New Theme Makers and New Themes.

[andrewfblack]

I want to start of by saying I'm not trying to cut anyone down and make anyone stop doing themes but I have seen a lot of themes released this week that are either just a default theme maker theme with a new background/icons or have a lot of bugs and not ready to be released. I'm just asking that new theme makers try to be creative with your work there are 4 new themes this week that are the same just the backgrounds are different.

Now on releasing themes. I suggest that you test and have most of your bugs our before you release a theme. Theme maker has a lot of bugs you have to go back and fix after you build you theme. Some of those are Conversation Colors, Portrait Lock Screen, RSS Applet, Ovi Applet. You should make sure all bugs are fixed before releasing your themes. Themes should also be optied to save room on rootfs.

I would also suggest that you package our themes up and put them on extras. I would suggest you any users that you do not download zip of a theme and install it to your device you are asking for trouble. If your scared of extras-devel then you should be even more scared of software that isn't in a package at all.

Just remember Quality over Quantity. Also I'm here if you have any Theming Questions. I didn't go into details how to fix all the bugs I listed but I'll work on a how to later.

[Lacedaemon]

About the themes I shared, I edited them for personal usage and then I thought sharing with the community would be okay. Never claimed that I was the main author.

I also fixed the bugs you mentioned, most of them if not all.
I found no guides about optifying the themes, also.
I suppose your thread is the thanks to us?

[andrewfblack]

About the themes I shared, I edited them for personal usage and then I thought sharing with the community would be okay. Never claimed that I was the main author.

I also fixed the bugs you mentioned, most of them if not all.
I found no guides about optifying the themes, also.
I suppose your thread is the thanks to us?

If you edit copy written stuff for your self then you shouldn't release it, and I never said anyones names. So if you fixed the bugs then I wasn't talking to you. If you created your themes the proper way they would be optifed automatically. Also if I wanted to thank you for themes I would do them on your post :)

[Lacedaemon]

About the thanks part, I was being sarcastic.
I mean, if you require Quality then the tools should work correctly or there should be a STICKY guide of how to.

Now, I am not saying that bugs are your fault, or that you should create a guide but I just couldn't see the point of your post.
Don't get me wrong, all am I trying to say is that if you want people to work on Maemo then some things should work better.

[andrewfblack]

first off I didn't make the theme maker and I don't work for Nokia but I have been doing Maemo themes for several years and I feel if your going to jump in the game do it right so you don't make maemo themes look bad (once again Im not talking about your themes just everyone in general.) I'll do a sticky later this week with all the steps to do a theme and fix the bugs.

[iceman600]

About the themes I shared, I edited them for personal usage and then I thought sharing with the community would be okay. Never claimed that I was the main author.

I also fixed the bugs you mentioned, most of them if not all.
I found no guides about optifying the themes, also.
I suppose your thread is the thanks to us?

i agree to Lacedaemon... i dont kno what andrewfblack problem is?! :confused:

if you dont like the theme being created or edited then dont use it. Y are you so affected man? im pretty sure u download and tried the themes Lacedaemon created/edited.

If you dont like it... dont use it.... that simple.

there is no proper way at the moment to create a theme for n900 so be thankful for the alternatives.

no offense but just chill bro!!!:D

[ruskie]

If you edit copy written stuff for your self then you shouldn't release it

Erm... You mean themes that don't have a liberal license like CC-BY-SA and so on I take it? Not the CC-BY-SA that even the basic Nokia themes have?

[joppu]

I agree 100%. Installing themes via SFTP into rootfs may be fine for testing purposes but for general distrobution - it's a no-go. Also it doesn't require that much creativity to just use the hue tool to change a few colors and add new backgrounds so a bit more complete themes would be preferred.

[andrewfblack]

i agree to Lacedaemon... i dont kno what andrewfblack problem is?! :confused:

if you dont like the theme being created or edited then dont use it. Y are you so affected man? im pretty sure u download and tried the themes Lacedaemon created/edited.

If you dont like it... dont use it.... that simple.

there is no proper way at the moment to create a theme for n900 so be thankful for the alternatives.

no offense but just chill bro!!!:D


The whole community is effected if people have install themes wrong and mess up there device, Like I said I never said anything about Lacedaemon I was talking about all theme makers. Lacedaemon started on me. Also I have not tried his themes. I'm not going to install a theme that has bugs and isn't optified. There are several ways to make proper themes. 1. Hildon Theme Tools 2. Make Package with Theme Maker unpack, fix bugs, repackage upload.

Now if you guys want to go personal with this I can do personal.

@ruskie

Only the Green theme with theme maker is CC

[iceman600]

[QUOTE=andrewfblack;464677

Now if you guys want to go personal with this I can do personal.

@ruskie

Only the Green theme with theme maker is CC[/QUOTE]

just sharing my opinion... nothing personal... :D

[kryptoniankid17]

I want to start of by saying I'm not trying to cut anyone down and make anyone stop doing themes but I have seen a lot of themes released this week that are either just a default theme maker theme with a new background/icons or have a lot of bugs and not ready to be released. I'm just asking that new theme makers try to be creative with your work there are 4 new themes this week that are the same just the backgrounds are different.

Now on releasing themes. I suggest that you test and have most of your bugs our before you release a theme. Theme maker has a lot of bugs you have to go back and fix after you build you theme. Some of those are Conversation Colors, Portrait Lock Screen, RSS Applet, Ovi Applet. You should make sure all bugs are fixed before releasing your themes. Themes should also be optied to save room on rootfs.

I would also suggest that you package our themes up and put them on extras. I would suggest you any users that you do not download zip of a theme and install it to your device you are asking for trouble. If your scared of extras-devel then you should be even more scared of software that isn't in a package at all.

Just remember Quality over Quantity. Also I'm here if you have any Theming Questions. I didn't go into details how to fix all the bugs I listed but I'll work on a how to later.

I agree with you. But Im just wondering when will we see an easily usable them maker. I need to be able to see a preview of what Ive completed.

[andrewfblack]

I don't work on Theme Maker but you will never be able to I would say Theme Maker is really just a side project an isn't updated that much. All it really does is builds the theme to preview it you need to put it on you phone.

[joshua.maverick]

I don't work on Theme Maker but you will never be able to I would say Theme Maker is really just a side project an isn't updated that much. All it really does is builds the theme to preview it you need to put it on you phone.

We need a better system though, better tools will mean more people will attempt to make themes, meaning more selection and better themes. Anybody know any developers that could start on a project like htis?

[andrewfblack]

We need a better system though, better tools will mean more people will attempt to make themes, meaning more selection and better themes. Anybody know any developers that could start on a project like htis?

The kind of tool you are are talking about would be a massive undertaking it would be cool but I really don't see it happening. I would love to see it but really using the template shows you how everything will look.

[Flandry]

Guys, i got my first exposure to theming on N900 and Theme Maker today while helping out a new theme maker. I did it because i liked the theme concept.

There are a couple things that are ok and a couple things that are not as members of the Maemo community.

First of all, copying and reusing a restricted theme that the creator has not specifically given a permissive license to is illegal and just rude. In cases where that is being done it should be brought up directly with the creator and also made known to moderators so they can remove links and discussion of the theme in question. On the flip side of this, if you design a new theme, consider making it available under a creative commons license that allows others to use it for their own creations. Also give credit where credit is due.

Second, take pride in your work. If your theme is worth sharing, it's worth sharing in a way that won't be destructive to other's devices. Use a proper tool such as Theme Maker to optify and handle installation and removal, or do it yourself if you are familiar with debian packages. Test it.

Third, don't let your lack of knowledge stop you from making a theme. Just be aware that you will need to get your work to a reasonable level of quality before you should be sharing it.

Fourth, when your theme is complete and tested to not cause problems, upload it to Extras-devel. To do that, you need to get a garage account and request an upload invitation. You also need specific files to give to the autobuilder.

Which brings me to the last point: Theme Maker (https://garage.maemo.org/projects/thememaker/) is a great utility for the community. It may not be a completely automated tool, but it's a big step up from nothing. The developer is receptive to feedback and i recommend you use the tracker (https://garage.maemo.org/tracker/?group_id=36) to report bugs or request reasonable improvements after you have fully tried it out. In the course of fixing up the theme today we found three separate issues to report that will make the app all that much better for the next themer. In discussing with him today the experience we had with it, he said he would add a button to click to pop out the files you need in order to upload to Extras-devel, so you can see that feedback can be very useful.

[kryptoniankid17]

The kind of tool you are are talking about would be a massive undertaking it would be cool but I really don't see it happening. I would love to see it but really using the template shows you how everything will look.

I slightly disagree they've got to show this thing some love like that of symbian if they want this to take off.

[ruskie]

@ruskie

Only the Green theme with theme maker is CC

Have you actually read the copyright notices in Digital Nature? Clearely states it's Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license.

:)

[konttori]

Conversations color issues were fixed in 1.2.8 yesterday. I'll be fixing the rss issues today or tomorrow. The transitions theming will also be added this week if nothing goes sour.

[joppu]

-snippety snip-