[mythtv] Theme Discrepancies

[Matt]

On 9/9/07, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> On 09/09/2007 08:43 PM, Matt wrote:
> > Sorry, I really didn't dive that deep... it's just an overall concern
> > that I wanted to bring out for some discussion since I've seen some
> > changes in that area lately.  Also, there are more than 5 themes that
> > are distributed withing /mythtv/themes and myththemes.
> >
> > mythtv/themes:
> > Blue
> >
>
> Theme
>
> > Default
> > Default-Wide
> >
>
> "Pieces" of themes that are used when the chosen theme doesn't define
> the theme "piece" that's needed (basically a fallback/catch-all/"good
> start" for other themes)
>
> > G.A.N.T
> >
>
> Theme
>
> > Classic (?)
> > DVR (?)
> >
>
> Menu themes
>
> > myththemes/:
> > Iulius
> > Minimalist-wide
> > MythCenter
> > MythCenter-wide
> > Retro
> > Titivillus
> >
> > That's 10 (possibly 12) core distributed themes.
>
> Many of which use the definitions from the default or default-wide
> directory for many parts.
> ...
> > Seems he did a fair job of getting most of them, but he left the
> > others for other people to get.  What if no one else does it?  Will
> > people have to switch to one of the themes that was fixed?
>
> People could submit patches.  :)

Always!  But, I just think that leaving something out of a theme,
unless it's obvious that it's broken, is potentially going to be
missed by anyone.  If someone changes some little thing, and doesn't
do it for all the themes, I'm not ever going to know that it's changed
and that I'm going to need to make a patch for it.

Also, on a related note, I would also like to draw a little more
attention to the "themes" folder in trunk.  Why is it seperate?  I
understand that they are Justin's themes, but if he's contributed them
to the project, why can't they be merged in with myththemes and/or add
some of them to the core themes within mythtv?  I don't understand why
there is a seperate place for these under svn.mythtv.org, yet the only
one who really ever modifies them is Justin?  If they're truely not
going to merged and and the developers aren't going to modify them
when they modify other themes, then how are these any different than
third party themes?  I just don't understand the hands-off approach to
this folder, and I know that Justin doesn't want it to be his life to
maintain those themes all by himself based on previous threads he has
posted.  I love these themes, and I use them, so it makes me a little
nervous when I see commits go in, and devs patching *some* of the
themes in mythtv/themes and myththemes, but leaving the "themes" for
Justin to fix.  I really don't want to speak for Justin, maybe that's
the way has requested it, but anyway... just an observation.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone so far for the conversation and
debating this topic because I'm happy we're talking through it.  I
have to admit that I'm not a developer, I'm not a themer, and I'm not
on the inside of the process, so I'm really coming at this from an
end-user perspective and an outside view.  However, I've been using
CVS/SVN for the last two years, reading every commit along the way, so
I've gotten pretty use to seeing how things flow.

Keep the good comments and thoughts coming.

Thanks!
Matt