E4/CSS/Visual Design

This page summarizes the investigations into an updated visual design (default stylesheet) for the e4 workbench.

-- Goals -- The goals of this work are:

• design a compelling, modern default visual style for e4
• drive the ability/flexibility of the CSS styling for SWT widgets
• demonstrate the ability to keep a "classic" look and supply alternate designs

-- Design items -- This is currently just a list of ideas (not prioritized or committed).

• tabs
  • ability to define custom shapes
  • custom highlight colors and gradients
  • ability to remove keylines or specify their color independently
    • remove or color top border without removing tab tops
    • remove, color, or set position of the line separating unselected tabs from selected
• ability to style separately the color/presence of borders on widgets (per side)?
• view and editor toolbars
  • consider a local editor toolbar
  • appearance of local view toolbars in consistent location below
• view/editor visuals
  • visual separation of view stacks without using keylines (coloring?)
  • visual distinction of editor area
• perspective switcher
• status area
• ability to specify an image as a workbench background