Consistent theme across the desktop [Re: Abysmal state of GTK build]

[tomas]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 09:19:26AM +1000, Tim Cross wrote:

[...]

> but they lose the ability to easily adopt a consistent theme across
> their desktop - something which for whatever reason appears to work now
> and will not once you change to either no toolkit or lucid.

Just a little point on this: while abstractly desirable, the trend
seems to be in the other direction:

One strong evidence is application-side decorations. Yes, the toolkit
is supposed to take care of that. But the temptation for application
developers is enormous to "know better" here and there.

Currently I have the "pleasure" of working with Windows for a first
time in a long while, and the situation is dire.

Some applications (typically "old" ones, like the terminal) need a
click to get focus, that first click doesn't do anything else. Other
applications do something on the first click right away (the browser
selects the URL if you happen to click on the right place; some browser
"apps" do even much more -- one chat app I "have to use" puts you in
some answer mode). The "close" button on the browser's faux window
decorations disappears when you make the window too narrow (is it
that what they call "responsive design"?).

We have reached the point where some random javascript off the 'net
can and does override GUI conventions, and the trend will grow
stronger with time. The economy of the net is one of attention,
and apps are bound to compete with each other on this metric, too.

The worse part of it: people don't care. They adapt. Seems to be
a kind of Stockholm syndrome. I won't go deeper into that, since
I'm semi off topic already, but I find that deeply disturbing, as
if app developers were intentionally messing with user's brains.

Back to topic: yes, consistency across the desktop is desirable,
but to be taken with a grain of salt. Relevant actors don't seem
to care.

Cheers
-- 
t

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