[mythtv] On Themes & Theming

[Jason Gabriele]

> There are default <module>-ui.xml files for the modules in the 
> mythtv/themes/default directory, but they ONLY get looked at if your 
> theme doesn't supply a <module>-ui.xml. 

Thats what I meant. Also some graphics are pulled from the default 
directory. For instance, I don't override any default mythweather graphics.

> Better than 
> nothing, but I don't think that gets us where we need to be.  To link a 
> theme to the Wiki, one must have to have a place to host it.  Plus, if I 
> host the theme myself, then any maintenance of the themes can't be 
> community based.  If I create a theme and somebody else wants to update 
> it for mythtv 0.17, I'd like that to happen without requiring my 
> involvement as my muse may have moved on.  Requiring individual effort 
> on an open source project like MythTv creates bottlenecks to the 
> process.  And again, as I mentioned in my original e-mail, last time I 
> checked, the artist types of the world aren't usually the kind to host 
> their own web server (yes there are exceptions) and as such we don't get 
> many contributed themes.

Getting your theme into CVS is one thing that could bring others to 
submit patches, but just adding it to the modules page does nothing. If 
you just need a place to host a file just ask me. Other than that I 
guess I would like to see a place where anyone can upload their own 
theme. If not on mythtv.org maybe on a dedicated theme site like 
http://skins.deviantart.com/media/ .

As far as the wiki stuff goes, I like the idea of it. I just think about 
all the times I have used the Gentoo forums and their user-posted HOWTOs 
there. Since you will be writing the docs, it's your prerogative. I know 
I was just starting again with MythTV themes, I wouldn't care where the 
docs came from, they would have been very useful either way.

-- 
Jason Gabriele
jason.gabriele at gmail dot com