Alloy is the new default look and view?

I've noticed that the IDEA look and feel is now annotated as "4.5 Default", not just "default". Hmmm.. if you ask me, that's a move in the right direction, but how about providing an alloy theme selector, or better yet, an alloy theme that (tries to) match the user's platform colors?

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"Look and View" was a nice typo too. I'm getting better at this every passing day...

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I can't get fond of a L&F that causes more screen real estate waste than
another - Alloy makes my current setup of 10 open files to occupy 2
lines of tabs instead of 1, where on the bottom line the tabs are
stretched to occupy the full width, which is very ugly IMO.

I am sticking to the Windows L&F for now (I wish the Run/Debug
configurations would finally become a pulldown combo box/select box
instead of a button already).

Amnon

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I just wish Sun could fix the Windows L&F. Combo boxes have a stupid white area around them if you use anything but the default or classic visual style -- and yes, I do use visual styles other than the ones provided by Microsoft. If all applications manage to show the widgets in the correct style, why can't java application do the same?

The good news is that SWT manages to do even worse on that area. Even if you use the default visual style, it won't style the buttons and will get just the color scheme and keep the square buttons. +1 for swing on native integration, for a change :)

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I believe this issue is fixed in Java 5.0. And in Java 6.0 ("Mustang"), all
GUI in the Windows L&F and GTK L&F will be rendered using native calls into
Windows and GTK, respectively.

I just wish Sun could fix the Windows L&F. Combo boxes have a stupid
white area around them if you use anything but the default or classic
visual style -- and yes, I do use visual styles other than the ones
provided by Microsoft. If all applications manage to show the widgets
in the correct style, why can't java application do the same?

The good news is that SWT manages to do even worse on that area. Even
if you use the default visual style, it won't style the buttons and
will get just the color scheme and keep the square buttons. +1 for
swing on native integration, for a change :)



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I believe this issue is fixed in Java 5.0. And in
Java 6.0 ("Mustang"), all
GUI in the Windows L&F and GTK L&F will be rendered
using native calls into
Windows and GTK, respectively.


Unfortunately this specific issue isn't solved, not even in the latest Mustang snapshot. Everything looks great, except for combo boxes, that get a hideous border around them.

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Agreed on both counts.

That alloy look scared me. IDEA used to be so "pretty". My first thought
was "awww....damn...I gotta stare at this all day?". Then I realized I
can change it. I'm back to IDEA 4.5 default L&F. Simple, but elegant.


"Amnon I. Govrin" <nomail@jetbrains.com> wrote in message
news:ct35q7$p95$1@is.intellij.net...

I can't get fond of a L&F that causes more screen real estate waste than
another - Alloy makes my current setup of 10 open files to occupy 2
lines of tabs instead of 1, where on the bottom line the tabs are
stretched to occupy the full width, which is very ugly IMO.

>

I am sticking to the Windows L&F for now (I wish the Run/Debug
configurations would finally become a pulldown combo box/select box
instead of a button already).

>

Amnon



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My problem is that the default color scheme of Alloy is too bright. I
personally prefer to have the UI elements like buttons and borders
darker, so I can focus on the text. On this note, it could be ok if we
can get Alloy scheme matching the desktop color settings.

Another thing is that I prefer the trees to use nice "plus/minus in
square" icons instead of "twisties".

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See http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=39206 for the
tree icons.

dimitar wrote:

My problem is that the default color scheme of Alloy is too bright. I
personally prefer to have the UI elements like buttons and borders
darker, so I can focus on the text. On this note, it could be ok if we
can get Alloy scheme matching the desktop color settings.

Another thing is that I prefer the trees to use nice "plus/minus in
square" icons instead of "twisties".


--
Martin Fuhrer
Fuhrer Engineering AG
http://www.fuhrer.com

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For me, Alloy has too much contrast. It has a nice background color, but the
bold black stuff is hurting my eyes. Everything else looks sweet, although I
must admit, that I also switched back to IDEA's default l'n'f.

Tom

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I had a NPE with Alloy L&F exactly over the "Run" Menu, hence switched back to Default.

And Yes, the NPE is gone!

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I'm confused, what has the NPE to do with the high contrast and the ugly
bold font?

Tom

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Thomas,

I was forced to switch back to Idea's default L&F for not so obvious reasons (NPE). Thought I would share my wierd experience with 3185 Alloy L&F :)

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Martin Fuhrer wrote:

See http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=39206 for the
tree icons.


I was able to achieve the trick by a simple plugin, and also tried to
implement native colors skin, but I don't know how to get IDEA to
refresh the widgets. What I do is to go to settings, uncheck "override
fonts", hit "apply" and then check it again.

screenshots:
http://schizogenesis.com/temp/duralumin-1.png
http://schizogenesis.com/temp/duralumin-2.png

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