Arch Linux User Repository

That's just my point; I'd rather not waste the space for the new Greybird. And the wallpapers are too blue.

The new Greybird theme looks just like elementary, except with an uglier panel and fatter scroll bars. If you're not using the Greybird Classic option, I recommend the elementary theme...

I agree; I don't think it's necessary to add gtk3 as a dependency yet, since the gtk2 theme works just fine (although I do have gtk3 installed myself). Also, regarding the classic theme and wallpaper, I would personally prefer them in separate packages, since I don't think everyone would use the wallpaper (I for one don't), and the people who use the classic theme probably wouldn't use the current theme. Of course, if there are people who do, they could just install both packages. If you were to do package them separately (or if someone else did), you could stick the wallpaper in the optdeps.

thanx! about gtk3 dependency: leave as is. that's a better choice.

I have updated and modified the PKGBUILD. This package will build and install the Greybird theme as well as the "classic" Greybird theme (version 0.8.2), without any conflicts or user intervention required. Everything, including the matching wallpaper, will remain intact. If you bump into any issues or find any mistakes in the PKGBUILD, please let me know. I hope this works for everyone! I also included some shortcuts in the build() process to minimize bandwidth usage, thanks to the flexibility of GIT! Because of this reason, I will stick to using GIT for the build() process in the Shimmer Project stable releases (0.7, 0.8.0, 0.8.1, 0.8.2, 0.9, et al). Enjoy! P.S. To select the classic GTK theme, under Xfce go to Settings > Appearance > and choose "Greybird Classic" from the list. Since I do not yet use GTK3 applications, I am not sure how to do the same for the classic GTK3 theme; technically, it should be the same concept, since it resides under "/usr/share/themes/Greybird Classic/gtk-3.0" just like its classic GTK2 counterpart. P.S.S. I am still contemplating whether or not I should add gtk3 as a dependency, or continue to leave it as an optdepends. Whatever works best for Arch users.

Hello, Not using Shimmer's wallpaper myself, I can't really comment on this subject. As for the gtk themes, I like your approach to keep the package as upstream provides it while having a -classic one. Thank you!

What follows is the email exchange between me and Simon. With his permission, I posted the entire discussion, with only minor editing. (I truncated some parts that were quoted in previous replies in order to make it more readable to the readers of this AUR comment.) Here is what I have decided to do, once I find the time to do so (hopefully soon): 1) I will likely switch to using the tarballs for the git-tag stable releases (0.7, 0.8.2, 0.9, et al). 2) I will continue to include the wallpapers with the packages, regardless of the fact that they now reside in a separate GIT repository. 3) For Greybird, I might use version 0.8.2 and its GTK2 and GTK3 themes, and rename them to "Greybird Classic". This way the user can choose "Greybird Classic" or "Greybird" (current stable release) under Xfce's Appearance settings. Number 3 is because even though I disagree with the Shimmer Project's decision to use the new Greybird color scheme (rich, high-contrast blue that looks more blue than Bluebird itself), I want to maintain an Arch-like upstream mentality. That concludes my own personal thoughts and ideas. Let me know what you think. As promised, here is the full email exchange between me and Simon: -------------------- ME: I noticed that the project has recently made some major changes to the GIT repository and Greybird theme. 1) By moving the wallpapers to their own separate repository, it makes packaging more difficult and inefficient. It requires the user to download more (xfce theme + all wallpapers, png and svg), and it causes conflicts with multiple GIT repositories (one for the theme, one for the wallpapers.) Also, it logically separates the themes from their wallpapers, which are still "parts" of the themes in the first place. I did a dirty workaround of wget'ing the wallpaper from the master branch of the Wallpapers repository. This is just a "workaround" and feels awkward, since the package is not building from a single location. It also means that any changes made to the wallpapers in the future will not reflect the version numbers of the git-tag releases for each theme. Can the wallpapers be moved back to their themes like before? You can still have a separate, un-versioned and un-tagged Wallpapers repository, but it would help to include *all* parts of the theme in a single repository (Albatross, Bluebird, Greybird, et al) like you've had since the beginning. 2) I noticed, as have others, that version 0.9 of the Greybird theme has changed drastically: it doesn't look like Greybird anymore. What used to be subtle grey hues are now rich blue; closer to what Bluebird is. The menu and highlight colors do not match the panel colors anymore, and it seems like this was a mistake? How come Greybird doesn't look like Greybird anymore? The other themes matured slowly, but didn't introduce any drastic changes in colors or consistency, so it was a surprise to see Greybird suddenly do this. Let me know what you think, and thank you again! -------------------- SIMON: Hey! > I noticed that the project has recently made some major changes [...] Yes true, parts of it (also the visual changes) were announced on xubuntu.org > 1) By moving the wallpapers [...] The thing is that in Xubuntu (which atm is still the main target) the package "shimmer-themes" only contains the themes, not the wallpapers. Also: I personally don't associate the wallpapers with the themes at all. While making this connection might make more sense for Albatross and Bluebird (they both only had _one_ wallpaper), the wallpapers are in fact related to the Xubuntu releases only. (I'm not even the creator.) Personally I think it was a mistake to throw them in the theme-repositories in the first place, so for me this is more the correction of a long-standing error than creating a new one. From a user's perspective I'd like to think: why should I install a 2mb package if I just want a theme (that weighs a few kB). Btw, this move was triggered by our Xubuntu packager complaining about the wallpapers being there :) (I guess I didn't care enough before.) > 2) I noticed, as have others, that version 0.9 of the Greybird theme has changed drastically [...] Yes, there were quite drastic changes and I expected far more negative feedback from the beginning. I could explain the rationale of each change if you like, for this email I'll leave you with the more obvious ones: * bright menus: When playing with the theme more I once tried bright menus. Not only did that solve a lot of issues we were experiencing with icons, it also (subjectively, meanwhile: intersubjectively confirmed) made menus easier on the eyes. After using the bright menus for a few days I really didn't feel like going back. After a few discussions and rounds of gathering feedback (via IRC, Google+ mostly) I first pushed things to a "bright-menus" branch. Later as things started to get maturer, I decided (again, after discussion) to merge it. * selected_bg_color: This was a consequence of the switch to bright menus. Simply put: the old highlight-color didn't work as well with the bright menus anymore, so I sought for a change. After testing and tweaking for a while, I decided to go with #398ee7 and even now (months later) I'm still happy with the choice. On the technical side, a lot has changed as well, partly this influenced more design decisions. Since there are plans upstream to deprecate the Unico-engine asap, we decided to get rid of it (and all the problems it introduced). So the Gtk3 theme was rewritten from scratch using only the default-engine and pure CSS, which also means it will work across more distributions and the Unico-version vs. Gtk3-version problems will disappear. The visual consequence were "flat" buttons, because the default engine can't draw shadows outside a widget. However, I'm really happy with the new button style. All the best, Simon PS: If you want to be heard on issues like these _beforehand_, I'd like to invite you to one of our IRC channels (#shimmer and #xubuntu-devel on freenode.org). -------------------- ME: Thank you for the reply, and your explanation helps a lot. I'll see what I can do to workaround the new changes. A few things I want to add / ask: 1) Would it be okay if I post this email exchange (I'll hide the addresses) in the comments page of the AUR? Rather than summarize what you've said, I can have your explanation be read in its entirety. If not, that's fine. I can just summarize it myself if you prefer this exchange to remain private. 2) I cannot idle in IRC channels as I have been able to in the past. If I have questions, I can try joining the channels and wait for a response for as long as I'm able to leave the laptop powered on. 3) The technical changes, such as using pure cross-compatible CSS will not affect packaging, so there's no worries there at all. It's the GIT structure that might make things tricky for me. I'll see what I can do to keep the package clean and efficient as before. I might even consider switching to the tarballs instead (e.g, v0.9 tar.gz), but that would remove the flexibility of GIT (allowing the user to comment out certain lines to use the master branch instead of the stable git-tag release.) Either way, I only follow the stable git-tag release versions, for reasons I've explained in the past. Thank you again for you reply, Simon! All the best! -------------------- SIMON: > Thank you for the reply [...] Good to read! > A few things I want to add / ask: > 1) Would it be okay if I post this email exchange [...] Sure, feel free to post it. I never managed to write the comprehensive blog post about these changes that I'd have wished to. But well, not enough time/energy for everything... > 2) I cannot idle in IRC channels as I have been able to in the past [...] Fine, no problem. Was more meant as an offer. ;) > 3) The technical changes, such as using pure cross-compatible CSS will not affect packaging [...] Feel free to drop the wallpapers from your package as well, I'm afraid there's not much more I can suggest... > Thank you again for you reply [...] You're welcome - thanks for your packaging efforts! -------------------- This ends the email exchange.

@ork I emailed them about these sudden changes (colors don't match anymore and GIT repositories changed). I'll write a comment in here if I find out anything. I think the new menu appearance is inconsistent, and I'm not sure why it was changed so drastically.