Description: I got inspired by some plasmoids mockups I saw while surfing around.
The content frame is part of the windec. The borders are larger than the usually so thin and unreachable borders --Usability!-- but they don't look so.
Please note the styled menu button. The usual icon never reacts like the other buttons so I replaced it. (This is optional.)Last changelog:
0.6:
- Double click on menu button now close the window.
- On request, the windows can keep their round corners even when maximized.
- Config dialog re-worked. There's room for some more options.
0.5:
- Shaded windows are now more compact and looking better.
- The buttons glow the same way on active and inactive windows. That's also looking better.
0.4:
- KeepAbove and KeepBelow now have a different icon when activated.
- Button icons slightly changed --for the best, I hope. Old buttons are still available. (See README.)
I've been using Powder for a while and I get lots of comments about it. My question is - sometimes windows won't expand to automatically fit their contents, and I'm wondering if this is a Powder bug or a KWin bug. For example, when I insert a DVD, the "actions" window pops up and the button at the bottom is obscured until I stretch out the window. Ideas?
powder has a really pleasant look, it's great. but i really miss one thing: when a window is maximized and i want to close it, it's not sufficient to simply "throw" my mouse into the top right corner and click (as with plastik-win-deco).
would be great to see that in the next version.
..i like this win deco very much...using it ;)
but i was wondering if you cold make the lightning to come from both sides...left an right as top and bottom ... so it's everywhere .. :) ... the thing is it seems to me as an frame ...so it looks nice...
thanks ;)
I compiled and installed it on kde 3.3.2 + xfree. However, when I select it in the control center only the left border of all windows are shown... This is wierd - I only see vertical lines where the left border is - I do not see any other part of any window, so I cannot even change it back. Had to manually modify winrc file.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
Amit
I'm really amazed by your bug. I haven't the slightest idea what may cause it. There shouldn't be such an in between situation. A windec either works or not. As for preventing you from changing it, that's way too strong.
While I was developping it, I managed to crash Powder and all I got was no windec at all but everything else worked, including changing the windec to another one.
As far as I know, Powder should work even with KDE 3.2 because that's the moment I developed the engine for the windec Mallory.
I definitively have no idea. Maybe a cosmic particle hit your processor during compilation? ;-) If you haven't already done it, you should try re-building it, or else upgrading your KDE to 3.4+.
I removed evrything, re-downloaded powder, compiled and installed it, then I discovered this was not the problem. I forgot to mention that I'm working with a Hebrew locale. Once I switched to en_US.UTF-8, everything was fine (and I could enjoy the beauty of powder ;-) ). Switching back to he_IL.UTF-8 returned the "bad" behaviour. What actually happen, is that all windows somehow shrunk to a width of about 10 (ten) pixels. So what I see are vertical bars instead of windows, with a height of the original window but a width of about 10 pixels. This is why I couldn't switch to another windec - you merely cannot use any window in this situation, you don't see, e.g., any button. It now seems to me as a bug which is related to some RTL or LTR ordering. I can email you a screenshot of the control center when powder is selected, let me know if you are interested. Also, if you think I can in someway help you resolve this just let me know.
Thanks,
Amit
Yes, yes! I'd like to see this bug in action. Send a PNG that I don't loose a single pixel and the colorscheme if it's not one of those I provide. Maybe I'll understand what's going on.
And, is Powder the only windec that mis-behaves? Please, try all windecs available on your system and make a list of those which work and those which don't. That would be very helpful for me to compare their sources.
We're gonna crush that bug! ;-)
I just updated my KDE to 3.5 RC1 and Powder keeps on working without a glitch. The sources don't even need to be patched to make them under the new KDE. (I'm happy.) ;-)
Hi! I really like this. I do, anyway, have one simple request; it would be nice if 'make distclean' was run before you made the tarball for all of us.
pusling@pusling:~$ tar xjf 29935-powder-0.6.tar.bz2 pusling@pusling:~$ cp -a powder-0.6/ powder-0.6.orig pusling@pusling:~$ cd powder-0.6 pusling@pusling:~/powder-0.6$ make distclean [snip output]
pusling@pusling:~/powder-0.6$ cd .. pusling@pusling:~$ diff powder-0.6 powder-0.6.orig/ Only in powder-0.6.orig/: Makefile Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/admin and powder-0.6.orig/admin Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/autom4te.cache and powder-0.6.orig/autom4te.cache Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/colorscheme and powder-0.6.orig/colorscheme Only in powder-0.6.orig/: config.h Only in powder-0.6.orig/: config.log Only in powder-0.6.orig/: config.status Only in powder-0.6.orig/: libtool Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/powderclient and< powder-0.6.orig/powderclient Only in powder-0.6.orig/: stamp-h1
I just discovered "distclean" no so long ago but I didn't know what it was for. ;-)
I used to only do "make clean" before to make an archive but I'll clean my mess for the next time. I promise.
I found just a little bug, I'm running a opensuse 10.1 alpha 1 version, I've the kde 3.5 beta 2 installed.
For my tv (on XawTV) I'm used to remove the window border, to have just the screen above all the other windows, I keep it quite little.
If I do this, KDE crash, and every border disappear!
Can you fix this?
THANKS, for this really best theme!
Well, I can't reproduce this bug. On my SuSE 10.0 with KDE 3.4.3, I can remove the decoration from any window whether they are fullscreen or not, do anything I want with the ALT+F3 menu and my KDE keeps on working.
I don't know where it comes from but because of my bad experiences with KDE 3.5b2, I'd say it's the culprit.
I've "tortured" my windec engine more than you can imagine for years and I've never seen it bring any KDE in its fall. So, I don't know in which direction I could look for a bug.
Did you re-build it for KDE 3.5? (Just a stupid idea that came to my mind.) I spent more time downgrading KDE 3.5b2 back to 3.4.3 than using it and I don't remember how my windec worked, if it ever worked.
Great to see the "doubleclick close" integrated into Powder !!! :)
I've seen another feature in a windeco that allowed you to move the mouse to the farest top-right and then be able to close the window (actually hitting the regular close icon, as this was moved more top-right than currently).
I've seen this implemented in a livecd with kde 3.5beta2 announced on dot.kde.org. It might have been "Klax", but i'm not sure.
Your deco is awesome! But, there's one thing that annoys me: maximized windows do _not_ have round corners.
Perhaps this is meant as a feature, but for me this is a bug.
Could you add an option for changing this behaviour?
LOL! I did it on purpose, thinking that somebody would complain that the window doesn't fill the screen when maximized. And look what I get: Somebody complains that the corners don't remain round. :-)
(I amused by very little things...)
Any way, that's possible and very easy but I need to re-work the config dialog. The preview is already so small. I can't add another option or it will be reduces to a single line.
Well, since I got too many problems with the mousewheel, I'll give up on it and add "your" option. Now I have some more serious reasons to release a new version. ;-)
I really like your windeco. Its on by default here on my installation now :)
Could you maybe add a "Doubleclick Menu icon to
close window"-option like Plastik has ?
I don't use double-click but that shouldn't be a problem to add this feature. I will cut and paste from Plastik sources. Happy GPL world! ;-)
(Long pause...)
I cut and pasted from Crystal sources --which happened to be already unzipped-- and I already added the double-click closure... but the menu appears in between the 2 clicks.
Not good!
I'll fix this "feature" for the beginning of next week. (My schedule agrees.)
Apparently, nobody should mind. All the windecs that I checked and that allow the double click closure "suffer" from the same problem.
I don't like that but I will provide the feature. I'll try to find a fix for a later version. My attempts have been unsuccessful so far.
If I have the time, I intend to include the mousewheel-driven window switcher too --if somebody sees what I mean.
You again? ;-) (I just replied to your message in the poll section.)
Once for all: The titlebar isn't that big. A very classic windec like Plastik has a 28-pixel high titlebar while Powder uses 30 pixels.
And I promise that I won't answer any more to anyone who says that the title bar is too big. ;-)
(Don't take what I say too seriously, I just need a punching-ball after a lot of frustrations with KDE 3.5. I had to choose in between you and Profus and his heretic idea of erasing my wonderful colorschemes.) ;-)
Ratings & Comments
74 Comments
I've been using Powder for a while and I get lots of comments about it. My question is - sometimes windows won't expand to automatically fit their contents, and I'm wondering if this is a Powder bug or a KWin bug. For example, when I insert a DVD, the "actions" window pops up and the button at the bottom is obscured until I stretch out the window. Ideas?
This what I have been looking for for 5 years. I know have solidified my love for KDE thanks to aesthetics, not just functionality. Thanks again!
powder has a really pleasant look, it's great. but i really miss one thing: when a window is maximized and i want to close it, it's not sufficient to simply "throw" my mouse into the top right corner and click (as with plastik-win-deco). would be great to see that in the next version.
..i like this win deco very much...using it ;) but i was wondering if you cold make the lightning to come from both sides...left an right as top and bottom ... so it's everywhere .. :) ... the thing is it seems to me as an frame ...so it looks nice... thanks ;)
I compiled and installed it on kde 3.3.2 + xfree. However, when I select it in the control center only the left border of all windows are shown... This is wierd - I only see vertical lines where the left border is - I do not see any other part of any window, so I cannot even change it back. Had to manually modify winrc file. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Amit
I'm really amazed by your bug. I haven't the slightest idea what may cause it. There shouldn't be such an in between situation. A windec either works or not. As for preventing you from changing it, that's way too strong. While I was developping it, I managed to crash Powder and all I got was no windec at all but everything else worked, including changing the windec to another one. As far as I know, Powder should work even with KDE 3.2 because that's the moment I developed the engine for the windec Mallory. I definitively have no idea. Maybe a cosmic particle hit your processor during compilation? ;-) If you haven't already done it, you should try re-building it, or else upgrading your KDE to 3.4+.
I removed evrything, re-downloaded powder, compiled and installed it, then I discovered this was not the problem. I forgot to mention that I'm working with a Hebrew locale. Once I switched to en_US.UTF-8, everything was fine (and I could enjoy the beauty of powder ;-) ). Switching back to he_IL.UTF-8 returned the "bad" behaviour. What actually happen, is that all windows somehow shrunk to a width of about 10 (ten) pixels. So what I see are vertical bars instead of windows, with a height of the original window but a width of about 10 pixels. This is why I couldn't switch to another windec - you merely cannot use any window in this situation, you don't see, e.g., any button. It now seems to me as a bug which is related to some RTL or LTR ordering. I can email you a screenshot of the control center when powder is selected, let me know if you are interested. Also, if you think I can in someway help you resolve this just let me know. Thanks, Amit
Yes, yes! I'd like to see this bug in action. Send a PNG that I don't loose a single pixel and the colorscheme if it's not one of those I provide. Maybe I'll understand what's going on. And, is Powder the only windec that mis-behaves? Please, try all windecs available on your system and make a list of those which work and those which don't. That would be very helpful for me to compare their sources. We're gonna crush that bug! ;-)
I just updated my KDE to 3.5 RC1 and Powder keeps on working without a glitch. The sources don't even need to be patched to make them under the new KDE. (I'm happy.) ;-)
This is really the one überalles window decoration. I recommend it.
Hi! I really like this. I do, anyway, have one simple request; it would be nice if 'make distclean' was run before you made the tarball for all of us.
pusling@pusling:~$ tar xjf 29935-powder-0.6.tar.bz2
pusling@pusling:~$ cp -a powder-0.6/ powder-0.6.orig
pusling@pusling:~$ cd powder-0.6
pusling@pusling:~/powder-0.6$ make distclean
[snip output]
pusling@pusling:~/powder-0.6$ cd ..
pusling@pusling:~$ diff powder-0.6 powder-0.6.orig/ Only in powder-0.6.orig/: Makefile
Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/admin and powder-0.6.orig/admin
Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/autom4te.cache and powder-0.6.orig/autom4te.cache
Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/colorscheme and powder-0.6.orig/colorscheme
Only in powder-0.6.orig/: config.h
Only in powder-0.6.orig/: config.log
Only in powder-0.6.orig/: config.status
Only in powder-0.6.orig/: libtool
Common subdirectories: powder-0.6/powderclient and< powder-0.6.orig/powderclient
Only in powder-0.6.orig/: stamp-h1
Thank you!
I just discovered "distclean" no so long ago but I didn't know what it was for. ;-) I used to only do "make clean" before to make an archive but I'll clean my mess for the next time. I promise.
I found just a little bug, I'm running a opensuse 10.1 alpha 1 version, I've the kde 3.5 beta 2 installed. For my tv (on XawTV) I'm used to remove the window border, to have just the screen above all the other windows, I keep it quite little. If I do this, KDE crash, and every border disappear! Can you fix this? THANKS, for this really best theme!
Well, I can't reproduce this bug. On my SuSE 10.0 with KDE 3.4.3, I can remove the decoration from any window whether they are fullscreen or not, do anything I want with the ALT+F3 menu and my KDE keeps on working. I don't know where it comes from but because of my bad experiences with KDE 3.5b2, I'd say it's the culprit. I've "tortured" my windec engine more than you can imagine for years and I've never seen it bring any KDE in its fall. So, I don't know in which direction I could look for a bug. Did you re-build it for KDE 3.5? (Just a stupid idea that came to my mind.) I spent more time downgrading KDE 3.5b2 back to 3.4.3 than using it and I don't remember how my windec worked, if it ever worked.
It's a problem that affect even some other theme, not often like yours, but I think it's related with a KDE 3.5 bug. I definetely don't know exactly
Great to see the "doubleclick close" integrated into Powder !!! :) I've seen another feature in a windeco that allowed you to move the mouse to the farest top-right and then be able to close the window (actually hitting the regular close icon, as this was moved more top-right than currently). I've seen this implemented in a livecd with kde 3.5beta2 announced on dot.kde.org. It might have been "Klax", but i'm not sure.
Your deco is awesome! But, there's one thing that annoys me: maximized windows do _not_ have round corners. Perhaps this is meant as a feature, but for me this is a bug. Could you add an option for changing this behaviour?
LOL! I did it on purpose, thinking that somebody would complain that the window doesn't fill the screen when maximized. And look what I get: Somebody complains that the corners don't remain round. :-) (I amused by very little things...) Any way, that's possible and very easy but I need to re-work the config dialog. The preview is already so small. I can't add another option or it will be reduces to a single line. Well, since I got too many problems with the mousewheel, I'll give up on it and add "your" option. Now I have some more serious reasons to release a new version. ;-)
Now its much better! Thank you. :)
I really like your windeco. Its on by default here on my installation now :) Could you maybe add a "Doubleclick Menu icon to close window"-option like Plastik has ?
I don't use double-click but that shouldn't be a problem to add this feature. I will cut and paste from Plastik sources. Happy GPL world! ;-) (Long pause...) I cut and pasted from Crystal sources --which happened to be already unzipped-- and I already added the double-click closure... but the menu appears in between the 2 clicks. Not good! I'll fix this "feature" for the beginning of next week. (My schedule agrees.)
Sweet, Thanks! BTW: I have no problem with the menu flashing while doing the "doubleclick close" !
Apparently, nobody should mind. All the windecs that I checked and that allow the double click closure "suffer" from the same problem. I don't like that but I will provide the feature. I'll try to find a fix for a later version. My attempts have been unsuccessful so far. If I have the time, I intend to include the mousewheel-driven window switcher too --if somebody sees what I mean.
...it's just too bad that we won't get smaller title bars :-(
You again? ;-) (I just replied to your message in the poll section.) Once for all: The titlebar isn't that big. A very classic windec like Plastik has a 28-pixel high titlebar while Powder uses 30 pixels. And I promise that I won't answer any more to anyone who says that the title bar is too big. ;-) (Don't take what I say too seriously, I just need a punching-ball after a lot of frustrations with KDE 3.5. I had to choose in between you and Profus and his heretic idea of erasing my wonderful colorschemes.) ;-)