What is with themes including custom transitions.ini file

[craftyguy]

a few of my favorite themes are now starting to bundle their own transitions.ini file, which for the most part introduces painfully-slow transitions/animation sequences. what is with this? why not have these transitions.ini files as a separate install? i change themes fairly often to keep things interesting, but i do not want transitions changing as well.

does anyone else agree with me?

[d-iivil]

Well, if you don't like the bundled transitions you can easily delete the provided transitions.ini or choose not to use the theme? I cannot locate the problem here.

Edit: allthough it would not be difficult to make custom transitions into separate package to repos. Maybe that would actually be a good idea.

[MSHAH]

Good Point. I've Carbon Theme with my own transitions.ini, if an update of my theme changed my transition.ini to something else i wouldn't be too thrilled TBH. Do you mean separate install as in a different program in which you can choose which transition you want, or as you install a certain transition. IMO i think an app that changes transitions would be cool. there could be options like ultra fast, or classy or something.

[MSHAH]

Edit: allthough it would not be difficult to make custom transitions into separate package to repos. Maybe that would actually be a good idea.

yeah exactly, do you think it would it be possible to preview the transitions before you install?

[craftyguy]

it's a big pain if i have to manually delete the custom transitions.ini after switching themes.

does a custom transitions.ini bundled with a theme replace the file installed by default n the n900, or just take priority over it when the theme is activated?


EDIT: a package that bundles all transition.ini files and allows easy switching would be brilliant. it would be totally seperate from the themes themselves, and would persist on theme changes (granted every theme maker agrees to not bundle transitions.ini files)

[d-iivil]

Good Point. I've Carbon Theme with my own transitions.ini, if an update of my theme changed my transition.ini to something else i wouldn't be too thrilled TBH. Do you mean separate install as in a different program in which you can choose which transition you want, or as you install a certain transition. IMO i think an app that changes transitions would be cool. there could be options like ultra fast, or classy or something.

In my case I'm thinking about uploading two packages to repos:
- Black Plastic Theme (just the theme without transitions)
- Black Plastic Custom Transitions (just the transitions.ini file for the theme)

[d-iivil]

does a custom transitions.ini bundled with a theme replace the file installed by default n the n900, or just take priority over it when the theme is activated?

In my theme it's only active when the theme is in use. Don't know about others.

[MSHAH]

[QUOTE=craftyguy;728894
does a custom transitions.ini bundled with a theme replace the file installed by default n the n900, or just take priority over it when the theme is activated?[/QUOTE]

Good question, i just overwrite my transitions.ini and keep a back-up, what do you do?

[MSHAH]

In my case I'm thinking about uploading two packages to repos:
- Black Plastic Theme (just the theme without transitions)
- Black Plastic Custom Transitions (just the transitions.ini file for the theme)
I think that'd be the best thing to do, you could also include the nature of the transition (e.g quick, slow) in the parenthesis instead of the the theme it's related to, or perhaps both.

[d-iivil]

I think that'd be the best thing to do, you could also include the nature of the transition (e.g quick, slow) in the parenthesis instead of the the theme it's related to, or perhaps both.

Well sure, but it would not overwrite your system's transitions and would only be active with the "parent" theme.

[MSHAH]

ahh right, of course.

[andrewfblack]

Maemo theme has always seemed broken to me because you can't change each item one at a time. You should be able to pick items from your favorate themes and incorporate them together.

[joppu]

In my case I'm thinking about uploading two packages to repos:
- Black Plastic Theme (just the theme without transitions)
- Black Plastic Custom Transitions (just the transitions.ini file for the theme)

And that would totally rape the whole "Desktop" category with two packages per each color variant per each theme.

[d-iivil]

And that would totally rape the whole "Desktop" category with two packages per each color variant per each theme.

Thank you joppu for this usefull post. ,,I,.

[das_schlumpfie]

Well sure, but it would not overwrite your system's transitions and would only be active with the "parent" theme.

that sounds like a good idea, looking forward to its arrival.

[BLIZZARD]

Nooooo:(, i like custom transitions because it keeps the thing more interesting. Custom transitions, battery icons, transparetny etc that mentioned in this thread: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=39565&highlight=maemo+mods was something i was hoping that someone could include in his theme. That makes every theme unique. It is a bit boring to change themes and the only difference to see is the colour (older themes had only different wallpapers, and colour of the text matching the colour of the theme). I would also like to see different fonts, but thats a big change and many people could disagree, so i dont know if its a good idea..

[msa]

there should be an app for switching transition.ini-files... :D

[BLIZZARD]

there should be an app for switching transition.ini-files... :D

OOOoohhh, right, there is one:D, i once tried to download it but it failed during installing:(.. Any ideas why??

[gabby131]

i did not thought that some would get annoyed of the transitions in themes, well which is reasonable. and also maybe that is why it is called "themes" each has different subject and harmony. :D

i have 9 themes (including the defaults). if one has a good transition, i just copy it on hildon-desktop, if all has moded transitions, i pick one and copy it to all other themes.....it is a little work but good results :D

@D-livil

just do what you can.....or maybe.....you can flood the repos like the OMweather app does.

-black-plastic icon set (for signal, battery etc)
-black plastic transition set (for different transitions)

[craftyguy]

i like to run a tweaked transitions.ini file to make my device 'snappier', but i really enjoy some of the great work done by the themers (black plastic rocks!). all i'm asking for is to give users the option to further customize their device instead of having to rely on a single theme for all customizations :)

currently it's annoying to have to manually restore the transistions file after every theme change. i would like to get in to QT development, maybe a good app for me to start on is some sort of transistion switcher :p

[stickymick]

In my case I'm thinking about uploading two packages to repos:
- Black Plastic Theme (just the theme without transitions)
- Black Plastic Custom Transitions (just the transitions.ini file for the theme)

Can't see any problems with this approach, myself.

It's widely practiced on the S60 platform, and works well. One version for S60-V3/FP1 and another for S60-V3/FP2. You can even download a theme with custom icons or with default icons for a lot of the S60 N-Series devices.

[joppu]

Thank you joppu for this usefull post. ,,I,.

No need to be hostile, I am just stating a fact. Some people (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=697547&postcount=8) are in fact getting rather annoyed by the sheer number of themes in the desktop category. And doubling that?

[d-iivil]

No need to be hostile, I am just stating a fact. Some people (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=697547&postcount=8) are in fact getting rather annoyed by the sheer number of themes in the desktop category. And doubling that?

Doubling them? You must have a very bad reading disorder. I have spoken only about one single theme.

No one is being hostile btw. I just thanked you for your usefull post where you provided valuable information to this topic.

[craftyguy]

No need to be hostile, I am just stating a fact. Some people (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=697547&postcount=8) are in fact getting rather annoyed by the sheer number of themes in the desktop category. And doubling that?

You wouldn't necessarily double them. a large group of themes may share the same transitions file, and thus would only be one package (dlivil-transitions for instance).

[d-iivil]

I'm trying to find out if it's possible to display a dialog window during installation which let's user to choose wheter install the optional stuff or not. That way it would only be a single package which includes all the goodies and user just chooses if he wants those or not.

That should make joppu and other "I'm counting how many variations you flood to repos" -users satisfied I think.

[YoDude]

Well sure, but it would not overwrite your system's transitions and would only be active with the "parent" theme.

...and that's the way to do it.

If someone doesn't like the transition they don't use the theme. Simple azat.

What wasn't clear by the OP and from later responses in this thread was whether some themes overwrite the OEM file.

If they do (and yours don't, BTW), then that is not the way to do it and those themes should not be voted "up".

I'm going to post it again so that it is not misunderstood:

Themes by D-livil are done right and do not change OEM files permanently.

[d-iivil]

.
I'm going to post it again so that it is not misunderstood:

Themes by D-livil are done right and do not change OEM files permanently.

To clarify this even more: none of my themes changes OEM files at all. They are completely untouched.

But about that selection during install; I got it working just fine when installing via Xterm but application manager is something that's out of my nowledge.

Someone suggested that I should write a program which opens the dialog and then does tricks I want it to do. I'd highly appreciate if someone with knowledge and wisdom could provide some help here :)

I really want to give end user an option to choose if he wants custom transitions or icons or just the basic graphics.

[craftyguy]

If someone doesn't like the transition they don't use the theme. Simple azat



so you're saying that we should not try to customize our devices beyond what the theme provides? maybe i'm the only crazy one here, but i would assume that most users do not have the time to revert transitions after activating a new theme. it seems to me that most theme creators want to get more and more people using their themes, so how is making them less customizable a good thing?

[F2thaK]

an app for this would be cool

blue sky theme has an awesome transition !!

[dscobsct]

dont see what the problem is here, i use my own transition.ini, if there is one in the theme just delete, rename or move it?

[d-iivil]

Got it working (the dialog). I'll upload new version of black-plastic-theme to extras-devel later today with the option to choose using transitions or not :)

[d-iivil]

Okay, latest version of black-plastic-theme @ extras-devel now pops up dialog during installation asking about the custom transitions. Could that be the way to go so every one is happy? Feel free to test and give feedback.

Edit: big kudos for guiding me trough this goes to tswindell & MohammadAG.

[MSHAH]

good work d-livil havent tried it yet but will do soon. it would be cool if we could preview the transition before installing it, but more farfetchedly a d-livil theme-mixer app would be cooler.

[dchky]

Thanks D-Iivil, works exactly as you describe.

Just for info, I was getting "The following packages have been kept back" (in reference to black plastic)

The fix was apt-get update followed by apt-get dist-upgrade.

Seems it also wants to install one or all of the following: diffmo grep-gnu and zenity.

Cheers. Nice theme!

[d-iivil]

Seems it also wants to install one or all of the following: diffmo grep-gnu and zenity.

It want's to install zenity which is required for displaying that pop-up dialog.

Cheers. Nice theme!

Thanks mate :)

[das_schlumpfie]

It want's to install zenity which is required for displaying that pop-up dialog.



Thanks mate :)

hi, thanks v much for this new version of theme, but how exactly do i adjust the transition ?

thanks

[d-iivil]

hi, thanks v much for this new version of theme, but how exactly do i adjust the transition ?

thanks

What do you want to adjust? I'm sorry but I didn't understand the guestion :(

[das_schlumpfie]

What do you want to adjust? I'm sorry but I didn't understand the guestion :(

hi, sorry its my fault for not explaining in details.

well you know how we can modify the transitions with 'transitioncontrol' ?

i saw that i downloaded a custom transition package along with the new version of black plastic theme, is there a way which i can modify the transition for this particular theme? for example the speed of 'max in' and 'max out'? or the speed of rotation?

thanks

[d-iivil]

hi, sorry its my fault for not explaining in details.

well you know how we can modify the transitions with 'transitioncontrol' ?

i saw that i downloaded a custom transition package along with the new version of black plastic theme, is there a way which i can modify the transition for this particular theme? for example the speed of 'max in' and 'max out'? or the speed of rotation?

thanks

You need to do it manually if you want to change the transitions of this theme. File to edit is located at:
/usr/share/themes/blackplastictheme-themedir/transitions.ini

Transitioncontrol can only edit the "main" file and custom transitions included with theme overrides those settings when theme is active.

[das_schlumpfie]

hi thanks for your reply. what numbers do i change to speed up the speed of zooming in and zooming out of the app menu?

thanks

[d-iivil]

hi thanks for your reply. what numbers do i change to speed up the speed of zooming in and zooming out of the app menu?

thanks

Look for values called "duration" and change those into smaller numbers to make transitions shorter. For example setting duration to 250 is same if you would set value 25 in transitioncontrol.

Hope this helps :)

[das_schlumpfie]

cheers! just done it!