Workflow Aesthetic Continued...

[geo_c]

The pixmaps folder is shortcuts to icon theme sets that change by the theme chosen + standard icons, or the other way around.

Do I have this mastered? No, but I notice odd things here and there. Is it too complicated? Yes. It is reasonable to have different icon themes in the same boot, but the graphical system feels more cobbled together than premeditated.

Well, I'm not put off by the cobbledness, because that may work to my advantage in the end. The information I need at this point is:

• Where are the built in puppy pixmaps (because it seems some applications and themes have their own pixmap directories)

• How is the shortcut structured (Is it just an address, so a given application finds the name of the icon in pixmaps, and the shortcut directs to some other location on the system?

• Can a given pixmap directory be a shortcut/symlink itself? (in other words put all the icons in one location and have the pixmap directories link to that central location.)

So I'll have to do some poking around the pixmaps files and answer some of my own questions. An easy way is probably to boot up a system with no save, and do some searches.

My main issue with extra sets are their size. There is a big difference between Icon Theme sets and the comprehensive GTK sets. Here in Slacko6 the installed icon themes are all under 150 KILOBYTES. The comprehensive Standard set symlinked from a pixmaps subdirectory is still less than 350k.

Size is not a terribly huge issue, unless I want the ability to have many icon themes. and I may be going the opposite direction, a remaster with a built in 'MATRIX' theme, but still having the ability to load a handful of standard puppy sets, if one was inclined to do that.

Puppy is another fish in the sea without its efficiency ethic. There has to be a middle ground... that is, where you can see all icons in your system without icon bloat.

see this thread: viewtopic.php?t=4370

I'm still experimenting, but one idea mentioned earlier that has been working well is multiple launch methods, i.e., the grabbing the closest utensil trick. It is functionality that gives an os value, and three unobtrusive ways to do the same thing is an example.

I had a similar ditching idea with FindNRun, but I find with it installed I'll still use menus or Rox launcher folders.

I found I almost never use FindNRun, so I took it out of the tray. I limited the tray to mostly desktop navigation/settings: Panel switch, Drive mounter, Terminal, Conky switch, Display control.

Your big idea from my perspective is a comprehensive vision for a unified desktop. It seems like a lot of justifiable work.

I am fine with simple JWM trays that autohide. I am still intrigued by your wmcontrol icon windows.

I never liked autohide until I realized one thing about my desktop approach. I was hiding menu bars under the tray, but sometimes I needed to see them, like when using ROX multiple windows. So autohide does both and gives more room on smaller monitors.

wmctrl, once setup is a joy. I can literally do a days work without ever having to resize a window by hand. But it's six of one half a dozen of the other, because it takes a lot fiddling to get the scripts just right. And the pixel values have to be adjusted for different monitors and machines. So transferring pupsaves between computers, which I do an awful lot of, requires a set of wmctrl scripts for each machine and it's attached display monitors.

After years of counseling I learned that I'm not obsessive/compulsive, just the obsessive part! So even though I might give a big idea a break for awhile (to pursue other big ideas) I never drop it completely.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

So I accidentally booted off usb instead my hardrive, and the pupsaves on the usb stick didn''t fit the machine I happened to be on, so I thought, what the heck, I'll boot it with no save and see what copying the neo-console theme onto a clean boot would be like.

I was able to copy /root/.config/rox.sourceforg.net and transfer all my ROX settings. Got all the MIME-icons and options.

Had to use the graphics wizard to set the picom effects.

I was able to copy my icon theme, /root/.jwm-tray and get my tray launchers.

I had to set the JWM colors using the JWMdesk tool. As I still don't know how to manipulate the rc files without them overwriting at reboot. That's the missing link so far. Only one thing didn't come up and I don't remember what to do to change it. It's the tray pager. That comes up white and not green. Not sure where to set it. I tried using etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc, but that didn't change it.

I was able to copy my GTK neo-console theme. Everything cool there.

Transferred my panel scripts and had to load a few .pets to make things go. like Conky_Toggle_Switch, jwmthememaker, JWMDesk-3.3.

Copied the /root/.config/cairo-dock/ and the dock came up perfectly. (I'm in Jackalpup that comes with cairo.)

And that was about it really. I ran into some bugginess getting the window buttons to appear. I had to use the JWMDesk dialog. And it required choosing the <reset> option to make it go.

So if I can figure out how to change the JWM theme by command instead of gui, then I might be able to write a script to load this theme into a pup. I'm thinking it might work in most pups.

[williams2]

I was able to copy /root/.config/rox.sourceforg.net and transfer all my ROX settings

The rox pinboard config file (desktop icons and wallpaper) is in /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/

Had to use the graphics wizard to set the picom effects.

In BionicPup64, the compton config file is /root/.config/compton.conf
The picom config file is probably in /root/.config/ somewhere.

still don't know how to manipulate the rc files without them overwriting at reboot

It says in /root/.jwmrc IMPORTANT, ONLY EDIT /etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc
/root/.jwm,rc can be overwritten at any time, so pointless to edit.
Most of the other jwm config files in /root/ should be safer to edit.
These config files may be changed at any time by configuration programs like jwmdesk.
if you edit the jwm config files by hand, it might confuse jwmdesk and similar programs.

I would recommend saving backup copies of files that you edit,
In case they get overwritten.
You can copy backup config files, overwriting files that Puppy may have changed to suit itself, by your own config files. You could do this from a script, and run the script before jwm starts, or even before X starts.
Jwm is started near the bottom of /root/.xinitrc
/etc/rc.d/rc.local executes before X starts running.

the tray pager. That comes up white and not green

grep --color -Ri pager .jwm*

The <PagerStyle> settings are in most of the jwm config files.
Editing /etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc might work.
Or maybe /root/.jwm/jwmrc-theme might work.

I had to use the JWMDesk dialog. And it required choosing the <reset> option to make it go.

i think that executes jwm -restart or maybe jwm -reload

[geo_c]

Thanks @williams2, that's super helpful.

I was able to copy /root/.config/rox.sourceforg.net and transfer all my ROX settings

The rox pinboard config file (desktop icons and wallpaper) is in /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/

So I can use that file to preset the desktop background. At the moment I'm not using any desktop icons except for the drive icons in /usr/share/midi-icons. Where would that change normally be made in the system when switching the desktop theme? It may be that I'll need my own limited set of desktop icons that can be written into the standard puppy set.

In BionicPup64, the compton config file is /root/.config/compton.conf
The picom config file is probably in /root/.config/ somewhere.

Yes, and picom has it's own directory. It appears in Jackalpup comptom is disabled, it's there in Fossapup64. I won't be looking at a universal theme install script for Jackalpup though, only Fossapup64.

It says in /root/.jwmrc IMPORTANT, ONLY EDIT /etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc
/root/.jwm,rc can be overwritten at any time, so pointless to edit.
Most of the other jwm config files in /root/ should be safer to edit.
These config files may be changed at any time by configuration programs like jwmdesk.
if you edit the jwm config files by hand, it might confuse jwmdesk and similar programs.

I have tried to edit /etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc. Im not sure that I'm getting any results with it though. I tried to change the pager color using that file, and it didn't change it, even though the settings are stored in the file and not overwritten.

I would recommend saving backup copies of files that you edit,
In case they get overwritten.
You can copy backup config files, overwriting files that Puppy may have changed to suit itself, by your own config files. You could do this from a script, and run the script before jwm starts, or even before X starts.
Jwm is started near the bottom of /root/.xinitrc
/etc/rc.d/rc.local executes before X starts running.

I do make backups of the original files, and backups of my changes. It's probably best to get a theme script running before X even starts, that way all the settings will be present ahead of time.

I had to use the JWMDesk dialog. And it required choosing the <reset> option to make it go.

i think that executes jwm -restart or maybe jwm -reload

I tried many times just restarting JWM from the shutdown menu, but it didn't actually change the window buttons until I ran JWMDesk and used the reset button in the window button dialog. But that did the trick.

Thanks. At some point I'll get this theme as clean and simple as possible, with a universal puppy set of app launchers and start developing a startup script for it in Fossapup64. Though I'll be doing some traveling over the holidays, so it won't be ready to go next week, that's for sure.

One nagging question is the theme choice. If I start with a system set to say a gtk-numix theme, and JWM set to it's default theme, and then I change rc files and such. I have to make sure that the new JWM theme is stored with it's own name, and JWM sees that theme as the alternate one. I think with JWM the /root/.jwm/theme rc file can be changed to reflect the new theme name, but I'm not sure that will actually change it in the other theme tools just yet.

[geo_c]

@williams2

One big thought. If I wanted to create a script that gave the user the ability to automatically change the JWM theme, the GTK theme, and the ROX theme all in one click, it might need to be structured that the message (requires X restart) is included, and the script then immediately exits X, loads all the necessary components and comes up with all three theme changes. Then presumably, the user could change any of the three theme settings the 'normal' way, and at any time run the script again to go back to the 'universal' neo-console' theme.

It might do well for the script make to make copies of Fossapup's fresh-boot rc settings, etc, and then be able to restore those with another script perhaps. The two scripts could be run from a menu entry.

I'm in way over my head. But that never stopped me before.

post script:
and if this universal theme structure works efficiently, it could theoretically be applied to other standard themes simply by altering the targets in theme-specific dedicated switching scripts.

[mikewalsh]

Basically whatever task I need to do, communicate through email and browser sites, file manage, etc... those tasks are all setup now with a few clicks and everything is set to go. So it pays off in the end, if you're willing to do the tedium of trial and error window placement and number entry in simple scripts.

On a different level, though along the same lines, I've spent years experimenting with & figuring out the best way for me to implement my own daily work-flow. The end result of all which is a directory full of personalized, 'custom' .pets/installers that now make setting-up and customizing any new Puppy a breeze.....where it used to take a whole day at one time, it now takes an hour or so, tops, because it's all scripted & automated.

My biggest headache is probably choosing a desktop background & editing/customizing it to how I want it.....but for me, that's one job I have no problems with doing. I just enjoy it!

Mike.

[geo_c]

the tray pager. That comes up white and not green
grep --color -Ri pager .jwm*

The <PagerStyle> settings are in most of the jwm config files.
Editing /etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc might work.
Or maybe /root/.jwm/jwmrc-theme might work.

Turns out I just had to edit /root/.jwm/jwmrc-theme, and I really didn't understand how to get what I was going for in the beginning. I finally figured out what to do with the outline, foreground, and background colors.

And really, now that I realize that jwmrc-theme changes stick on reboot, I think all I have to do to transfer a JWM theme is copy /root/.jwm/jwmrc-theme and /root/.jwmrc-tray, and any icons that might be needed.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

Last night I made some major headway on the unified theme. I edited the GTK-3.0 portion of the theme and was able to replace all the brighter greens with one consistent green matching GTK-2. Now all the GTK-2/3 colors match JWM. And theme-wise it's unified. The choice to modify the downloaded "Boomerang Blackout' theme was a big win, because the gtkrc structure is much more approachable. I've been able to do clean edits on it with search and replace. In the beginning I was modifying Cayan-glass, and wasn't getting any results in GTK-3.

The last piece of the puzzle is icons. I'm thinking I might do a mono-chrome green standard set for puppy. But the menu icons as a whole are a conundrum. I did some experiments, like deleting all the icons in /usr/share/pixmaps, which got rid of the icons in many puppy utiilities, like the shutdown screen, but not the JWM menu. (Many icons are difficult to live without I'm noticing, like little folders on the sides of checkboxes that have no text description.)

I also experimented with making a new Xfe icon set. That can be done, but there's a lot of 'em. I replaced the folders. Xfe icons are .png's and have to be pixel matched. Some are 16px and others are 32. I put my 256 size folder icon in the theme and got giant folders, that was fun.

As the theme gets cleaner and cleaner, I plan to do two things. 1) Develop a script to switch JWM, GTK, picom, urxvt terminal colors, drive icons, desktop icons, etc, so an already installed pup can switch to the unified theme. 2) Make a remaster of Fossapup64 with the pre-installed theme, and script, giving the ability to turn the theme off and on. Basically, to do a re-master, I'll boot up a clean install of Fossapup, and add nothing but the neo-console theme (maybe Xfe as a second file manager) and then do the remaster: Fosapup64-MATRIX

If for some reason with the help of the pup community I'm able to pull off this theme switching script (most likely some master-users like @mikewalsh already have something like it,) I don't see why it couldn't be applied to other pup themes, in other words taking some standard pup themes, jwm themes, icon and utility application settings, and switching all of them with a single set of scripts.

Application wise, for instance, Geany has a built-in color scheme called 'Retro' which comes up matching my terminal theme almost exactly. So now Geany being GTK-3, set with the Retro theme, is monochrome as a whole, matching the desktop. Same goes for Xfe. One thing I've always liked about Xfe is it's theme customization. I have set all these elements, applications, GTK, JWM to two colors mostly. One for standard text and lines, another for selected text, slightly brighter on black background.

[JASpup]

Basically, to do a re-master, I'll boot up a clean install of Fossapup, and add nothing but the neo-console theme (maybe Xfe as a second file manager) and then do the remaster: Fosapup64-MATRIX

There you go. MATRIX PUP COMES TO LIFE.

I might have missed this somewhere, how did you get XFE black? Closest I've gotten is the CDE theme:

[geo_c]

Basically, to do a re-master, I'll boot up a clean install of Fossapup, and add nothing but the neo-console theme (maybe Xfe as a second file manager) and then do the remaster: Fosapup64-MATRIX

There you go. MATRIX PUP COMES TO LIFE.

I might have missed this somewhere, how did you get XFE black? Closest I've gotten is the CDE theme:

>Menu>Edit>Preferences>ThemesTab>CustomColors-dropdown

Double click the color bar on the side and use Color Chooser. I have everything set to black except text color, file list text color, selected text color, scroll bar (almost black), progress bar (same as selected text), attention color (left it red)

Your colors are stored in /root/.config/xfe/xferc

The theme chooser window looks like this:

[geo_c]

@JASpup

What's it like using MATRIX-pup? Well it's for the hardcore old-school console enthusiast. Those of us who once used DOS-shell.

Here's a little Matrix-Geany:

a little ALSA-sound-wizard:
keyboard laptop

a bit of Matrix-mtpaint editing a little Matrix-LibreWolf screenshot:

gotta use Matrix-JWMDesk:

the best way to read news is with old school RSS feed technology on Matrix-QuiteRss:

gotta check out my storage space on Matrix-partview:

might need to edit some text on Matrix-abiword:

computers are just glorified calculators, and Matrix-galculator looks the part:

Sorry I got a little screenshot happy. Some of these applications are GTK-2, others GTK-3. GTK-3 applications have slightly different looks from each other.

[JASpup]

Customization is more desirable than being stuck with a desktop you don't like, but Puppy could really use more unified theming. Ptheme comes close, but as soon as I implement my favorite theme I still keep changing settings. A Matrix theme is so encompassing it's take-it-or-leave it which fosters usability.

It's easy to come up with attractive elements that don't work together. A theme takes vision. Users who really want to get to work will want standard high quality themes.

[geo_c]

Customization is more desirable than being stuck with a desktop you don't like, but Puppy could really use more unified theming.

Which is why I'm keeping that dream of scripts switching JWM, GTK-2.0, GTK-3, and application settings simultaneously. Of course building different themes takes a long time, but now that this one is more or less under my belt, I think others might be easier. Especially since this first one is so uniform, I think it's actually a great discipline to make everything match a couple of shades of the same color. It's also difficult to implement all black backgrounds, because any dark color gets easily lost. So I finally have solved those issues in this working theme: Unified Console Green

I'd love to shoot for Unified Cayan Dark, Unified Vibrant Pastel, and perhaps Unified Neon. Other monochrome themes would probably be easy to build simply by replacing all the color values in this current theme, emulating other 'console' colors.

Color theory is interesting. I've tried looking at the above screens shots surrounded by a white browser background, and the greens look much darker. I notice it a lot with the cairo-dock when it overlaps windows causing the icons to appear much different in color. It's the mix of colors that give an appearance it's clarity or vibrancy.

Ptheme comes close, but as soon as I implement my favorite theme I still keep changing settings. A Matrix theme is so encompassing it's take-it-or-leave it which fosters usability.

It's easy to come up with attractive elements that don't work together. A theme takes vision. Users who really want to get to work will want standard high quality themes.

I don't think I can turn this into a second job, but if were in the next 6 months-year come up with say 3 unified themes, that would be a nice asset to a puppy user I think.

Two courses of development have to happen:

• Developing another theme or two (And Ideally I would set the colors in some standard puppy applications to match, the ones that have customization options. I would need to find their config files and be able to copy them in and out with each theme, just like the JWM rc files and GTK directories and /root files.)

• Figure out an elegant and stable system to package, install, and switch the themes. Some kind of a .pet file ultimately, though a zipped directory with a set of scripts copied somewhere to be launched (like the tray) might be just as effective

[JASpup]

• Figure out an elegant and stable system to package, install, and switch the themes. Some kind of a .pet file ultimately, though a zipped directory with a set of scripts copied somewhere to be launched (like the tray) might be just as effective

I think the system of exchange would be a remaster with a theme switching system easier than Ptheme including high-quality themes for new users and others willing to start fresh.

I would predict there would be too many conflicts between a highly customized puplet and the customizations we already make to our standard distros.

Overall I believe creations are for ourselves, for if not official, they are that much less likely to be adopted, kind of like the best songs that were never played on the radio.

I still see JWM as this cobbled together mix of elements that is continuously improving but still has a ways to go to give heavier DEs a competitive aesthetic/ergonomic threat.

A technician is going to think about something working. Users need a vibe and feel.

JWM menu manipulation is near the top weakness. I still give the Notification Area a B-. Sometimes clicks unintentionally exit the app or run an unintended command. Going into root to rerun them feels rough, but we can adapt.

I like what I've done I couldn't justify it if not a job or serious hobby, environmental constraints. It's rewarding but too demanding.

[amethyst]

But that's the beauty of Puppy. Lots of stuff to do yourself, figure out and to configure to your liking. All those flashy, big distro's that does everything for you is so boring. Since using Puppy, I've learned more about computing in general than all my years with Windows....and it's been a most enjoyable and enriching experience.

[geo_c]

I think the system of exchange would be a remaster with a theme switching system easier than Ptheme including high-quality themes for new users and others willing to start fresh. I would predict there would be too many conflicts between a highly customized puplet and the customizations we already make to our standard distros.

You have a point about a remaster being the most dependable format, mostly because of the applications as opposed to the theme. In other words, I could write scripts to change the theming of built-in puppy apps, like geany and mtpaint, but on other puppy's those configs or application locations might not be the same. In a remaster I could also write scripts that save the current setting to a backup file called userrc or user.config or whatever it might be, and then use a restore script or scripts so that the user could switch their theme, or applications, or both back and forth. That would be more difficult to accomplish in a downloaded and imported theme. However if I tailored it to official Fossapup64_9.5 it should work fine in the user's pupsave, giving them the ability to use the theme and switch between whatever else they have installed. The first thing the script would have to do is back up any application files it would overwrite, then those could be restored with the user-theme restore script.

Overall I believe creations are for ourselves, for if not official, they are that much less likely to be adopted, kind of like the best songs that were never played on the radio.

Well I look at it this way and it dovetails what @amethyst said above about how using puppy taught him more about computing than all the years using an OTB operating system. It's the same for me. If I make something that works fairly well, you never know who else might pick up on the idea. And half the battle is developing that subsystem, or strategy for making something happen. Once that idea is proven to work, it's an option. So whether it ever gets played on the radio means little to me, as is my same philosophy in music. I don't measure success by popularity, to me it's all about beauty. If it's beautiful it will be lasting in one regard or another. To be beautiful it should also be elegant, and meaningful, meaning it should have a compositional structure that makes sense in and of itself, and then I can see the idea being appealing to those who know how to make stuff work under the hood. Which isn't me of course, but sometimes I can get a sense for the big picture, and the possibilities. So I'll go for it, even if I don't have the ability to deliver. Worst case scenario is I learn a whole lot more about Puppy!

JWM menu manipulation is near the top weakness. I still give the Notification Area a B-. Sometimes clicks unintentionally exit the app or run an unintended command. Going into root to rerun them feels rough, but we can adapt.

Well funny you should mention the notification icons disappearing (or the app exiting.) It has annoyed me that a right click on the network icon will make it disappear, and it has to be restarted from the menu. But I figured something out. You have to hold the mouse button down until you hover over your choice in the pop-up menu. A simple right click makes it go bye-bye for some reason, but holding the button down works everytime.

I like what I've done I couldn't justify it if not a job or serious hobby, environmental constraints. It's rewarding but too demanding.

Well me and two friends of mine just landed some sweet studio space, audio that is, which used to be a soundstage with a vocal booth. So we are starting up a thing, and I'll be moving my equipment in mid-Jan. One of the guys will be using his mac for audio applications, but I'll be using Jackalpup. It should be interesting to see how it goes.

[JASpup]

@geo_c my point was about skilled programmers leaving required adjustments after their work, and understanding visual/desktop customization requires tweaking settings files compounding the propensity for glitches.

Only the dullest are going to expect everything to be perfect the way they want it out of the box with a donation price tag. The world doesn't work like that.

There's a problem too at the other end with people smarter than I exercising unilateral, non-negotiated morals and ethics. If you want to be social, exclusive, or somewhere in-between that is a choice, but if you don't own it, it's going to reverberate back at you.

I generally agree about music and compatibility. Most of the time holding the mouse button down works for me. Sometimes those apps are exited before I get the chance... lickety-split.

Wishing you success with Jackalpup. Great to hear of its use.

[geo_c]

@geo_c my point was about skilled programmers leaving required adjustments after their work, and understanding visual/desktop customization requires tweaking settings files compounding the propensity for glitches.

I think I understand what you mean, but I'm not completely sure. It really depends on how deeply a unified-theme set of tools tries to be. But perhaps you're just commenting on the current structure of the pup-themes.

In a remaster, it would seem easiest to simply set up a unified theme and basically let it go from there, any changes made with the conventional theme tools would be lost if the user didn't back up what they changed, but of course the built-in GTK-2,3 theme would be easy to restore as it sits in a directory. Same goes for the JWM settings which should be able to be restored as long as long the user doesn't save changes to the same name. That to me would seem the easiest way not to run into conflicts. The pup would simply start out with the two saved themes, and a set of application settings, and both or one of the original window manager themes could be chosen again, but not necessarily the application settings. In the remaster approach nothing is really changed in the theming structure of the pup. But perhaps this is what you mean by running into glitches, the user's ability to change certain elements and not others causing conflicts in the presentation of various applications and windows.

Probably a remaster would be a good place to start. It would also provide for a simpler script/dialog that allowed the user to go back to the built-in settings, and maybe lose any of their changes to the theme. I'm not in anyway suggesting that the traditional structure of JWM/GTK should be altered in the pup and replaced with a whole new theme chooser. More like an additional tool to make switching some themes quicker, in other words an addition of a couple 'unified themes' to the other available packages, with loading scripts.

In a downloadable/installable theme approach, things get a lot more prone to bugs, as it would be allowing for a lot more variables in the starting point of the user desktop.

However, and I'm just brainstorming, if it would be possible to remaster a pup with some new 'unified-theme' tools/dialogs, and hide or remove some of the existing tools, then it might be possible to present an OTB themed pup. I personally wouldn't want that as an avid puppy user. But it's a thought in response to the idea of emulating that approach.

[JASpup]

If I wouldn't do something, but it works for somebody else, a reasonable person would cede that truth.

Fundamentally we have to know how to fix manually to control our desktop.

My concern about shared remasters is junk and personal info unintentionally included.

E.g., this is the contents of my current .history file in /root:

my-history.png (49.09 KiB) Viewed 6185 times

I don't know if it's included in Barry's remaster script, but it seems like it would unless specifically excluded, or not included which is also plausible because my remasters miss important files (he welcomed feedback and it's still an important, useful feature). Normally I wouldn't want the fact that I can't type "exit" accurately public.

It helps to think (proverbially) out loud.

[geo_c]

If I wouldn't do something, but it works for somebody else, a reasonable person would cede that truth.

Fundamentally we have to know how to fix manually to control our desktop.

My concern about shared remasters is junk and personal info unintentionally included.

E.g., this is the contents of my current .history file in /root:

I don't know if it's included in Barry's remaster script, but it seems like it would unless specifically excluded, or not included which is also plausible because my remasters miss important files (he welcomed feedback and it's still an important, useful feature). Normally I wouldn't want the fact that I can't type "exit" accurately public.

It helps to think (proverbially) out loud.

Interesting point about the remaster process. As I was saying I would start with no save, all in ram, copy the necessary files, pupsave it if necessary, and remaster. From your example it appears some information about the setup process might be included.

I'll be taking my time, trying a few things, experimenting and see how it goes. I think a theme install might not be so difficult for a clean Fossapup, and maybe a couple of puppy developers could try it out and give me some feedback. The remasters I have tried recently gave me satisfactory results, but my grasp on remastering is not ideal yet. I'll have to practice.

If I'm able to write a satisfactory script to install a unified-theme in Fossapup, then I might need next to zero keystrokes to a get remaster ready.

Theoretically it would be the same script that one could install the theme into an existing pupsave.

[JASpup]

The remasters I have tried recently gave me satisfactory results, but my grasp on remastering is not ideal yet. I'll have to practice.

My caveat about the remaster process would be some files might be missing.

E.g., my Tahr remaster dropped fontconfig. Nobody knew what my problem was except for 666. A few times he's dropped me a few lines that get to the heart of the matter solving a problem. Since I don't think it's just will, our problem is most of us aren't that adept.

Remaster also dropped .Xdefaults, the config for urxvt.

Another example: how many actively posting users know how to make an alt-DE distro? If you include those who can but don't care there would be more, but generally speaking it's a special skill. Average Puppian is not making an XFCE puplet installing it from the PPM.

For this perpetually avoiding unnecessary complexity is what is elegant. You're saying to others, "You can do this too," instead of challenging them in a labyrinth.

[geo_c]

The remasters I have tried recently gave me satisfactory results, but my grasp on remastering is not ideal yet. I'll have to practice.

My caveat about the remaster process would be some files might be missing.

E.g., my Tahr remaster dropped fontconfig. Nobody knew what my problem was except for 666. A few times he's dropped me a few lines that get to the heart of the matter solving a problem. Since I don't think it's just will, our problem is most of us aren't that adept.

Remaster also dropped .Xdefaults, the config for urxvt.

Another example: how many actively posting users know how to make an alt-DE distro? If you include those who can but don't care there would be more, but generally speaking it's a special skill. Average Puppian is not making an XFCE puplet installing it from the PPM.

For this perpetually avoiding unnecessary complexity is what is elegant. You're saying to others, "You can do this too," instead of challenging them in a labyrinth.

Yes that sums it up nicely and makes a lot of sense. Kind of like the idea of a flowchart. Get to the core of a set of things and show they can all be manipulated and customized to match, the tools are already there. An existing distro can be theme-unified under the vision of an enthusiastic user, maybe with a few tool additions. A remaster isn't always the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. If a person is willing to set up a fresh install for a remaster, they would be probably be just a ready and willing to install a theme into a fresh stock install or an existing configured system, and see for themselves which components are involved and what's being changed.

Your thoughts are helping me decide which approach to take, and I'm leaning toward a theme package with a script install for Fossapup. The first run will probably be a current theme overwrite with no specific mechanism to go back to previous settings, however the process of writing a backup script for a pups currently loaded theme settings would provide not only the script to execute a backup, but also a template or set of instructions for how a user could back up their own settings and reload them.

It may be that I could provide a zipped directory with a set of theme directories to load, a backup current theme script, install unified theme script, and restore user theme script.

So that just means a directory-tree that can be copied anywhere and run with icons in the top level of the directory structure. Just 3 or 4 icons to load and change theme settings. And I don't think the directory would have to be unzipped to any particular location. It could be run from anywhere as it would be copied and installed from whatever location the script is run, almost like a portable, except the theme choices would be available in JWM, GTK, and built-in applications independently once installed. That organizational approach still allows for re-loading all elements of the theme every time the user wants to restore the unified theme once altered. At the same time the theme components would still largely be present in the system in their respective subsystems, even if another theme is chosen, and one could change just the JWM settings and leave the loaded GTK theme if they wanted. It would be best if the scripts included dialogs telling what's it's doing and giving some options.

[JASpup]

If you've got a custom desktop stable enough to share, go for it. If not, a cool setup that works for yourself is o-kay too.

[geo_c]

If you've got a custom desktop stable enough to share, go for it. If not, a cool setup that works for yourself is o-kay too.

It's stable. I started with a stable theme, and just modified the color settings, and color of the image assets, so I will eventually put together the package. I just need to come up with a dependable set of install/chooser scripts.

In Fossapup as opposed to Jackalpup, I don't have Cairo dock installed. So I copied and modified the script I use to create a right side panel and added a script to launch a bottom panel. Each panel has a link to the toggle script to turn itself on and off, and one to turn the other panel on and off. In the bottom panel I added all the utilities and default puppy applications relevant to my tasks.

I also have panel toggles in the JWM launch tray.

[geo_c]

@JASpup
I'm another step closer in the business of Thematic Unity.

I downloaded another theme from gnome-look.org called oomox-Pandora-Arc, because I like the color. I created a matching JWM theme, adjusted Geany, Xfe, and a few other applications to match. I only edited the highlighted text color of the gtk-2.0 theme because it was annoying. The rest of the theme is good and left untouched. I used Xnview to batch transform my icon set to a cayan tint, then after tweaking it all, I saved a few application rc and ini files with names to match the theme. Now I'm one step closer to a theme switching script, because I have two complete matchng themes and icons and config files with matching names saved. At this point I can work on a script to switch back and forth. Of course I'm a simplistic hack when it comes to bash scripts or any kind of linux command line operations, but I'll start with a basic copy routine and see how that goes. I'm at the point where I can crank out a complete theme with matching JWM, gtk, applications and icons in a day. The mechanism to switch themes will initially involve running a script to switch out .ini & rc files, and icons. At that point the gtk and/or jwm themes can be switched from the available switcher gui's. I'd like to figure how to switch both of those with a script, but that's the last step.

Here's a screenshot of the Blue'n'Green theme:

[geo_c]

This thread's evolution can be found here: viewtopic.php?t=5085

[geo_c]

Workflow Aesthetic PHASE 3, discussion continued here: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6325

[williwaw]

666philb wrote: ↑Mon Sep 27, 2021 10:49 pm

hi @geo_c ,

themes go in /usr/share/themes or /root/.themes

as you found out the theme is set in rox in it's options and you may need to restart X for them to be consistent in rox.

puppy also has it's own theme directory for both the jwm menu and the desktop icons /usr/local/lib/X11/themes.
these are custom built by picking and renaming 32-33 icons from the main theme (see other themes located their). the icon switcher should then work changing both desktop and menu themes and then rox options.

then there's gtk2 and gtk3 icon theme which can be set using lxappearance or manually by editing /root/.gtkrc-2.0 & /root/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini.

themes should then be consistent across applications :)

Months back I did get the hang of using my own icons by renaming the desktop icons in the x11/themes directory. You're right, once X is restarted the ROX icons behave again. I'll take a look at gtk settings files.

I have a nice st of icons, courtesy of geo_c, that I wish to add to my desktop. Is there a simple way to add the icon set, choose it and make it persistent? Easyos uses "puppy icon switcher" but adding the icon set so that it can be chosen in "puppy icon switcher" is not neccesarily if I could otherwise make the changes from the terminal by command or script the substitution process.
what are the basic steps needed?

[rockedge]

@williwaw there is a switcher that @geo_c made that goes with Tbox theming system.

I have been using it on several different systems. More about it here -> viewtopic.php?t=7229