Mailing List Archive

Blue Abstract modifications
Hi guys (& girls),

I've done some slight modifications to the Blue Abstract theme, which
I really like (and personally would prefer to have as the default
theme in MythTV, but this is a slightly different story for now...).

The modifications are mostly related to the spacing allowed for
channel number & callsign. The reason for this is that the default
space in the theme is far too limited for the channels on my orbital
positions (DVB-S using 0.8W and 4.8E or something like that). Channels
like "Gospel Channel Europ", "BBC World News" and "Visjon Norge" just
won't make the cut with the default spacing, and the default
(provided) channel numbers are pretty high as well, in the 4000 range.

So, here you go. This patch is made, as the name implies, towards the
2010.11.25 release of the theme. Hopefully, I would like these changes
to be merged upstream - Robert, what do you think about this? For now,
I'll just make them publicly available like this; use patch -p0 <
name-of-the-diff-file to apply it (but make sure you have a backup of
the theme first, in case you want to undo the changes).

Enjoy.
--
Best regards,
Per Lundberg
Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On 7 December 2010 09:18, Per Lundberg <perlun@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi guys (& girls),
>
> I've done some slight modifications to the Blue Abstract theme, which
> I really like (and personally would prefer to have as the default
> theme in MythTV, but this is a slightly different story for now...).

Also my favourite theme by far.. but I've tweaked the background
image, added cover art to recordings, and merged in the mythbuntu
theme menu graphics.

screen shots
http://db.tt/LsCKAOA

Jason Taylor

--
"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely
pointless. " - Calven
http://soyuz5.blogspot.com
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 10:45 PM, Jason Taylor <killerkiwi2005@gmail.com> wrote:

> Also my favourite theme by far.. but I've tweaked the background
> image, added cover art to recordings, and merged in the mythbuntu
> theme menu graphics.
>
> screen shots
> http://db.tt/LsCKAOA

Nice looking! Do you intend to release this theme to the public?

Some more "great looking" themes, preferably in the default setting of
mythtv themes (or equally easily available using the theme downloader)
would be really, really nice...
--
Best regards,
Per Lundberg
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On 7 December 2010 10:48, Per Lundberg <perlun@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 10:45 PM, Jason Taylor <killerkiwi2005@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Also my favourite theme by far.. but I've tweaked the background
>> image, added cover art to recordings, and merged in the mythbuntu
>> theme menu graphics.
>>
>> screen shots
>> http://db.tt/LsCKAOA
>
> Nice looking! Do you intend to release this theme to the public?

I'd release what I have.. I don't have time to make it a complete
theme I mostly just tweak the areas we use most based on my wife's "I
cant read that" / "its too confusing" comments

> Some more "great looking" themes, preferably in the default setting of
> mythtv themes (or equally easily available using the theme downloader)
> would be really, really nice...
> --
> Best regards,
> Per Lundberg
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-theming mailing list
> mythtv-theming@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming
>



--
"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely
pointless. " - Calven
http://soyuz5.blogspot.com
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 18:48, Jason Taylor <killerkiwi2005@gmail.com>wrote:

> > I'd release what I have.. I don't have time to make it a complete
> > theme I mostly just tweak the areas we use most based on my wife's "I
> > cant read that" / "its too confusing" comments
>

I've been tweaking the default 10.04 mythbuntu theme under the same
impetus. Little things, like making the light gray "selected" background a
light violet so it stands out more, and not-so-little things like completely
rearranging the mythvideo tree view, and reorganizing the menus.
Unfortunately, also like you, so far I have only touched the screens we use
the most... I hadn't thought to post pics or thought about if it would be
proper to redistribute a modified/tweaked theme, is that fair game? I was
thinking I would have to make some serious changes in order to distribute
them.
Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 5:27 AM, Miststlkr <miststlkr@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've been tweaking the default 10.04 mythbuntu theme under the same
> impetus.  Little things, like making the light gray "selected" background a
> light violet so it stands out more, and not-so-little things like completely
> rearranging the mythvideo tree view, and reorganizing the menus.
> Unfortunately, also like you, so far I have only touched the screens we use
> the most... I hadn't thought to post pics or thought about if it would be
> proper to redistribute a modified/tweaked theme, is that fair game?  I was
> thinking I would have to make some serious changes in order to distribute
> them.

This brings up an incredibly important issue: licensing for themes...

As far as I know, there isn't any "official" license for the Blue
Abstract theme (Please, correct me if I'm wrong). This means a couple
of things:

- Including the theme in the "main" MythTV distribution will not be possible.
- Making derivative themes will be a "gray zone". Yes, of course we
can do whatever we like on our own machines, but can we distribute
such changes?

I would say that the GNU GPL and perhaps also the Creative Commons
licenses do a great job in defining these aspects of the accepted use
of a piece of work. Thus, it would be really, *really* nice if we
could get official license terms for each theme. It makes the rules
much more explicit for everyone.

GNU GPL is very liberal on these issues: you may make as many derivate
works as you like, as long as you license these works under the terms
of the GNU GPL. The BSD and MIT licenses are even more permissive.
Still, I think I would encourage the use of more "copyleft"-ish
licenses for these themes; if not for anything else, for the simple
fact that it encourages derivate works, and it makes the rules very
clear. Even if an original author leaves the project, for one reason
or another, someone else can always (if they like ) continue the work,
make updated versions and so forth.

BSD and MIT are a bit "too" liberal in this sense, because you risk
having the "most popular" version of the theme be a derived work,
licensed under a more strict license... and there your freedom went,
down the drain...
--
Best regards,
Per Lundberg
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Per Lundberg <perlun@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 5:27 AM, Miststlkr <miststlkr@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've been tweaking the default 10.04 mythbuntu theme under the same
>> impetus.  Little things, like making the light gray "selected" background a
>> light violet so it stands out more, and not-so-little things like completely
>> rearranging the mythvideo tree view, and reorganizing the menus.
>> Unfortunately, also like you, so far I have only touched the screens we use
>> the most... I hadn't thought to post pics or thought about if it would be
>> proper to redistribute a modified/tweaked theme, is that fair game?  I was
>> thinking I would have to make some serious changes in order to distribute
>> them.
>
> This brings up an incredibly important issue: licensing for themes...
>
> As far as I know, there isn't any "official" license for the Blue
> Abstract theme (Please, correct me if I'm wrong). This means a couple
> of things:

Blue Abstract is derived from a GPLv2 work.

Robert
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 9:43 PM, Robert McNamara
<robert.mcnamara@gmail.com> wrote:

>> As far as I know, there isn't any "official" license for the Blue
>> Abstract theme (Please, correct me if I'm wrong). This means a couple
>> of things:
> Blue Abstract is derived from a GPLv2 work.

OK, thanks for the clarification. This means that it (Blue Abstract)
is also GPLv2, even though it isn't explicitly stated - which is good,
a step in the right direction.

It seems like Robert Siebert hosts the miroku.no-ip.com from which the
theme can be downloaded. Robert, do you copy? Could you include a
notice in further updates of the theme indicating more clearly that it
is released as free software under the GPLv2, just so it gets more
obvious?

Also, feel free to include my patches (previously posted to this ML)
if you like. There are other related patches that should be done to
make the theme (IMO) more useful; like the OSD that gets displayed
when you switch to a channel, the room for the callsign there is far
too small for my needs. Still, my patch is still an improvement to the
original version.
--
Best regards,
Per Lundberg
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Thu, 9 Dec 2010 22:02:55 +0200, Per Lundberg wrote:

> On Thu,
Dec 9, 2010 at 9:43 PM, Robert McNamara
> wrote:
>
>>> As far as I
know, there isn't any "official" license for the Blue
>>> Abstract theme
(Please, correct me if I'm wrong). This means a couple
>>> of things:
>>
Blue Abstract is derived from a GPLv2 work.
>
> OK, thanks for the
clarification. This means that it (Blue Abstract)
> is also GPLv2, even
though it isn't explicitly stated - which is good,
> a step in the right
direction.
>
> It seems like Robert Siebert hosts the miroku.no-ip.com
from which the
> theme can be downloaded. Robert, do you copy? Could you
include a
> notice in further updates of the theme indicating more
clearly that it
> is released as free software under the GPLv2, just so
it gets more
> obvious?
>
> Also, feel free to include my patches
(previously posted to this ML)
> if you like. There are other related
patches that should be done to
> make the theme (IMO) more useful; like
the OSD that gets displayed
> when you switch to a channel, the room for
the callsign there is far
> too small for my needs. Still, my patch is
still an improvement to the
> original version.
> --
> Best regards,
>
Per Lundberg
> _______________________________________________
>
mythtv-theming mailing list
> mythtv-theming@mythtv.org [2]
>
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming [3]

Hi Per,


I just have read you mail with the patches. I definately look into
those and see what I can incorporate. I also add the information to the
wiki site and to the theme that it is released under GPL2.

Best
regards

Robert Siebert



Links:
------
[1]
mailto:robert.mcnamara@gmail.com
[2]
mailto:mythtv-theming@mythtv.org
[3]
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming
Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Robert Siebert <trebor_s@web.de> wrote:
>
> Hi Per,
>
> I just have read you mail with the patches. I definately look into those and
> see what I can incorporate. I also add the information to the wiki site and
> to the theme that it is released under GPL2.
>
> Best regards
>
> Robert Siebert
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-theming mailing list
> mythtv-theming@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming
>
>

That would be great if you did! The call sign / number spacing is
definitely needed. It used to cut off most the channel numbers but
the patch fixed that right up.

Thanks for everyone's great work!
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 11:14 PM, Neil Salstrom <salstrom@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Neil,

> That would be great if you did!  The call sign / number spacing is
> definitely needed.  It used to cut off most the channel numbers but
> the patch fixed that right up.

Hey, that's great Neil - it's always nice to see that someone else has
found the stuff that you worked with useful. :-) Thanks!

There were some remaining issues with my patch (at least for me
locally, it looked a bit weird in the program guide; the vertical
rulers were not in the right place). These issues have been fixed, the
result is attached to this email (as a diff to the 2010.11.25 version
of the file; i.e. my previous changes are also included here).

There was also some issues with the OSD, but here I would need some
help from someone else I think... The default space for the clock (in
the upper right corner) is much too small for it to fit. I don't know
if the aspect ratio affects this somehow (some channels I watch are
4:3, whereas others are 16:9). I tried adding more space, but it
seemed like a huge amount of space is needed (like, 300 pixels more
than before...). Right now, the clock is displayed as "Sun 12 Dec,
0:06" (which is my short date format + time format). Perhaps
displaying the date is a bit overkill there, can it be tweaked
somehow?

If not, we can make the clock display significantly wider, but the
problem is that it tends to overlap the input source display (which I
see whenever I start live TV, I think that might be configurable) if
you make it 300 pixels bigger (and the time is still wrapped, so it's
more like 330 pixels or something like that is needful).
--
Best regards,
Per Lundberg
Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:10:44 +0200, Per Lundberg wrote:

> On Sat,
Dec 11, 2010 at 11:14 PM, Neil Salstrom wrote:
>
> Hi Neil,
>
>> That
would be great if you did! The call sign / number spacing is
>>
definitely needed. It used to cut off most the channel numbers but
>>
the patch fixed that right up.
>
> Hey, that's great Neil - it's always
nice to see that someone else has
> found the stuff that you worked with
useful. :-) Thanks!
>
> There were some remaining issues with my patch
(at least for me
> locally, it looked a bit weird in the program guide;
the vertical
> rulers were not in the right place). These issues have
been fixed, the
> result is attached to this email (as a diff to the
2010.11.25 version
> of the file; i.e. my previous changes are also
included here).
>
> There was also some issues with the OSD, but here I
would need some
> help from someone else I think... The default space
for the clock (in
> the upper right corner) is much too small for it to
fit. I don't know
> if the aspect ratio affects this somehow (some
channels I watch are
> 4:3, whereas others are 16:9). I tried adding
more space, but it
> seemed like a huge amount of space is needed (like,
300 pixels more
> than before...). Right now, the clock is displayed as
"Sun 12 Dec,
> 0:06" (which is my short date format + time format).
Perhaps
> displaying the date is a bit overkill there, can it be
tweaked
> somehow?
>
> If not, we can make the clock display
significantly wider, but the
> problem is that it tends to overlap the
input source display (which I
> see whenever I start live TV, I think
that might be configurable) if
> you make it 300 pixels bigger (and the
time is still wrapped, so it's
> more like 330 pixels or something like
that is needful).
> --
> Best regards,
> Per Lundberg

Hi Per,

I have
released a new version of the theme. See
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Blue_Abstract_Theme. It has undergone many
changes.

I have also widened the channel name display in the program
listing screen. Not as wide as in your patch, because the channel names
in germany are not as long and I prefer to see more epg data. Maybe it
suits you. I will update the OSD screens in the next version to be
aligned with the current themed screens.

Best regards


Robert

Links:
------
[1] mailto:salstrom@gmail.com
Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 7:24 AM, Robert Siebert <trebor_s@web.de> wrote:
> I have released a new version of the theme. See
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Blue_Abstract_Theme. It has undergone many
> changes.
>
> I have also widened the channel name display in the program listing screen.
> Not as wide as in your patch, because the channel names in germany are not
> as long and I prefer to see more epg data. Maybe it suits you. I will update
> the OSD screens in the next version to be aligned with the current themed
> screens.
>
> Best regards
>
> Robert
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-theming mailing list
> mythtv-theming@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming
>
>

Excellent.... I noticed that it is stated this was updated for trunk.
Does it break anything for 0.24? I've not given it a try yet but
will this afternoon.

Thanks,

Neil
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Re: Blue Abstract modifications [ In reply to ]
On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 09:59:28 -0800, Neil Salstrom wrote:

> On Wed,
Jan 5, 2011 at 7:24 AM, Robert Siebert wrote:
>> I have released a new
version of the theme. See
>>
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Blue_Abstract_Theme. [1] It has undergone
many
>> changes.
>>
>> I have also widened the channel name display in
the program listing screen.
>> Not as wide as in your patch, because the
channel names in germany are not
>> as long and I prefer to see more epg
data. Maybe it suits you. I will update
>> the OSD screens in the next
version to be aligned with the current themed
>> screens.
>>
>> Best
regards
>>
>> Robert
>>
>>
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mailing list
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>>
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>
>
Excellent.... I noticed that it is stated this was updated for trunk.
>
Does it break anything for 0.24? I've not given it a try yet but
> will
this afternoon.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Neil
>
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list
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>
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Hi Neil,


it should also work for 0.24 and 0.24.1. Tell me if something doesn't
work.

Best regards

Robert

Links:
------
[1]
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Blue_Abstract_Theme.
[2]
mailto:mythtv-theming@mythtv.org
[3]
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming
[4]
mailto:trebor_s@web.de
[5] mailto:mythtv-theming@mythtv.org
[6]
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-theming