Converting Older Window Maker Themes
 by TKO, in Themes - Sat, Jul 24th 2004 00:00 PDT

The successful conversion of an older theme to the current scheme can be done quickly and easily, with just a little leg work.

First, some background on Window Maker theming:

When Window Maker was at release 0.52 and earlier, the themes consisted of files scattered in subdirectories under the ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker directory. With the release level of 0.60 and higher, the themes were unified under the directory ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes. Each theme was organized under a subdirectory called "[theme name].themed". For example, the files of a theme called Snoopy will be found under the directory ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes/Snoopy.themed.

Luckily, there are tools available which make it easy to convert a theme from the old system to the new.

For the purposes of this article, I downloaded an older theme named "Nocturne" from themes.freshmeat.net. A quick dump of the tar file reveals the file distribution:

$ tar -tzvf ~/nocturne-0.52.tar.gz
Nocturne.lsm
Pixmaps/
Pixmaps/FTitle.Nocturne.jpg
Pixmaps/MenuText.Nocturne.jpg
Pixmaps/Tile.Nocturne.jpg
Pixmaps/UTitle.Nocturne.jpg
Backgrounds/
Backgrounds/Nocturne.jpg
Themes/
Themes/Nocturne 

The file Themes/Nocturne defines the "style" of the theme.

How to Convert Themes

Step 1

Unpack the target theme in the ~/GNUStep/Library/WindowMaker directory.

Example:

$ cd ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker
$ tar -xzvf ~/nocturne-0.52.tar.gz

Step 2

Move the Themes/[themename] file up one directory.

Example:

$ mv Themes/Nocturne .

Step 3

Use the setstyle command to set the theme's style, based on the enclosed style file. Conversion to the current scheme is done automatically.

Example:

 
$ setstyle ./Nocturne

Step 4

Lastly, change directory to the Themes subdirectory (~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes) and repackage the theme using the getstyle command. Ignore any error messages which might occur; they are irrelevant. Note that you may want to clean the subdirectories afterward.

Example:

 
$ cd Themes
$ getstyle -p Nocturne

That's all there is to it! So don't give up on the whole rich history of Window Maker themes; you can use any old theme you like with just a minute's work. Enjoy!

Author's bio:

TKO has been creating themes since KDE2 came out (back when www.themes.org was the place to get themes). A problem with themes back then was the grabbing of material from a Web site and creating a theme without getting permission from the copyright owners, so he learned how to create his own Computer Generated Images (CGI) and strives to create unique images as material for themes. He currently creates Window Maker themes. He uses Linux and run Windows 98 as a task under Linux via Win4Lin.

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Referenced categories Topic :: Desktop Environment :: Window Managers :: Window Maker :: Themes Topic :: Desktop Environment :: Window Managers :: Window Maker :: Themes :: <= v0.52

Referenced projects Window Maker - An X11 window manager with a NEXTSTEP look and feel.

 Comments

[»] Thank you
by Demi - Jan 1st 2006 23:23:39

you saved my more than 300 old themes. Thank you! Thank you!

--
Keylogger killed my marriage, but saved my life

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[»] Uh
by Henrik - Sep 14th 2004 06:56:48

Thanks, didn't know it is that easy

Henrik
ja-gut-aeh-ich-sag-mal.com

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