There was never a way to globally pick a “theme” in R5.03 or before.
BeOS never had true themes. R5.3 you could change the window borders to a “windows alike”, a “classic Mac alike” and probably one more. Post R5 had a better support for this, but it was never a first party part of the OS per se, and it was a massive task to make a new window frame. I’m not sure if there was even a control panel in Dano to switch themes? I know in the version I had for PowerPC you were stuck with the theme the developer chose.
For the rest, from PR1 - R5.03, there was no way to really change much about the controls, only “small” global tweaks. Post R5, there was a new theme for a lot of the controls, but I seem to recall you didn’t get a choice. There was no way to go back without downgrading the App-server and libbe.so.
Okay - that makes sense. It wasn’t sold as a theme, it was an Easter egg originally called “Window Decor”. It was totally hidden and you needed to know the magic shortcut to get at it. If it was ever not hidden, that was because later Open Tracker made it visible by default. The joke that became a feature
Not really, there was BeTheme by Michael Mellow for Beos. I change with it the Decoder and wallpaper, icons? in the past (decors are amiga, Mac, Windows…)
In a default BeOS install you couldn’t even change the yellow tab color. You needed a special tool for this (WindowShade) that would find and patch the hardcoded colors in libbe.so. So Haiku is already a lot better in terms of customization.
And Haiku has ThemeManager by mmu_man. It is fine that the OS allows the existence of such apps, but in the default setup I would not include them.
Do you know if any solution gained traction @nephele ? I have searched for all possibilities and this thread is all I could find. Unexpectedly to me (since I predate Windows and desktops and could not see the point in them, other than claim it was more user intuitive. For me it confused my workflows) I was attempting getting sounds working in Haiku and stuff was open everywhere and then I needed something I had copied to the Desktop. I have been forced into Window’s ways, so I looked for “Show Desktop”. It was inconceivable to me that an OS built around a GUI desktop does not have such a thing . Then the more revelation that I am now a user of the Desktop and work flows .
The workflow scenario above is typical for me and many others I suspect.
Furiously working on something with your train of thought on the problem (not tracking your windows, just the next idea you have Google and try).
You get to the point where you need to access something you have set up or copied to your work area (the desk-top) and that is where Haiku currently kills your train of thought and flow.
You now have a mass of Windows that you need to close or minimise and your thinking has to be about whether your may need them again.
By the time you have gotten to your desktop you have gone cold and deflated and a little WTF.
Apart from “close windows as you go” do you know a workflow that avoids the above need for a “Show Desktop” option? Yes I could have found /home/Desktop in Tracker then right mouse click, but that is not the Desktop GUI workflow.
Since right and left mouse clicks on windows raise or lower them, why not a right mouse click (or double click to avoid false raising) on the desk top raises it to the top? I expected a menu option in the root menu in a Desktop based GUI. I can not see how putting it in Tracker is logical (intuitive), as knowing the Desktop is just a folder is why I could not understand the Desktop abstraction in the first, just like Trash is “just another folder” but it more.
I am happy with any of the following
A mouse sequence click somewhere.
A menu entry accessible on a largely covered desktop.
left and right mouse buttons together anywhere.
A keyboard shortcut.
A touch screen or touch-pad gesture.
Voice command.
The last two options are to emphasize how important I view avoiding the work flow breaking “closing windows” sequence is. I have put lots in here you will already know in case others read and don’t understand the issue. I am hoping that I just missed something about how Haiku workflows operate.
Unlike a real desktop, even on large screens it is hard to avoid your working windows from obscuring things on the desktop that you might need and hence the removal of covering windows is necessary. On a real desktop you would not put your document on top of your pen or your computer on your stapler, and the bin would be on the floor! Maybe Haiku could have a virtual desktop edge, so that things fall off your table onto the floor and into the bin like in real life, making for a much more realistic abstraction LOL Imagine the reviewers commenting on what a sense of humor devs have HaikuLand! My floor is often part of my workspace (the Multi-workspace abstraction)
If I can figure out how to write a Haiku batch file that recursively minimizes all windows that I can dump in menu I will post it.
Absolutely brilliant work around and does the big half of what is needed. Thank you so much @zuMi There is so much great stuff on HaikuDepot I hadn’t gotten to it yet! Now to hack it somewhere that is really easy to click on
Hopefully “Show Desktop” can still be embedded into Haiku as returning your windows to their original positions and state would let you get back to work in mental sequence you left. This work around fixes the big half, but not the complete workflow.
There is a proposed change in Gerrit, dormant since almost 3 years now, ouch.
Last time I’ve tried that change, it worked pretty well for… well… minimizing all windows, but also restoring them back on a second shortcut invocation.
Only problem was that if you used the shortcut too fast, it kinda got a bit confused. Hopefully someone can find a solution to that issue, and that “minimize_all” input filter added to the default Haiku images.
Edit: re-reading my comment on that review… seems the issue was actually not releasing the keyboard shortcut fast enough which could cause it to misbehave.
Brilliant @BiPolar . Yes that proposed change is the solution, however in trying to get your suggestions working I found the package applet, which when dragged to the DeskBar (I missed that in @zuMi post) does the “reveal desktop” function as easily as I expect/want, so if the proposed change is made it is good enough for me (though the whole Desktop workflow concept seems not quite right in Haiku IMHO, as explained lower down).
I could not get “Same shortcut CTRL+CMD+D is used for both minimizing and restoring.” to work, and in Floorp, which I am using to reply, that key combination is pulling down the URL address bar menu! It is why I am not a fan of keyboard shortcuts that independent programs just select randomly. Being a Winodze user the Alt_C and Alt+V is driving me crazy
In trying to set up a Haiku “gaming console” for my son I hit on the idea of just “use another workspace with an apps launcher” That is when it became obvious to me that Haiku views your workspace as what is on your bench, not the work bench! All the mess I thought I could leave and let my son have a clear workspace, he cannot mess-up, now needs “hiding” along with all the Office desktop I have configured That means work spaces are not so useful to me, because I was going to set them up differently, having one for development, one for using, one for gaming and maybe one for music. Having the same desktop clutter makes no sense at all for my abstraction.
The upshot for the problem at hand is an easy work around with the same desktop being in each workspace, revealing the desktop is as simple as scrolling my mouse on the task bar workspace item. It leaves your work in your original workspace untouched, so just scroll back when finished. Maybe this is the simplest way to code “reveal desktop” while the current desktop abstraction is adhered to.
If there is a logic to the Haiku workspace abstraction that has the same desktop mess in each, please direct me to it. My view is that it is the same workspace made larger by chopping it into pieces and piling everything over your actual desktop to which you need access. I was thinking I would be able to run different themes in different workspaces I guess the current abstraction is easier to code. Maybe I need a triple boot Haiku Haiku Haiku Install, but then I cannot seamlessly go to my development workspace to look at what happens in my user workspace, while documenting it in my office workspace, all optimised for the said workflows. Learning learning learning
you can change this behaviour in KeyMap Preflet, “Switch shortcut keys to Win/Linux mode” or something like that,my brain in > 25 yrs of using beos/haiku autoadapts my muscular memory
you can try instead to “bring the desktop above every other window” aka a floating window, it’s rude,brutal and ugly and maybe this won’t please the app_server, but you can set a sh script like this
#!/bin/sh
feel=1024 # desktop's standard feel flag
if (( $(hey Tracker Get Feel of Window 0 | awk '/result/ {print $4}') == feel )); then # if the current feel is the standard one
feel=6 # set it as a floating window
fi
hey Tracker Set Feel of Window 0 to "${feel}" # apply feel as the desktop's flag
Wished they used it on the other OS’s too, since BeOS I’m hooked to these (always tend to use them when running W11, makes bad habbit when using Alt-F4)
Do you actually use it that way on macOS? I do the opposite, when using Haiku on MacBook I remap Alt to Cmd to follow the rule “key next to spacebar is used for system shortcuts”. Then on Windows I’m absolutely lost, and need to use some external tool like SharpKeys to remap Ctrl to Cmd
I do.
If i have a macos style keyboard connected then I will just leave it be, but I remap windows style keyboards so it follows the rule you mentioned aswell.
Brilliant again @zuMi That is perfect and makes me really Like Haiku again (the developers putting users above enforcing consistency) have very reasonably put in a single button to remap all the shortcuts. Oh the joy I started Ctrl+V Ctrl+C Ctrl+X with Wordstar c1981 and it is just what I do without thinking, like I type without looking (as you will notice ), but ask me where A is an I don’t a have a clue.
I will face breaking something with the sh script What I can cause at a command line doesn’t bear thinking, but gotta up-skill now it is worth it.
And that is why as a user I largely avoid them where possible. I haven’t used the Linux terminal enought to use keyboard shortcuts. Surely Alt-C is the default for Linux and so a Linux user would be unare of the issue.
I will have to remember that key shortcuts in any Haiku instructions will need mentally “processing through the button” I pressed and that means I need to find out what it did Proably I can find it in the source code, if no where else.
With your vast experience, are Haiku mappings more consitent and better overall, or is it just different and what you are used to. Old dogs can force themselves to learn new tricks if it is better. While I would love to be a keyboard coding wizard, it has always been a struggle, so doubt I will do any and little terminal work either. I do what I must to get back to what I am really trying to do (A hacker until a work around is found, hence my nom de plume).
. Then the more 
.
LOL Imagine the reviewers commenting on what a sense of humor devs have HaikuLand! My floor is often part of my workspace (the Multi-workspace abstraction)
That means work spaces are not so useful to me, because I was going to set them up differently, having one for development, one for using, one for gaming and maybe one for music. Having the same desktop clutter makes no sense at all for my abstraction.
I guess the current abstraction is easier to code. Maybe I need a triple boot Haiku Haiku Haiku Install, but then I cannot seamlessly go to my development workspace to look at what happens in my user workspace, while documenting it in my office workspace, all optimised for the said workflows. Learning learning learning
I started Ctrl+V Ctrl+C Ctrl+X with Wordstar c1981 and it is just what I do without thinking, like I type without looking (as you will notice 
), but ask me where A is an I don’t a have a clue.
What I can cause at a command line doesn’t bear thinking, but gotta up-skill now it is worth it.
While I would love to be a keyboard coding wizard, it has always been a struggle, so doubt I will do any and little terminal work either. I do what I must to get back to what I am really trying to do (A hacker until a work around is found, hence my nom de plume).