LMMS User Interface

[Cusis]

Hello.

A couple of years ago, i designed a mock up of some UI changes to the interface.

Here is the design: http://cusis.deviantart.com/art/CUSIS-U ... -136994117

I was wandering how likely or possible it would be to get closer to that design. Or possibly able to make changes to the current UI in order to make the desired changes?

On another note, i would like to congratulate and praise the work done in these ares of the LMMS project:

LMMS website: super clean, easy to access, fast and containing all necessary information.
LMMS community: Such a vast improvement over the previous community, allowing anyone to easily access, read, and join the community. Alot more accessible.
LMMS User interface: the improvements are superb and are heading towards a vastly improved and cleaner interface.

Cusis

[Sti-Jay]

Paul never finished that implementation of your theme, unfortunately. Best theme ever!

A lot more is themable now than before. This is for example possible https://lmms.io/lsp/?action=show&file=6458 AND you can change the default colors of the (green) patterns in the Song Editor too! You can find and install themes from here https://lmms.io/lsp/?action=browse&cate ... &sort=date
Note that only the top 3 themes is completely compatible with the latest LMMS 1.1.0! To make things themable one had to break backwards compatibility.

So, many icons and colors is themable, and that is basically it. And that is perhaps enough? What I like about your theme is the different colors. Currently not possible is to theme different knobs with different colors (thinking about the circle around). Honestly I don't know what is possible and not in the last release. I know you can theme the buttons, but how much control you have I don't know. I think if you tried to make something similar to your theme now in LMMS (simply tweak the CSS file and swap out the png's) you would succeed very much.

The best thing is that if you feel something in the LMMS design should change, you could discuss it with someone and file an enhancement for it, and it is a fair chance it will be coded! So if you decide to have a go at replicating your theme through CSS and icons that would be awesome! Remember to save the source files and possibly make icons in vector format (svg) as that is the most future compatible.

If you decide to have a go at it and want to communicate with devs and others you could make an issue here https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues . There is already another issue with another theme in progress, though it hasn't been too active lately https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/880 Anyways, looking forward to a reply

[tresf]

@Cusis,

Thanks for the kind words.

As far as theming goes, I think you'll find tremendous support for this effort on our GitHub tracker. Reason being is that is where all of the developers live. It also allows Copy/Paste screenshots, syntax-aware code blocks (CSS, C++...), etc which is a big improvement over forums.

If you want to get involved in an existing effort, this thread is a good place to start:
https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/880

If you want to start building the "Cusis Theme" from scratch, a new bug report would probably be proper.

In terms of limitations (how close we can get to this), I think you will be happy with the level of development support we have now. We have some new contributors that have quickly grown familiar with the code-base, so you should get a pretty quick turnaround on the effort involved in some of the trickier pieces.

I'd rather not go into technical details here, but your theme has raised a lot of enthusiasm historically. Your warm greeting is well received.

[badosu]

Two things things need to be improved on LMMS in regards to theming:

- Selection of themes should be more familiar and easier.
- A lot of things are not themeable, e.g. notes in piano-roll

If even after this is achieved you can't implement your theme with css, we could strongly consider changing it to the default theme depending on the community's opinion. The problem with this is that it would require huge amounts of work, which is our most important asset.

The most important things for lmms developers today (that's my opinion) is to have a good reliable (no crashes or sound cracks), performant core. Also, lmms's lack of support for LV2 or DSSI is something that (in my perception) would benefit much more from work of developers right now.

So, this is why it's so difficult to improve in this area. We have so many few working on core parts of lmms that we can afford even less on appearance changes. That's why making it more themeable so we can outsource this effort is so important.

EDIT:

PS: It's not easy to develop a DAW

[musikbear]

The most important things for lmms developers today (that's my opinion) is to have a good reliable (no crashes or sound cracks), performant core. Also, lmms's lack of support for LV2 or DSSI is something that (in my perception) would benefit much more from work of developers right now.

100% agreed! and more:
imo theming is unimportant in respect to functionality!
Who like a sportscar with great paintjob, but no engine?

[Sti-Jay]

I don't know what kind of assumptions the two previous guys did, but your theme will be a great addition for the community

[badosu]

Nobody is contradicting that, I am just making a point of what needs to be done for that to become real. And why it's so difficult to push forward to it.

I would be very happy if someone could have these things fixed overnight, .

Actually those 2 points I listed are things that I wanted to fix myself, but for now I took LV2 as priority.

Just take a look at what's possible to do with LV2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtrVsC1gveA

Imagine this kind of thing embedded on LMMS, it's like VST but better.

[Sti-Jay]

I am just making a point of what needs to be done for that to become real. And why it's so difficult to push forward to it.

Yeah, but I think no one, not even Cusis, believed that LMMS would sometime look completely identical to his mockup. There are several things that can be improved. What needs to be done for this to become real is that Cusis makes an attempt at theming LMMS, and then asks for help when he need it! Nothing more

[badosu]

Yeah, but I think no one, not even Cusis, believed that LMMS would sometime look completely identical to his mockup.

Well, that's the plan . Making it so that really nice themes can be implemented, see https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/880 for reference.

There are several things that can be improved. What needs to be done for this to become real is that Cusis makes an attempt at theming LMMS, and then asks for help when he need it! Nothing more

Agreed, @Cusis if you ever try to implement this theme and needs some help we can help you at the #lmms channel on freenode: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=lmms.

We are always there but the response may take a while to come.

[Sti-Jay]

Well, that's the plan .

Yeah, but it is a difference in allowing really nice themes (which is close to being realized, that's a fact) and matching a mock up 100% It can't be much benefits in matching Cusis theme 100%, then you loose a lot of good functionality just for the sake of GUI.