[Pkg-xfce-devel] DebianArt ideas...

[Valessio S Brito]

Hello Debianistas.

After Debian-desktop begin, our distro has become more and more
user-friendly, but there's still a barrier between artists and
developers inside the project. There comes DebianArt, to show that
Debian is not only made of developers, but of many artists too. Now,
through this message, i'm trying to unite forces among different
sub-projects inside Debian: developers, maintainers and artists.

First i'd like that the debian-art at l.d.o be created, to discuss the
choices made about the visual identity of the distribution and
project.
These days, to release a new theme or to modify the project's visual
identity, many different teams/maintainers must be contacted, in
different lists (kde, xfce, gnome, etc). Among other discussions, the
list will be used be used by other sub-projects, CDDs, teams asking
for graphic art to promote the project, events, and so on.

As soon as the list is on, i'd like to work to standardize the theme
packaging system to the whole project, that's why this message goes as
an invitation to all the theme packagers. This standardization would
begin by the packages names, initially going like this:
theme-(gdm,kdm,usplash)-$nametheme, to every theme, of every
environment or theme-supporting application. It'll be a little harder
to standardize the desktop environments, which would take a little
longer discussing with developers/packagers of every sub-project.

These days, a gdm theme package carries inside it a lot of loose
themes, my idea is to have "theme-kits" and and stand-alone themes,
E.G.:

theme-debian-nightly
 * theme-gdm-nightly
 * theme-kde-nightly
 * theme-base-nightly
 * theme-usplash-nighty

a package gdm-themes link to all theme-gdm-*

Then, a user can install the whole kit, or only it's preferred window
manager theme. Currently i'm trying to develop a standard for this
kind of packaging at DebianArt SVN[2], developers are welcome
specially the current generic theme maintainers. I'm counting on you
to create a solid standard theme structure, not only for debian, but
for its CDDs.

Lastly, i'd like to make it clear that this sub-project would be the
one and only responsible for preserving Debian's visual identity, as
well as the application of its logos, colors and promotional stuff. A
sub-project where volunteers who make art instead of code can
contribute, transforming ideas in reality within the project.


[0] http://lists.debian.org/Debian-devel/2002/10/msg01471.html
[1] http://lists.debian.org/Debian-devel/2007/05/msg00275.html
[2] http://svn.debianart.org/