Tokamak2: themes and netbook shell
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Plasma graphics are based on SVG standards and are themeable across resolutions and platforms. Themes contain SVG files that are loaded by Plasma and optimized for rendering. Packages can also include SVG files that plasmoids can load. Plasma-mid is an experimental interface for mobile devices that loads applet layouts but lacks full configuration options. Its simplified interface aims to be thumb-friendly but one interface may not fit all devices. Future work could blend desktop and media center experiences across multiple devices.
Tokamak2: themes and netbook shell
- 1. Themes, shells and other animals
- 2. Themes Plasma graphics is heavily based on the Svg standard Easily themeable Architecture indipendence Basis for resolution indipendence High level of abstraction from an API standpoint
- 3. Using Svgs from themes They are installed in the KDE prefix/share/ apps/desktopthemes/themeName Subfolders: dialogs, widgets, applet names, opaque, locolor Loading them: Plasma::Theme abstracts the loading of the proper path, with proper fallbacks m_svg->setImagePath(“widgets/background”);
- 4. From packages A scripted applet can load a svg from its own package with Package::filePath() In javascript you do plasmoid.findSvg(“foo”) Will search foo.svg(z) in the images subfolder of your plasmoid
- 5. Some advices Try to use graphics from the theme and default widgets as much as possible Install your own graphics (c++ case) or use from the package (scripted case) only when really necessary Try to make visually work your additional graphic with different themes (at least dark vs light)
- 6. Implementation details: Plasma::Svg The central machinery that renders svgs, eases use of QSvgRenderer Several optimizations (a renderer is quite heavy): Shared: for each svg file a single shared renderer Cached: saves rendered svgs on disk: avoids completely creation of renderers in some cases Use it: several paint() functions, takes a Qpainter as argument
- 7. Plasma::FrameSvg Most Plasma theme elements style mostly- rectangular widgets Svg is scalable, but... not so much :) We want to keep the radius of rounded borders intact and each element exactly aligned to the pixel grid Plasma::FrameSvg comes to rescue
- 8. From a graphics standpoint We have svgs made of 9 elements: center, edges and corners The center can be scaled as ve wish Corners are NEVER scaled Horizontal edges are scaled in the x axis, vertical in the y axis instead
- 9. From a code standpoint FrameSvg is a subclass of Svg, so usual setImagePath() ResizeFrame scales the final composition with said rules PaintFrame() paints the whole composition A svg can have multiple sets of 9 elements sets, with a different prefix in their name, switch with setElementPrefix()
- 10. Part 2: shells - Plasma-mid Plasma-mid is an experimental interface for mobile internet devices and other contrained little devices. Work began at Akademy-2008, mostly by Aaron, some work by Sebas in mid-specific containments, some patches by me and i'm forgetting somebody, sorry :) The improved sytem-tray we have now actually derives from toughts and design around plasma-mid
- 11. Plasma-mid What does work Plasma-mid is a barebone plasma app with a main view and a panel view in the same window Loads correctly applet layouts from config files Supports panels in the 4 locations The main view can correctly switch containment What does not More than 1 panel Any configuration interface, hand editing configuration files is necessary
- 12. One size fits.. not much Different devices with different hardware capabilities will need to have a different- looking interface.. different applets layout same app Touchscreen or not, keyboard and mouse or not, makes needed stuff and Fitt's laws slightly different Also, a really tiny single-purpose device could have just plasma, a more general one like the Eee mixes up plasma and traditional apps
- 13. Current demo A plasma-based interface that mostly manages traditional apps Right vertical panel thumb friendly with an activitybar, an “activewindow”, a sytemtray and a clock 3 activities: an icon list to launch apps, a fullscreen taskbar and a traditional widgets space Ideally the windowmanager would have to be very barebone, even more than matchbox
- 14. Current demo It's a full screen non-desktop window, with the panel area reserved, so clicking on the panel brings the plasma interface on top Both the panel and the main screen containments are simplified mid-oriented code It's done with already existing applets, maybe not really adapt and not so pretty but we have a basic working thing from where we can start to build something
- 15. Media center Current media center solutions are applications that aims to turn a pc in an easy attach-to-your-tv single purpose box The charateristics of Plasma we're developing both in terms of good looking ui and network services transparency would make this possible, but...
- 16. We can do more than that Blend media center related stuff and the traditional desktop (media center activity?) Control a media center from an another machine with your plasma desktop (or even your plasma-mid portable device ;) Scripted widgets to control the media could be sent across the network Anything ele that can't think about now
- 17. What there is now... ...And what realistically i would like to get in KDE 4.3: A video widget in libplasma usable even with few lines of javascript A media player plasmoid with basic audio/video playback capabilities and a dbus interface to be remote controlled
- 18. Questions?