Yay round corners! 
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Window round corners may need implementing app_server semi-transparent window support.
i think that, Haiku gui api should allow for overide of native window themes, on per application basis, and be contained specifically to that particular application, it’s windows and children
it’s a win win
It is possible for controls theme, but difficult for window decorator theme because window decorator is painted by app_server.
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Please be my guest and install any other OS. Thx.
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please by my guest and take your evangelical views somewhere else
i gathered that, but it would be nice if it was a capability. If you are working in DAW and you have Vsti windows, it’s nice to allow the author to have the stylistic controls they wish. Many other applicantions like CAD software etc would also benefit.
Both of you are a bit out of line here IMO.
In any case, it is already possible but it makes no sense to do since it goes against what Haiku is trying to do overall…
I have had an idea for a while to make a new control_look (and maybe also window decorator) which has some sort of GUI editor and maybe makes BPictures or similar to draw the components. This makes it much easier to mess around and iterate for developers and makes it possible for non-developers to make whatever they want. Maybe it could even have some common “themes” and GUI options for round buttons, etc.
There may be some reason this is not possible but I will experiment.
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Kind sir, we - the last standing fortress of the BeOS legacy - are here because we are unsatisfied with the other solutions. Either because their logic, ux, license or design.
Most of the people here expressed the wish for a consistent OS, something they are unable to find in *nix descendants.
We can play the ignorant game, but you are a registred user long enough to know this, still you just attempted to bring the same “freedom” into the system which made the alternatives unconsumable for us because it introduces inconsistency. Please stop playing the surprised game, you should have been expecting this answer. If you want inconsistency then please, use a different OS.
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Theming may not be consistent from one system to the next but as long as it is uniformly applied to the whole system at the per-install level, I’m content with it. On MorphOS they went whole hog with it on Magic User Interface and made individually themed applications possible. That is not uniform, IMO.
After having had theming on Gnome the *nix crowd has resisted upgrading to version 4 which had theming removed. Some are switching to Qt based user-interfaces just to get theming back. This has the makings of a holy war. It shouldn’t be such a high priority that we can’t use it. All the same, it should support the full feature set of a modern graphics chipset with blending of colors. In 1998 that was just coming on the scene so BeOS didn’t use it in its user-interface. Haiku should not be so stuck in the past.
I agree with @leavengood that it is something to experiment with. I fully disagree with @extrowerk that theming can’t be experimented with and @SCollins saying that it is a must. Trying to attribute holy war terminology could leave the Haiku community caught between factions like the Anabaptists were between the Catholics and the Lutherans in the 1600s. Being drowned by Lutherans simply because the Catholics didn’t get to them first is certainly not a situation that should be repeated.
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Haiku can already be fully themed, I don’t think we need to experiment with that, it is already there. Every single color can be changed. With control_look and custom window decorators just about every other aspect of the system can be changed. Also individual apps can choose to use a custom control_look already.
About the only thing we can’t do is non-rectangular windows and window shadows, which I personally would like to see implemented (but it is not at all an R1 blocker, and should not require compositing in app_server.)
I would just like to make my life easier by creating something which allows for easy tweaking and experimentation of the GUI design. That might also help regular users too. I will try to make it and if it works it can be on HaikuPorts or otherwise exposed to be installed as a package. If wanted maybe it can be integrated in Haiku, but that is also totally optional.
With all this said I agree with extrowerk that Haiku is trying to be better than other systems and I think we should make our default look very nice such that most people don’t feel the need to tweak it. Native, well-integrated, consistent applications should be the goal and not 100 different HTML based UIs like we have with Electron on other systems. We should avoid the complete mess Microsoft has with different control panel UIs and the way Office has a different style, etc. Same for Linux with the dichonomy between Qt and GTK apps and the insane variation among distros.
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Theming is “almost” dead on Linux. As @SamuraiCrow Gnome team is moving away from theming. Also, on KDE team, you will find some resistance to theming. They seem to keep theming just for being alternative to Gnome.
Also, theming on Linux is getting too complex for fans to do. I used to to icon themes and windows decorators, back in the 2000-2010 decade, but now, a complete icon theme is huge with color-key elements.
On Linux, (not saying is a good mirror to look at), desktops are moving to just Light/Dark theming with a customizable color key. Isn’t that way on OSX?
Custom controls for specialized applications (like a DAW) are possible with the API as it is now. (derived from BControl). You don’t need per-application theming for that.
yes, yes, yes
You mean sticking with the basic concept and phylosophy of Haiku is “usage of holy war terminology”?
Then how would you call the fight of the *nixians where they try to convert every OS to use their kernel. Their prophetes argued *nixes allows to build exactly the system from ground up to gui what the user wants. They used every possible chance to share their beliefs and they even expressed their negative opinion about Haiku not trying to replicate the *nix way and not using their kernel and gui.
Which is strange, because while some users do love unixporn, most of the people according to my not representative research sticks with the system default ui and changes only the wallpaper and mutes the system sounds. However to support their freedom the distrib devs pushed the pain to the developers, who struggles already with the :
- the non-standardized kernel (hi, we don’t support nft),
- the non-standardized c-library,
- non standardized init,
- the non standardized userland,
- non-standardized UI toolkit,
- the non-standardized everything ,
and when the developers complained, they called them names.
But after many years when they recognized this and trying to fix this specific burden they made now they are hated by their users, because they limiting the freedom…
Sorry, i am not 18 and i do remember who is to blame for the burden we users had and have to face every day and if you accuse me with religious belief because i maintain the opinion we should stick with a minimalist but well designed, defined and managed system i can only say: -> *nix is that way. Please go and make some more of your users life a burden. They could become new Haiku users. 
Guys, I honestly don’t understand what the fuss is all about. We already have support for custom control looks and window decorators. Maybe this can be combined into themes, don’t we already have a theme manager somewhere. Personally I’m not interested in theming at all, but I have no problem with it existing.
It’s of course not my call to make, but I’d be happy if we all could try to be a bit more constructive and civil even in technically heated discussions. The world is in an enough “unpeaceful” state right now, I’d like to think we can at least do better in our little community. Peace, and greetings from Austria,
Andi
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consistent forced theming across applications “not core os funtions and apps” isn’t going to inspire developers.
look at how widespread android is, almost every application has it’s own look.
if developers and users want custom looking windows, let them.
i personally like the haiku defaults, but art is subjective
It is not about if theming exists or not.
It is only about if a native program can override the system theming or not (eg. if it is possible to create a GUI, with inconsistent user interface).
For some of us this is a terribly important topic.
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