Notices

I just almost finished that script. (OK, most of the work was really in extracting the separate images from the original "default" theme... the script is as trivial as expected.)

One question: I'd rather have a three-state icon scheme; is that plausible?
I'm thinking blah-blah-[1-7].[0-4].[mu].png, with the mute separate, so the volume level can, for example, still be shown with a red slash overlaid when muted.
This means instead of 7x6=42, we'd have 7x5x2=70 images per theme, but the redundant ones in themes not maintaining a distinction can be links instead of files, so it needn't waste disk space. It's still a sizable conversion though, and I'm not sure if that's welcome at this point.

If such a change does happen, I strongly recommend we go to either 0- or 1-based for both volume and brightness while we're at it... whose idea was that, anyway?

I'll probably post scripts for both styles, anyway, but wondered if the 3-state way will have been a waste of time.

OK, here are the scripts. Note that the new one is just a POC to demonstrate the new theme format I'm proposing, and there is no version using the theme format it makes. I'm not presuming acceptance of my suggestion, but since I was already scripting, it was too easy to just work backwards and do the second script. If there's interest in such a conversion, I'm not above helping with the code aspect.

There are also source images for both proposed and existing formats of the Default theme, as ripped from 0.13-5; I'm not guaranteeing pixel-for-pixel identical results, but the output (in existing format) is visually indistinguishable for sure.

Note that I have already fixed the bar in the default iconset as of 0.13.

Your script sounds like an excellent idea though. I agree with you on almost everything there... The 0/1 indexing mixmatch is a legacy issue that annoyed me but I never got around to fixing. I think I'll go ahead and blame GA for that one, since he doesn't get nearly enough blame around here (and, well, he's not ME, which is the point of blame, isn't it? :P).

Also, separating the mute away from the volume number would be good, and I could impliment that (along with symlinks as you suggested for all of the current icon themes until the work can be done to update them) fairly quickly. I will tentatively put that in my TODO for a 0.14 release.

There is actually an iconset idea I had that I have been putting off just because of the immense amount of time required to put them together in photoshop/gimp, but I will whip it up really quickly (yes, REALLY QUICKLY! WOO!) with this script and test it out.

And really, 0.13 should be along VERY soon, we've been delaying due to a few random internal issues as well as 770 support, which I really don't want to push to 0.14, since we're so very close!

Ok... So, here the first official (test) iconset created with your script. It is, as all tests (and most art generated by programmers) should be, very horrid. The horribleness of the set has nothing to do with the script, however, as that worked like the charm and made the whole process very simple! Thank you for your work, hopefully we'll get a few more cool themes now!

Note: apparently, there are odd display issues if you don't make the left 2 pixel columns of the image transparent (or constant). No idea why, I will look into this... It has not been a problem before, as all of the iconsets do most of their changes towards the center of the icon.

If that (strange) 2-pixel issue is a hard requirement, it's easy enough to tweak the script to forcibly clear those columns; it really only makes sense, though, if provisions for scaling to the right size are added. Right now it will blissfully stack any random sizes of images, with predictably useless results...

Glad you like it, and even gladder about the format suggestion.

Note that my source images were extracted from 0.13, so I knew that the bar had been fixed. Hopefully those sources will be handy to convert the Default theme over; I've got the hang of extracting these now, so if you want others (I'm thinking Hildon) converted, gimme a shout.

(The key is to take the zero-image as a background and (since it was flat 20% alpha in the interesting regions) map the alpha values in the other images as 20%-100% -> 0%-100%; thus not messing up soft edges too much. It would have been altogether too lame to use a transparent background, and leave the shadow in each volume/brightness image.)

Yeah, the script was essential in getting 0.14 done so quickly, as creating the new default iconset took about 5 seconds.

The other two iconsets (LCARS and Hildon) are just renamed and symlinked to the correct locations, so they are in need of updates.

Also, I managed to accidentally push 0.14-1 (which is broken for anyone but 770 users) to extras today, hopefully the 14-3 push will be right behind it and no one will notice.

Alright, 14-3 should be in Extras sometime soon. It fixes quite a few small issues and adds, primarily, 770 support for OS2008HE (you will need to flash fanoush's kernel, though).

Changes:

Advanced Backlight 0.14 (7/18/2008)

• Now (again) supports 770 with fanoush kernel for backlight updates (built for OS2008HE, use chinook deb).
• Changed icon format to better show muted volume level.

Advanced Backlight 0.13 (7/16/2008, -devel only)

• Initial volume should be correct now.
• Added GConf notification on volume change.
• I18n support.
• Added translations for: de es fi fr nl pl ru se. Thanks to all translators!
• New approach for beep on volume change (daperl).
• Fixed mute at zero volume bug.
• Updated appearance of default iconset.

Advanced Backlight 0.12 (7/14/2008, -devel only)

• Switching directly to maximum brightness will now work correctly.
• Muted icon will display correctly when mute is set with volume 0.
• Now using threaded volume/brightness updates, patch by daperl.
• Using delayed brightness updates also improves smoothness.
• Added a new iconset, "Hildon". Thanks, loki!

It's working fine in OS2008HE now!

Thanks!!

I have not seen any of the proposals discussed in the last few posts so if these comments are redundant forgive me and ignore them.

How about a vertical bar for each element like a mixing desk has. The volume could emulate a series of rectangular green LED's with perhaps a red one at the top. The brightness could be yellow with white at the top?

Another suggestion: could we have the ability to delete unwanted themes after settling on the one we like? This would mitigate some of the concern over many icons.

BTW thanks to all involved. I look forwad to what's new inside every time we get a new release.

What would be the point? You can already do this by deleting the icons from the filesystem, why would you need to implement a GUI deletion method for ~400KB of icons?

Any additional sets are going to be distributed as deb packages which can be uninstalled with the Application manager, anyway.