Skinning WAS Change the Green Online Icon to an Icon reflecting the IM Protocol?

[Luke Schierer]

On Thu, Oct 11, 2007 at 08:58:48AM -0500, Chris Forsythe wrote:
> Billy Crook wrote:
> > I dont think they want the confusion that 20 different skins would 
> > bring in.  If idiots are trusted to make skins, they will fuck parts 
> > up, and give pidgin a bad image.
> I would disagree with this. Customizations is one of the cornerstones of 
> why a lot of users like Adium. In my opinion they feel a sense of pride 
> and ownership in the product, since they can make it "their own".
> 
> If you provide the tools to do this, then the concern about skins 
> reflecting a poor image of Pidgin can be decreased significantly, imho.
> 
> Anyhow, take a look for yourself: http://adiumxtras.com/
> 
> Chris

Looking at these, I'm seeing things that change colors, graphics, and
then apple scripts.  I'm assuming these last are more or less like perl
plugins, but in apple script instead of perl.

Not covering the apple scripts, the range of modification I'm seeing
here appears to be (roughly) on line with what a gtk theme can do.  THIS
IS NOT SKINNING.  This is theming.  I'll quote from the faq entry:

"Themes allow you to change font size, font face, the color of different
elements of the UI, and sometimes their shape. All of this is perfectly
reasonable, and encompasses the range of configuration that most users
are requesting. Skins go beyond this. Skins allow you to move and
possibly suppress different elements of the UI that the programmers have
added for specific reasons."

Understand, no one from Pidgin is arguing against themes.  I'd even be
willing to support something that goes further than Etan's gtkrc
generating plugin.  What I do not, and will not, support is skins, as
defined above.  I've seen this, in winamp and in other win32
applications.  I do not like the results.  I do not like them from a
support standpoint, and I do not like them from a usability standpoint.

luke