[linuxtools-dev] Linux Tools developer discussions <linuxtools-dev@xxxxx

[Sebastian Gurin <sgurin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all. First of all excuse my for my bad english and my apologies if this is not the correct place to ask this kind of questions. 

Compared to windows and macos versions, it is the opinion of several eclipse users that visually, the linux versions waste too much (precious) space. I know several eclipse and linux users that simply can't work with big projects on eclipse for linux for this issue. I hope that the following articles make this clear:

http://cancerberonia.blogspot.com/2009/05/como-hacer-que-eclipse-se-vea-mejor-en.html 
http://farjumper.livejournal.com/3855.html
http://in.relation.to/Bloggers/MakingEclipseLookGoodOnLinuxRevisited


I finally found a gtk theme customization, using gtkrc-2.0, that makes eclipse for linux 100% more usable to this respect, try to edit your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file:


style "gtkcompact" {
font_name="Sans 8"
GtkButton::default_border={0,0,0,0}
GtkButton::default_outside_border={0,0,0,0}
GtkButtonBox::child_min_width=0
GtkButtonBox::child_min_heigth=0
GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_x=0
GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_y=0
GtkMenu::vertical-padding=1
GtkMenuBar::internal_padding=0
GtkMenuItem::horizontal_padding=4
GtkToolbar::internal-padding=0
GtkToolbar::space-size=0
GtkOptionMenu::indicator_size=0
GtkOptionMenu::indicator_spacing=0
GtkPaned::handle_size=4
GtkRange::trough_border=0
GtkRange::stepper_spacing=0
GtkScale::value_spacing=0
GtkScrolledWindow::scrollbar_spacing=0
GtkExpander::expander_size=10
GtkExpander::expander_spacing=0
GtkTreeView::vertical-separator=0
GtkTreeView::horizontal-separator=0
GtkTreeView::expander-size=8
GtkTreeView::fixed-height-mode=TRUE
GtkWidget::focus_padding=0
}
class "GtkWidget" style "gtkcompact"

style "gtkcompactextra" {
xthickness=0
ythickness=0
}
class "GtkButton" style "gtkcompactextra"
class "GtkToolbar" style "gtkcompactextra"
class "GtkPaned" style "gtkcompactextra"

In my experience, all users that tried this configuration, now are confortable with their eclipse in linux. Specially those users working with large project where it is vital to have compact tree views. I know  that perhaps eclipse policy is not to touch gtk themes, and in fact this is more a gtk issue than a eclipse's. But I think that policy is killing the "confort" of ALL eclipse+linux users and incorporating this small fix MUST be at least discussed. Considering that 0.01 % of linux users know how to customize gtkrc, I think this issue should be eclipse responsability, not gtk's and not user's

I hope I could make my point clear. Again, excuse me for my bad english. 

cheers.

-- 
Sebastian Gurin <sgurin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>