techywarrior 688 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Ebr, this is pretty minor but thought I'd mention it in case it's something you would do, and can slip into a future release. In MBC Settings there is a "tab" for General, View Options, etc. Those are all relevant no matter what theme is being loaded. If I load a theme other then Chocolate then that theme gets a settings tab as well. So far so good. How come Chocolate gets two tabs regardless of if it's loaded as the default theme or not? Since a restart of MBC is required to change themes shouldn't those two Chocolate specific setting tabs only show up when Chocolate is the theme? Is there an actual reason for this behavior? If not, and it's just there because you hard coded them into MBC instead of adding them in the Chocolate DLL, could you change it so it is the same as all the other themes? I think it's slightly confusing to new users if they have a different theme loaded, and basically just takes up space in the menu unless you are using Chocolate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianW 1053 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 I think the tabs appear when you have themes installed whether they're in use or not. So, if you have five themes installed, you could have five additional tabs showing, even though you're only currently using one theme. If you uninstall chocolate (if that's even possible), then I'd expect those tabs to disappear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 Hm, maybe it's a larger issue then I realized. If that's true (that just having them installed adds the tab) then I think it should be looked at more seriously. It will get crazy if you install lots of themes. And if you need to restart MBC anyways then it doesn't seem to make sense. Will wait for Ebr to chime in and see what he thinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redshirt 1487 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Themes and plugins can both add tabs. They can also add more than one tab. Once the tabs are added there's no way to know what theme or plugin added them. When it was first designed that way I don't think the gang was expecting so many tabs to be added. If ebr was to refactor that code it may not be backwards compatible with current themes and then we run into the problem again of devs that have left and aren't maintaining their code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 Not sure that makes total sense Red. If the DLL is deleted the tab goes away so there must be some knowledge as to what goes with what. If it would need dev changes then it may be a good idea to do soon (since most/all of the current plugins/themes are currently supported by their devs). Also, there have been other breaking changes so I don't think that would be a deal breaker if required (but obviously not my decision ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14930 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 I've tried very hard to not make any breaking changes - as long as the themes are using standard practices. However, you are mistaken about theme switching - you can switch themes on the fly. There is no need to re-start MBC to switch themes. Also, Red is right - there is currently no way to associate a config panel with any plug-in or theme. Changing that would break all themes so it simply isn't worth it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 Ok, not worth breaking anything obviously. Was hoping it would be something simple but clearly it isn't. If there is no association between the dll and the tab how can it remove the tab on uninstall? Do you think this could lead to problems in the future tho? Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesegeezer 3087 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 However, you are mistaken about theme switching - you can switch themes on the fly. There is no need to re-start MBC to switch themes @@techywarrior The above statements that red and ebr mentioned are true, but to enlighten you, all plugins and themes are loaded when mbc is launched. If you install or uninstall and mbc theme or plugin that is when you require a restart because it checks for dll's at time of launch and is never checked again until the next restart. I think it would require a lot of work from ebr to get it to check yet another config file to see what themes you are using currently for very little gains(basically tidying up an interface that is only occassionally used) if we start changing it now there will be a lot of confusion introduced i feel. My opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14930 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 If there is no association between the dll and the tab how can it remove the tab on uninstall? Because the dll is what adds the config panel. Do you think this could lead to problems in the future tho? What problems? It has been this way since plug-ins were introduced to MB in like 2.1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 Well, you can end up with a lot of tabs in the config and then people may get confused why they change a setting and nothing happens. I'm just thinking of new users who try out a bunch of different themes or plugins and now have like 20 tabs to navigate thru with a remote. It may be too late but it doesn't seem like the best system organizationally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maleficarum 68 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Personally I would have each theme save its config in a file with its dll and then have a theme options tab that exposes only the options of the selected theme. This would make things a lot cleaner. But if we're to far in to make that change that's OK. Sent from my C1505 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14930 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Personally I would have each theme save its config in a file with its dll and then have a theme options tab that exposes only the options of the selected theme. This would make things a lot cleaner. But if we're to far in to make that change that's OK. Sent from my C1505 using Tapatalk Themes have the ability to do this if they wish and some do. I think ST's more recent themes all manage their config items themselves instead of within the generic config pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 Yes, Square has a config file for per user color settings and some other items. Haha, that also happened because I "complained"/suggested that the settings for my GF was overwriting my settings each time one of us switched colors in Square Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maleficarum 68 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 What I meant was there would be a single tab in the configuratior that would expose the settings held in the config rather than a tab per theme it just seems overkill to expose all themes options at once Sent from my C1505 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14930 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 One people settle in to actually using their systems there should only be one or two themes installed. Which is why I think this hasn't been a huge issue for most people. When you said "configurator" did you actually mean the config pages in MBC? The configurator is being phased out for most things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesegeezer 3087 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 (edited) Yes, Square has a config file for per user color settings and some other items. Haha, that also happened because I "complained"/suggested that the settings for my GF was overwriting my settings each time one of us switched colors in Square What I meant was there would be a single tab in the configuratior that would expose the settings held in the config rather than a tab per theme it just seems overkill to expose all themes options at once Sent from my C1505 using Tapatalk Ok, lets just settle this.. All themes have their own config page in the main mbc config... Install subdued and you'll see why!! (There's 3 pages) So much stuff for the user to config from that page. Install Xenon and you'll see how little, most of the theme is controlled by the folder(view) settings and even thats reduced. Its a fact and ebr does so much for MBC, i feel its unfair to ask him to rejig the whole plugin config section to suit a few minor requirements, plus put that on active theme devs. Edited July 4, 2014 by Cheesegeezer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 7, 2014 Author Share Posted July 7, 2014 Yea, it sounds like it may be too late for this to change. Ebr, if/when plugins get flags for the type they are (theme vs. plugin) could maybe all themes just be in a "theme" tab and then each theme would have the tabs they have now? Is that just as big of a change or is that simpler? Would be cool if the current theme could be marked in some way too (like with an asterix or color). It was just an organizational suggestion so it's not the end of the world if it can't be done. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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