Aluminium Kai 2.

Discuss application theming and theme development.
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Frank Lion
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

jimfitter wrote:Remember, this is something you can release with imperfections...
Blasphemer!

I don't 'do' 100+ page Support threads. :)

Btw I've noticed that once you go past the 5 buttons above that the toolbar buttons peter out a bit and look a bit '2004' ish. I couldn't do much about that before, as once a theme is as popular as this was then people scream blue murder if you ever change anything!

This will be a good time to sort those buttons and to do the Download/New Window/Print/Bookmark/History and a new Sidebar one for SM...all in the 'globe' style. The New Tab one is OK as are Cut/Copy/Paste, but the rest need changing.

Will not take very long.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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Frank Lion
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

Frank Lion wrote:This will be a good time to sort those buttons and to do the Download/New Window/Print/Bookmark/History and a new Sidebar one for SM...all in the 'globe' style. The New Tab one is OK as are Cut/Copy/Paste, but the rest need changing.

Will not take very long.
New globe buttons now done and coded up. Once I'm sure I like the new colours I picked for each, then I'll drop the 'glyph' on top (the printer symbol, etc).

I'm doing this stuff while taking breaks from working in the garden or painting (that's art type painting, not painting a fence or something :)) and it's coming along quicker than I thought.

There will be other changes -

Here's how it looked - http://franklion.co.uk/AK2-N/AK-FF3.png

#1. Existing urlbar/searchbar too tall, don't like the borders - restyled to slimmer, 'concave' style with no borders.

#2. 'Brown' buttons seen in Preferences/Addons Manager/etc. - existing ones too large, too dated, too horrible, will be using my SM SeaMonkey coded buttons (they're done in code, not images) with a very pale green tint over them.

#3. Scrollbars and progressmeter ball - horrible. I reckon the semi-transparent scrolls on ML300 works well and intend to do a similar effect here. It'll give a 'softer' look, which is what I'm aiming for for the whole theme.

#4. Probably a lot more, but the toolbar backgrounds, toolbar buttons, tabs will stay just as they were.


I don't know the future of SM any more than you do, but I do know that AK2 is going to look damn good when it's done. :)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by LIMPET235 »

Once again Frank.
You've created another masterpiece.

Absolutely luverly.

Regs, L..
[Ancient Amateur Astronomer.]
Win-10-H/64 bit/500G SSD/16 Gig Ram/450Watt PSU/350WattUPS/Firefox-115.0.2/T-bird-115.3.2./SnagIt-v10.0.1/MWP-7.12.125.

(Always choose the "Custom" Install.)
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Frank Lion
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

LIMPET235 wrote:Once again Frank.
You've created another masterpiece.
Thanks, but I ain't finished it yet. :)
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

AK2 for SeaMonkey (Browser and Email) and Thunderbird is now done.

New additional 'globe' buttons for SM browser and a complete new set for the SM Email and T/Bird side. I used a CSS3 code route for the small icons set and that saved a lot of time in not having to make little buttons. Toolbar backgrounds, tabs just as they were, other stuff brought up to date.

'Done' is a relative term. It's done throughout (the Addons Manager styling is the best I've done), but now it goes off for betatesting and bug hunting. Always best not to rush that side, so that'll take a month. You don't actually work on it that much at all, it's more a case of using it, trying out combinations of setup and fixing little things that aren't quite right.

Back in the day, I had 3 betatesters working on my stuff (now you know why my Support threads were so short) and the best was GB. Damn, that guy was good, never missed a thing. After a few years, he did start to miss the odd thing and that pained him. So, I 'pensioned him off', but we're still in touch a few times a year. That'll be 11 years now, my, how time flies.

A good betatester is worth their weight in gold and makes a theme writer look good. Thanks, GB. :)

..sometime, I'll post some screenshots.
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

Well, I started this one of the first day of this month, so the last day of it seems like a good and appropriate day to have a picture show of the result :) -

Just click the thumbs for the fullsize images -




AK2 on the SeaMonkey Browser window (with the Sea Fox extension) -

Image



AK2 on the SeaMonkey Browser window (with the Sea Fox extension) using the magic of the DOM Inspector to show all the hover states of the buttons.

Image



AK2 on the default SeaMonkey Browser window -

Image








AK2 on the default SeaMonkey E Mail window -

Image



AK2 on the default SeaMonkey E Mail window and using the magic of the DOM Inspector to show all the hover states of the buttons

Image







AK2 on the default Thunderbird E Mail window

Image


~ the 'Small Icons' buttons for this lot all look the same as above, but, as you'd expect...smaller.




I might well write a lot more on this stuff on the new design, new graphics and coding of this new AK2 for SeaMonkey and Thunderbird, then again, I might not. 'Rewarding, but tough' would be a good summary. :)

Either way, in the meantime feel free to ask any questions you like about, er, anything relating to all this.

This one isn't due out for public release for ages yet ( i.e. until Firefox 57 comes out in November?) but, if I already know you, then again feel free to contact me and I'll send you a copy.

Frank :)




Image
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by jimfitter »

Although you really don't need my encouragement, I gotta tell you that, it's looking pretty slick. I'm looking forward to it's release.
Thanks again, for taking the time to update this theme, Frank. :)
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Frank Lion
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

jimfitter wrote:Although you really don't need my encouragement...
No, that's OK I'll take what I can get.

But it was just mere frippery dashed off in moments whilst I was listening to the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber performed, unusually, by the Texan Duelling Banjo Band, featuring a rare appearance of Mr Charles 'Charlie' Charles on spoons and trumpet.

That aside, your username looks somewhat familiar to me, so do indeed contact me, if you ever require a 'pre-release' version of AK2.

:)
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

For existing users -

The Addons Manager, both the default on and the Sea Fox one, have had a makeover already -


Image



Hard to show all the changes in one shot, but I've moved the position of the background image on the right side and totally changed how the disabled extensions/themes listings look. It now looks better.

Somewhat amazingly, I haven't found any bugs that needed fixing for a few days now and 'the look' is pretty well done, but not overdone. We'll see, but I reckon we're pretty much done on this one.

One thing is certain, it took less time than I originally thought it would. :P
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

Here's a sort of update and an announcement, all in one.

This is the final look of the browser side (fwiw the layout in the pic is how I usually have my own stuff laid out) -

Image

The Email side still looks as I want it to and that will still look like the Email pics a few posts back.

***********

The other thing is that I've decided that AK2 is not going to be a public theme on AMO for Thunderbird or SeaMonkey.

Have a look at this pic and then I'll explain what you're looking at - http://franklion.co.uk/AK2-PICS/Metal%2 ... Monkey.png

That's the recent Thunderbird theme figures for ML Sea Monkey and, as most people know, Thunderbird are carrying on with 'legacy' extensions, Complete Themes and the Gecko engine, i.e. not like Firefox.

So, there's the theme going along and maxing at 6,500 active daily users during the week and plunging down at the weekend. If you design a theme, as this one is, for use in the workplace then that is expected. No idea if the 6,500 is accurate, could be x10 that for all I know, but there are less Thunderbird users than Firefox and even as it is that theme is at #11 out of 105 T/Bird themes. OK?

Now look at what happens in the third week of June - figures drop by over two thirds and then just carry on going up and down during the week as though nothing was wrong. Isn't this precisely what I've been saying for years and what has been happening for years? This isn't the T/Bird people doing this, this is the AMO site and it was bad enough when they were doing it with Firefox stuff.

No, **** that. AK2 is a damn fine looking theme and deserves better than that. That is the very last time that AMO is going to mess about with my theme figures ever again. ML Sea Monkey and Silver Sea Monkey are already on AMO and that's fine, but AK2 will not be going there.

On the plus side, I may well put it on my own site. The only reason I haven't put the other new themes there is that, er, I really hate writing those webpages and they are really dull to do and take ages. :)


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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by jimfitter »

Thanks for keeping up with your themes, Frank. I know it's a labor of love, but those of us that are fans of your work, are always grateful for your diligence.
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

Thanks, Jim.
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Re: Aluminium Kai 2.

Post by Frank Lion »

This is good, I have an entire forum all to myself these days. :P

Few weeks back, I did updates for the ML Sea Monkey theme and its silver chum and then turned my attention to AK2. Good stuff, AK2 hasn't been updated for well over 6 months and the other 2 for over 10 and all were still going strong - this is how theming should be. :)

Lots of little fixes done on the new AK2 (called version 2.0.5.7) and also some larger ones, done in anticipation of the release of Thunderbird 58 which I already know will break various extensions, etc.

Visually, the AK2 look is pretty much set, but I have introduced an image into the folder pane on the left in Thunderbird and the SeaMonkey Email client. I've also made the background in both the folder and message pane slightly lighter, for easier reading. Yes, the lightening is subtle, but subtly is actually what theming UI's is all about. Here's the result -


Just click the thumbs for the fullsize image -

Image



Finally, a few code snippets. Oddly, when I was looking at T/Bird in XP (I didn't check Win7) I noticed that there is no statusbar and that seems to be by design having looked at the code. Strange, because it shows in Linux. Anyway, here's the fix -

Code: Select all

/*T/Bird in XP missing statusbar fix....*/
#status-bar {
	display: -moz-box !important;}	
I also noticed that the T/Bird app menu button (hamburger) shows all the same stuff as the menubar items, but you can't keep the menubar and get rid of the unneeded stuff on the left. Now you can -

Code: Select all

/*Hide meubar menu items and brighten up the hamburger....*/
 #button-appmenu {
	filter: invert(100%) !important;
}	
#mail-menubar {
	display: none !important;}

Tabs on bottom in T/Bird? - T/Bird has odd coding in that area, just use the extension 'Rise of the Tools'. Works and the result looks good. Well, I think so and you can see for yourselves - I forgot to turn it off for the screenshot above.


Frank :)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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