New status colours

[Hanatash]

Having been a µTorrent user for many years, the color scheme for qBT is definitely one of the main things that rubs me the wrong way now that I've switched.

I think trying to figure out what "the best" color scheme would be is pointless. There isn't gonna be any brilliant breakthroughs. Yeah, there are some obvious changes that could be made with regards to color theory, but ultimately, every user is gonna have a different opinion on what works best for them.

I think the ability to define our own color scheme, not just for the text, but preferably for the progress bar as well, would go a long way toward appeasing everybody and should be fairly simple to implement with text fields that accept hex values and color names (if a full color picker is too much hassle).

[ciaobaby]

should be fairly simple to implement with text fields that accept hex values and color names

You may think so, but having spent sometime looking at the code for the status colouring, I can tell you it's not quite that straightforward.

In common with so many "open source" projects there is a distinct lack of "thinking ahead" at the initial stages, and things are written for "right here, right now" with little or no documenting, annotating or commenting and any one coming in 'late' has a lot of head scratching or questions to ask. Which of course no one wants to spend time answering because; "Hey we're just volunteers here". Yes I know, I'm from the Windows world and "don't understand" the OS ethos where everybody does a bit, in their own time, in their own way.

Planning and forethought appears to be an anathema to the open source credo, Well guys, imagine what COULD be done with a bit of structure and organised co-operation??

[Nemo]

Everyones opinions are very welcome and are important to make the final decision what or how to use based on this topic. Im sure that sledge has his own plans after reading this topic several times already. Not to forget the fixes that needs to be made before going v3.2.0 (see Github, milestone) which is also time consuming so its not only the color changes that needs to be made but also several other fixes/features fixed/added.

A sidenote; There still will be people who wouldn't like it, thats just the way it is which is pretty normal like anything else out there. So you just have to ''deal with it'' at the end if I may say it like that with all due respect.

[sledgehammer_999]

[quote="ciaobaby"]...or questions to ask. Which of course no one wants to spend time answering because; "Hey we're just volunteers here". [/quote]

I don't know if you are talking in general on for qbittorrent. However I'll tell you that I can answer any programming questions regarding qbt. Or explain the code.
I too initially had to do the head scratching. But thankfully Qt Creator is very good at making it easy for me to (back)trace what a function does and get a general idea of that specific code(group of functions).

[Muzak]

I really like the choices suggested by Calidude with the caveat that they would be great for light colored backgrounds.  For dark colored backgrounds the blues and blacks obviously won't work.  For a dark background you might be able to simply replace the Black with White and Blue with SkyBlue or MoneyGreen to get the same contrasts.

[Nemo]

Yes, I also liked the idea from Calidude and your add up also. You know; I fully trust sledge when it comes to qBittorrent whatever he adds or improves so im very very comfortable .

Sledge; I think that ciao means the open source projects in general, not all of course.

[ciaobaby]

[quote="sledgehammer_999"]
[quote="ciaobaby"]...or questions to ask. Which of course no one wants to spend time answering because; "Hey we're just volunteers here". [/quote]

I don't know if you are talking in general on for qbittorrent. However I'll tell you that I can answer any programming questions regarding qbt. Or explain the code.
I too initially had to do the head scratching. But thankfully Qt Creator is very good at making it easy for me to (back)trace what a function does and get a general idea of that specific code(group of functions).
[/quote]

Just generalising,  there are several projects I have looked over the past year or so and some projects you get the "Well if you don't know why/how/whatever what are you doing here"? . ... I mean .... if I needed that  I would get married , ... ... again!

QT is the bugbear in the case of qBT, I just find frameworks more of a handicap than a help, weird maybe, but I learned to code long before frameworks became 'de rigueur', it's the same in javascript, I have no trouble with DOM scripting, but JQuery .... is arcane.

[sledgehammer_999]

[quote="ciaobaby"]
QT is the bugbear in the case of qBT, I just find frameworks more of a handicap than a help, weird maybe, but I learned to code long before frameworks became 'de rigueur', it's the same in javascript, I have no trouble with DOM scripting, but JQuery .... is arcane.
[/quote]

[offtopic]You should thank God that this isn't coded using Gtk+ or more specifically Gtkmm(c++ bindings for gtk+). Gtk's docs are just limited compared to Qt's. And let's not talk about Gtkmm. In Gtkmm most of the documentation is missing and you have to keep open the equivalent Gtk+ one so you can find what that particular API function does and what are its limits or quirks.[/offtopic]

PS: We need an "offtopic" function.

[ciaobaby]

I think I'll give GTK a miss then

[quote="sledgehammer_999"]
PS: We need an "offtopic" function. [/quote]
I used this mod on a Simple Machines forum I ran

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/i ... p?mod=3699

[Hanatash]

[quote="ciaobaby"]
You may think so, but having spent sometime looking at the code for the status colouring, I can tell you it's not quite that straightforward.
[/quote]

I never said anything about it being straightforward, but anyone who's reasonably familiar with the code should be able to handle such a task without too much effort. If it's too hard, something has gone terribly wrong and people need to go back to the drawing board. We're not talking complex algorithms here, it's just input fields and colors.

I do know what it's like having to work on someone else's code though. I've taken over a lot of massive projects that have gone through generations of programmers, many of them using old or outright deprecated languages and coding practices, and I feel for anyone having to walk a mile in my shoes. Still, one benefit of open source projects over the standard corporate mess that I usually deal with is that you can change old code when it suits you. So even if it was poorly planned out originally, it doesn't mean you can't untangle a mess or scrap bad code in favor of something better.

[Nemo]

Lets discuss the color changes in general instead if its easy, straightforward, im this im that and all the endless talk around it gentleman .

[ciaobaby]

So even if it was poorly planned out originally, it doesn't mean you can't untangle a mess or scrap bad code in favor of something better.

Absolutely! It's just the time it takes to untangle the strands, it's a bit like Christmas tree lights, you either spend five hours untangling and testing lamps, or spend a tenner and buy new ones.

[Muzak]

I think to move this forward the best solution is to move forward with the short term fix to change the current colors to what seems to be the general consensus, even though that won't satisfy everyone.  The set a longer term goal of adding some sort of user defined color system, realizing this will take far longer as the code was not designed with that in mind and will need possible extensive work.  We could discuss colors and coding around and around for years, I feel like this has reached the point of making an (informed) decision and moving on.

[sledgehammer_999]

Just so you know, my intention is to provide only 2 sets of colors(hardcoded). One for light background and one for dark background. I'll try to detect the background(ligh/dark) programmatically. If that fails, I'll make it an option in the settings.

[ciaobaby]

I'll throw in an idea here, Git/GitHub isn't the best place for having discussions about coding and the structure of said code, in SMF you can set up invite only/restricted forum categories, why not have one just for developers and programmers that are, or want to be involved in the project?