, 
the help page and what's this help would seem to be the more "kde-esque" 
way of handling it.)

But...

> (In fact, you don't want to import from
> $KDEHOME/share/apps/color-schemes, unless it is the $KDEHOME of another
> user/machine. Stuff there is already loaded :-).)

Indeed.  But what I had in mind was a simple explanation covering both 
the new location, should you wish to access a scheme you have to import 
it onto another machine (or on the other machine to import it onto this 
one), and an explanation of where the "legacy" location was for kde3.

The idea being that the same "legacy" theme could be used both there and 
in the explanation of why kde3 schemes won't be as complete and well 
rounded as kde4 schemes are likely to be.  When the user sees the legacy 
idea mentioned in the kde3 path explanation (if he actually needs and 
reads that path explanation), then it'll simply be reinforced when he 
sees the warning about the crude conversion, and he's less likely to find 
fault with the result when he has to tweak it a bit.

By the time we're done with this, maybe we'll have that help text hashed 
out... or a good start made on it anyway. =:^)

>> [Even just] setting the filetypes filter to *.kcsrc; *.colors,
>> for instance[,] would help IMMENSELY. =:^)
> 
> /me makes mental note to add file types, not sure why we don't have that
> already...

That would help, and would be the gentlest touch.  Given that it's likely 
a power user that would be even trying this in the first place, the 
*.kcsrc; *.colors filter might well be sufficient enough a hint.  I know 
it would have given me at least some idea where to start, here. (And yes, 
I'd label myself a power user and then some; the degree to which I 
customize has shocked a number of folks in a reasonable position to know 
about that sort of thing over the years, and I'll be the first to admit 
that the degree of customization I've done in kde3 and now expect to be 
able to do in kde4 are making the transition MUCH more difficult for me 
than it'd be for an ordinary user.) My biggest question, then, is would 
the hint be too subtle for those in the middle ground that might just 
happen to want to do it, but perhaps aren't enough of a power user to 
actually have grasped the value of such hints from previous experience.  
I can't honestly answer that, as that middle ground is the hardest for me 
to try to put myself in.

>> 2) Being able to extract the info from an existing kdeglobals would be
>> useful as well.
> 
> Out of curiosity, what happens if you try to import the kdeglobals from
> your KDE3 $KDEHOME?

That's an interesting question, but at this point I've been up too long 
to trust that any testing I might try would have intelligible results 
looking back on it after some sleep anyway, so that bit I'll have to take 
a raincheck on. =:^)

(Hopefully the reply in general makes some sense.  It does from here, but 
honestly, I'm in no condition to make that judgment ATM, so if it doesn't 
I apologize.)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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