Finally I can finish my half made ugly theme that has been sitting unfinished while I put off learning wtf an SVG is

@cm0002 I like that web technologies are becoming part of desktop UI i guess in theory. I just think the idea of an editor reliably extensible using the same language or markup im working on, running on an environment also customizable in that same language seems like a powerful paradigm

While I think it’s only sensible to unify the increasing number of separate ways of styling on a desktop, I am fearful of what that will mean for my ability to style things, not just according to my taste, but even more so according to what enables me.

My eyes, and especially, my brain, are quite sensitive to a variety of visual design trends in GUIs, and the trends that are currently in vogue are much more disabling for me than any other period I can recall, between the mid-90’s and now. The difference between a good and a bad style and palette can mean having a pleasant all-day computer session, still being able to get up, feeling right as rain at the end of it, or it can mean that mental fatigue sets in after 20-30 minutes, killing both my productivity and my mood, requiring me to take breaks before I can even really get started, as well as simply having to end the session after just a short amount of time computing, and/or taking with me only a buzzing in my head, feeling frustrated, drained and worn out, and being fit for nothing but lying down.

I was originally under the impression, or at least hoping, that Union would be able to take an existing style as input, and then spit out and apply a unified, actually coherent style for both QtWidgets and QtQuick2, though I did have a feeling that that would be unlikely. It makes a lot of sense to make Union CSS-based, but that also sounds like a completely fresh start, making all previous themes from all previous styles and engines obsolete. That’s a natural course, of course, but also an incredibly hard reset, when you’re reliant on certain visuals from specific styles or themes you’ve found or creates.

I understand that Union, when introduced, will coexist with the current way of theming, as an alternative rather than an immediate replacement. That’s good, of course. And then I have nothing to worry about, right? That’s wishful thinking. It’s not hard to imagine that apps of the future will be designed with Union-theming in mind, and will be susceptible to an increasing amount of bugs if you try to style it through other means, perhaps eventually not being able to be styled at all without Union. Something else, and even more likely, is that the great people and volunteers at KDE will eventually reach a point where having both an old and a new style engine will just look like twice the amount of work - which it is. Bugs are still going to surface in the old, especially as other software increasingly changes. Eventually it won’t be worth it to spend all that time maintaining a redundant style engine, and it will become unmaintained and abandoned.

That is the fate of all software, of course, but I am afraid Union won’t be able to be anywhere close to an equivalent replacement in terms of my needs. The default style (and presumably only style for a good while to come) looks perfectly nice and well done, according to current trends and tastes - but it looks rather the opposite of what I need. Other, custom themes are likely to be created, but for a while they are most likely to be modifications of the default theme, following most of the same design trends, rather than completely new themes, with their own unique direction. Even when new themes are created from scratch, they’re still overwhelmingly likely to follow the design trends of this day and age, by virtue of being made in this day and age, where they are in.

It wouldn’t be so bad, except… CSS. Yes, CSS is the logical, smart, efficient technology to use, if you’re making a style engine today. I can only speak for myself, of course, but the problem with CSS is that it is comparatively hard for a layman to jump into, and really make something that realises your vision, or even just works. For me it is, at least. I find working with SVG’s so much more easy and accessible, perhaps because the process is very visual, and there is a strong visual correlation between what something looks like on the working table, and what it looks like when deployed. It has allowed me to make modifications and customisations to every part of my desktop’s theming, including creating my own aurorae theme from scratch - all of which has, for me, increased the usability of my computer a lot. I doubt I could do anywhere close to as much, if I had been working with CSS instead.

Sorry for the long rant!