WorldForge Theme Chart v.000000003

Revised Sun Mar 17 08:36:56 2002 PST

Widget	p/f	Element	State
CheckBox	p	Enabled	n/a
	f	Box	Checked
	f	Box	Unchecked
	f	Box	Disabled
Fonts	p	Default Face Name	n/a
	f	Default Face
Meta	p	Theme Name	n/a
	p	Theme Version	n/a
	p	Theme Description	n/a
	p	Author Name	n/a
	p	Author Email	n/a
	p	Copyright	n/a
Pointer	p	Name	n/a
	f	Pointer Image	(Any)
ProgressBar	f	LeftEnd
	f	RightEnd
	f	HorizSpan
	f	TopEnd
	f	BottomEnd
	f	VertSpan
PushButton	f	Background	Released
	f	Background	Pressed
	f	Background	Disabled
	f	Icon	(Any)
	f	Click Sound
RadioButton	f	Button	Checked
	f	Button	Unchecked
	f	Button	Disabled
ScrollBar	f	Background	(Any)
	f	UpButton	Pressed
	f	UpButton	Released
	f	DownButton	Pressed
	f	DownButton	Released
	f	LeftButton	Pressed
	f	LeftButton	Released
	f	RightButton	Pressed
	f	RightButton	Released
	f	Thumb	Pressed
	f	Thumb	Released
Sounds	f	Default Click
	f	Default Question
	f	Default Error
SpinnerBox	f	UpButton	Released
	f	UpButton	Pressed
	f	UpButton	Disabled
	f	DownButton	Released
	f	DownButton	Pressed
	f	DownButton	Disabled

Notes:

This document is a collection of first thoughts on the subject of themes. It's incomplete and needs to be fleshed out.

What's "p/f", you ask? A component can be a widget or a piece of information. Components are considered to have (informational) properties and filenames which refer to binary data.

Themes may not be simply lists of required files. In order for WorldForge games to have consistent interfaces, the common widgets should have common behaviors. A checkbox in one client should not only look like a checkbox in another client, it should behave like one.

Need to work out terminology, so there isn't any confusion about what is what. Words like "component" and "widget" should be used consistently across projects.

Widgets inherit things like fonts, so a checkbox would render its text in the "default" font unless it specifically overrode that font with a different one. Should the theme widget specify the default to use?

I've included a "Sounds" section because different themes may have different sounds associated with them. If I have a wood-theme, I want to hear woody sounds. If my theme looks like it's made of granite, I want to hear stony sounds, not wood. And so on.

The format for expressing this info will be XML. The paragui theme file is a good model to look at, though I don't like all the free-floating entries.
Sample:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<theme>
   <meta>
      <ThemeName value="default"/>
      <ThemeDescription value="WorldForge default theme"/>
      <ThemeVersion value="1.0.0"/>
      <AuthorName value="Your Name Here"/>
      <AuthorEmail value="themes@worldforge.org"/>
   </meta>

   <widget>
      <type value="Pointer"/>
         <object>
            <name value="Arrow"/>
            <filename value="default/arrow.png"/>
         </object>
   </widget>

   <widget>
      <type value="Pointer"/>
         <object>
            <name value="Crosshairs"/>
            <filename value="default/crosshairs.png"/>
         </object>
   </widget>

   (... and so on ...)

</theme>

Should things like fonts be expressed as a series of <Font> objects, each with a name, or should there be a single <Font> entry, listing all the property/file pairs?
This would be expressed as:

<font>
   <name value="default">
   <filename value="bigfont.ttf">
   <size value="10">
</font>

<font>
   <name value="decorative">
   <filename value="fancyfont.ttf">
   <size value="11">
</font>

or

<font>
   <default>
      <name value="default">
      <filename value="bigfont.ttf">
      <size value="10">
   </default>
   <decorative>
      <name value="decorative">
      <filename value="fancyfont.ttf">
      <size value="11">
   </decorative>
</font>



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