Themed Wimp

Actually, ignore the last message. Wimp_ResizeIcon is correct – I’m the one that’s wrong.

I’m a bit confused…

Let me elucidate:

Set Theme RO4
RMEnsure UtilityModule 3.80 Set Theme "" 
If "<Theme$Current>">"" Then Set Theme <Theme$Current>

This finds an appropriate theme name, even in the absence of a theme manager. (Applications may do something more sophisticated, recognising more OSes or groking standard file icons for example).

IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.Theme.Default.!Sprites

Load the default !Sprites from the application’s Theme directory. The Theme directory allows an application author to support differing OS visual idioms (eg directory colour), and even to supply icons that match a particular popular theme. The default sprite files are complete, and RISC OS 3 style.

IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.Theme.<Theme>.!Sprites

The application then (tries to) load icons specific to the current theme. As can be seen, the theme sprite files only need to include those sprites that differ from the default. This saves a great deal of duplication.

IconSprites Theme:Apps.SomeApp.!Sprites

The application (in this case called SomeApp) then (tries to) load any of its icons that are overwritten BY the current theme. This allows a THEME AUTHOR to supply a set of icons for a particular application, without having to alter that application’s installation.

Unset Theme

...and rest.

The advantages of this protocol are numerous:

• There are no sprite duplications.
• Applications can easily support multiple OS styles or monitor calibrations even in the absence of a theme manager.
• Application authors can support popular themes.
• Theme authors can support popular applications.
• Users can override application sprites (with a personalised theme) without touching the application installation.
• Newer versions of applications don’t overwrite the user’s personalised icons.
• Newer versions of applications with more sprites don’t suffer missing sprites due to using a theme sprite file for an earlier version (just the new sprites won’t be themed).

It works very nicely, and requires only this of the theme manager:

1. The name of the current theme must be in <Theme$Current>
2. The path to the Theme’s directory must be in <Theme$Path>
3. If the Theme overrides any application icons, such icons must be in the theme’s Apps directory.

eg:

  ...MyTheme
     |-!IAmATheme
     |-!Run
     |-!WhoKnowsWhatIsNeeded
     |-PrivateThemeSprites
     '-Apps
        |-Draw
        |  |-!Sprites
        |  '-Sprites
        |-Paint
        |  |-!Sprites
        |  '-Sprites
        '-Vantage
           |-!Sprites
           |-DrawList
           |-Floating
           |-Pointers
           |-Ruler
           |-Sprites
           '-Undos

It’s taken a while due to doing other things but I’ve finally managed to find out why keyboard shortcuts disappear with Wimps built from the sources. It appears that top-bit-set characters within the source files have become corrupted, Ben suspects the files may (accidentally) have been run through a filter that caused this to happen.

The code that maps characters onto the WimpSymbol font contains a table with top-bit-set characters and due to the corruption the mapping didn’t work correctly. Reinstating the original table seems to fix it but it needs to be tested in a wider scope to be absolutely sure.

With the issue now seemingly resolved, I hope to submit my changes to the Wimp very shortly.

Just a note to say that we’ve now corrected the corruption of the repository which was to blame for the bug. There were actually two significant areas affected in the Wimp – one in the source code and one in the various translations of the Messages files.

There were also problems with log entries and comments in the Wimp and four other components, but those wouldn’t have caused any problems for the resulting binaries. They’re all fixed now.

I’ve downloaded the latest Window Manager 5.04 (10 Sep 2008) from the ROOL website, and am using it now.

I’m finding that the keyboard shortcuts are gone completely from menus. I’ve tried unsqueezing the module and loading the latest font manager.

I’m trying to run it on a RiscPC with RO4.02

They show here but I could not tell if any were missing as I never take notice of them. RO 5.13

Sorry for the thread resurrection but what’s the latest on this?
Having just upgraded to 5.20 I’d like to get rid of the default look. There’s no onboard theme manager, right? Is it okay to install Chris Wraight’s solution, quite liked “steel”, or is there now a better way to do this?

Having just upgraded to 5.20 I’d like to get rid of the default look. There’s no onboard theme manager, right? Is it okay to install Chris Wraight’s solution, quite liked “steel”, or is there now a better way to do this?

I’m running 5.21 on RPCEmu here and the Theme configuration is part of Configure.
ThmeSetup is in !Boot.RO500Hook.Res.Configure. IIRC you will just need the latests (5.21) HardDisc zip to update your !Boot.

Patric: Theme Configuration is in the latest RISC OS builds, but seemingly not on the last RC version for the Raspberry Pi. So to get it you would need to upgrade your Boot sequence. You /may/ need to update the ROM too.

If you do this – undertake with care. !Boot.Loader is not a ‘true’ directory, and if you disturb it, BAD THINGS will happen I suspect.

I had trouble with EtherUSB when I last attempted it (lost network completely) – and bought a USB SD card reader to duplicate cards before I dare have another go.

If Santa reads internet posts – Pi image RC12 would be a great Christmas present to anyone who might get a Pi or have free time over the festive season ;-).

Looking much better now, thanks!
Simply boot-merging with the HD4 beta seems to have done the trick without any need to upgrade the ROM.
Ok the Raspberry switcher might be a bit out of place on my BB-xM but other than that nice and clean.

Ok the Raspberry switcher might be a bit out of place on my BB-xM but other than that nice and clean.

OK. Boot.Resources.ThemeDefs.Themes – copy the Raspberry directory to myNewTheme and then edit the Sprites Sprites11 Sprites22 appropriately.

Use the Configure utility to choose myNewTheme…

Thanks Steve, much appreciated!
Also read Wiki pages about the changes now, great stuff :)

Thanks Steve, much appreciated!

That’s the easy stuff, even I can manage.

Also read Wiki pages about the changes now, great stuff :)

Anything you spotted as unclear in your reading? Each person that reads the documentation will spot something they think should be there. Mostly people don’t do anything to add that missing bit.