Classic TB2 theme for Epyrus

[Moonchild]

I switched over to Epyrus full-time now, and adopted my preferred thunderbird theme on it.
Since it was specifically only working on the other UXP mail client before, it needed a few updates.

(Version for the alpha of Epyrus removed)
https://addons.epyrus.org/addon/classictb2-epyrus/ for the Beta version of Epyrus (2.0)

[athenian200]

Nice. This will be a good option for people who liked that look, so they can enjoy Epyrus, and I can still choose to have a different default theme. Seems like a win-win scenario. A lot of people did want me to make that the default initially, but with the add-ons site now it doesn't matter as much what the default theme is.

[Moonchild]

I did notice that the add-ons site doesn't seem to discriminate between mail and browser themes. I guess that should be looked at sometime.

[Attronarch]

Thank you!

[Lootyhoof]

I did notice that the add-ons site doesn't seem to discriminate between mail and browser themes. I guess that should be looked at sometime.

The themes on the site are actually listed as compatible with a mail client. Though I've not actually updated them specifically for Epyrus, they're only really compatible right now with Interlink still.

[Moonchild]

Ahh ok. I wasn't aware they were also mail client compatible and marked as such in the rdf. Thanks for clarifying and saving me a headscratcher XD

[Potkeny]

Thank you for the theme, I like it way more than the australis.

The "Lightning"-X-button is somewhat borked for me, did I mess up something with my settings?
It seems like it wants to show a "bigger" button, thus half of the "other state" is showing (the image is from when hovering over it, otherwise the half-X is on the other side).

[Moonchild]

Thanks, I'll have a look at it.... when I get time, sometime? XD

[Potkeny]

Luckily its not a problem which causes issues (you can click on it and it'll close it), and so far I didn't experience anything else going wrong, so take your time and/or focus on more important things

[emgee]

Thanks for the TB2 theme - I much prefer coloured buttons. However, it seems to reduce the line spacing in both folder pane and the message list, which I can't see any reason for.

[Moonchild]

However, it seems to reduce the line spacing in both folder pane and the message list, which I can't see any reason for.

It's actually by design. That was the normal, compact line spacing that was always used before people started tossing a lot of extra whitespace around everything. It's one of the major reasons I always preferred this theme, because I rely on efficient screen real estate usage in my email client.

[emgee]

I don't remember things being so close together in TB! I must be getting old, because I find it difficult to use. Any way to keep the coloured buttons and increase the line spacing slightly?

[Moonchild]

I'm working on an update for Epyrus 2.0, which will involve re-versioning it.
I do have to ask what the versioning scheme of Epyrus will be like though so I can set the min and max versions accordingly? Are 2.0.x going to be generally compatible? how about 2.0 vs. 2.1 for theming? i.e. planning to bump milestones regularly or not?

[Moonchild]

OK so there's an issue dealing with Phoebus with the dual GUID system (since themes are never considered compatible for a different GUID). This will take some time to figure something out for a proper solution.
In the meantime, other theme devs should take note that Epyrus 2.0 requires a targetApplication block with the new GUID and version, but to keep Phoebus happy in the meantime, a current thunderbird block MUST also be retained or the addons site will not accept the upload.

If you updated to Epyrus 2.0 and want ClassicTB2, use the separate URL https://addons.epyrus.org/addon/classictb2-epyrus/
I had to separate it out because of potential version conflicts (2.0 < 52.6) etc.

[athenian200]

The 1.x versions were pretty much an alpha series. With 1.x, I hadn't yet even decided what I wanted to do with version numbers in the first place, the theme wasn't finished, etc. 2.x was probably the most radical change, this was obviously a huge one as we finally got what FranklinDM was working on off his development branch and into a released version of Epyrus, not long after I finalized a decision on how I was going to handle Epyrus version numbers going forward.

That's one reason why I hadn't specifically put out an invitation to adapt themes to Epyrus yet (though I suppose I should have been a bit firmer about warning people off adapting themes to Epyrus as it stood, I wasn't sure how long this situation would go on for, and anything that provided a reprieve from Australis was essential since people apparently hate that theme). 1.3.0 wasn't really meant to happen at all, it mostly only happened because the Epyrus theme wasn't progressing quickly, and I had a lot of improvements I wanted to get out to people, including security updates, calendar fixes, crash fixes, and being able to actually download perfectly good extensions, etc. Not to mention having a new release announcement that wasn't just another post in the megathread. I was in this awkward situation where basically everything else I wanted to do was locked behind the new theme that wasn't finished yet due to that being the central improvement I had planned for the 2.x series, and I didn't want to move forward and start calling it a beta with Australis still in use. So instead, I just released another 1.x version with Australis and most of the other improvements I wanted to make.

But now that Epyrus has the new theme and my final versioning scheme in some form? I'm expecting front-end changes that will require major theme modifications will be rarer, and by the time we reach the stable 3.x series, should happen very rarely, maybe at something closer to the pace they happen in mature applications like Pale Moon. But basically, the most chaotic and uncertain period of Epyrus development seems to be over, and by the time we reach 3.x, radical default theme changes should be even less likely.

Basically, you might want to anticipate things still getting cleaned up visually a lot in the 2.x series and be more cautious with versioning (even though I don't anticipate major issues and kind of expect them to be mostly compatible), but basically changing rarely if ever after 3.x comes out.

Sorry to hear about the Phoebus issues, though. That's the kind of thing that would have been hard to anticipate before release (since I don't have much experience with it), but it is a good thing it was noticed quickly and that you found a workaround. I hope it can be resolved, but I will understand if ultimately Phoebus turns out not to be suitable for what I want to do with Epyrus and I have to work out something else.

[Moonchild]

Considering all this I've gone in and removed the alpha version of the theme from the addons site. I've also fixed up the db to understand other themes targeting epyrus now.

For the future it should be as simple for theme devs to just use 29877c1d-27df-4421-9a79-382c31470151 as targetApplication and it should all just work™ as regards the add-ons site; that is required for them to be usable in Epyrus 2.0.0 anyway -- no longer necessary to have the thunderbird GUID in there but you can if you want to maintain compatibility with it as well outside of what we do. They should all be updated because they won't work in Epyrus 2.0 without changing the install manifest in the theme itself. For the sake of preservation I've not touched any of the other themes that I don't maintain.

[ltcomdata]

Hello:

Thank you for the theme.
Two nitpicks, if I may...
(For the record, I am using Windows 10, in case that makes a difference).

Like seen in a previous message to this thread, (viewtopic.php?f=73&t=28893&p=232370&hil ... b2#p232481) the "hide/show" marker in the calendar portion of the theme is invisible. I.E. In that image, in the "Today Pane", there should be a ">" symbol next to the "Today", "Tomorrow", and "Upcoming" headings to show that there is a hidden pane that can be revealed by pressing said symbol. The menu does exist. Clicking on the white area where the marker should be does reveal the pane, as if the marker had been clicked --- but the marker remains invisible.

The same problem is present in the full Calendar view (the view where the full calendar is shown). The menu maker to select a particular calendar (if you should have more than one calendar) is also invisible.


As for the second nitpick
When the "Menu bar" is de-selected, the tab tops seem rather too close to the edge the screen for my liking, as if their tops had been cut off. In this view, the Epyrus application name box is white (not orange). These may be design decisions, and if so, I will respect them. But the Epyrus Minimize-Restore-Close menu symbols disappear entirely, and thus it becomes harder to close Epyrus when using the theme.

Another possible design choice, which I will respect if that is the case: When the Menu bar is selected and therefore showing, the actual menu choice (and the tabs as well) seem to leave a unused empty rectangle of about 1inX.5in in the upper left corner, where the Epyrus application box name might be if it were shown in this view.

These are all nitpicks. I also prefer colored buttons instead of gray buttons, and I wish that the colored buttons could also exist in the full Calendar view.

Thanks!

[ltcomdata]

Thanks for the TB2 theme - I much prefer coloured buttons...

I just discovered Classic Toolbar Buttons: https://addons.epyrus.org/addon/cstbb/.
If you do not want/need a comprehensive theme change, but are only interested in changing the toolbar buttons to more classic versions, this Epyrus-compatible add-on can replace most of them. You will need to experiment a bit with the options, as the add-on combines together all the options for all the applications it targets.

Cheers!

[back2themoon]

Not compatible with Epyrus 2.1.0. Perhaps because of this change?

Window pane borders within Epyrus have been made a bit thicker to bring them in line with the platform standard

[emgee]

Yes - I've discovered this, too. I'm afraid that I don't have the technical skills to do anything about it, but I'm sure that greater minds than mine will be on to it already...Moonchild?

Classic Toolbar Buttons helps a bit, but it's not quite right.