Sublime Forum

You need to fix the way themes are being installed, it's rediculess and a complete joke

#1

I’m a developer for more than 10 years, never in my life have i seen a application where you have to follow a manual for installing a theme, that goes like this:

  1. Installing theme
  2. Finding theme package through a menu
  3. Change setting file manually in json ( and you don’t know what to write here, so you need to look in a manual specific for your theme to know)
  4. Activate theme
    and maybe also install dependencies.

IT’s A JOKE. User-friendly wise, it’s a complete joke.

This is how it’s should be, and that’s the maximum difficulty.

  1. Download theme
  2. Copy it over in some theme folder that is located in the regular theme path-pattern, for example Application Support/Sublime Text/Themes
  3. After it’s copied to the theme folder, it’s automatically visible in a theme menu ( and there should only be a single menu in the app, not multiples like you have now, it’s not normal to have multiple theme menus) . You press it, and done.

Honestly after trying to install 3 themes and fucking up the GUI multiple times - which is so strange that its even possible for a wrongly-installed theme to do - i gave up. Fuck it, never in my life have a seen developers thinking that this is the way to go, and letting theme developers having to make a manual for each and every theme on how to install it. And it’s like 6-8 steps for each.

It’s so complicated the theme developers have forums to help people :smiley: . … complete joke. All themes should be installed the exact same way. And the absolute hardest part of installing a theme should be finding the theme folder … nothing else :smiley: .

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#2

maybe you want to suggest on the Package Control issues list that there be somekinda hook/callback that can occur when a package is installed. Then, the theme would just update your preferences to set itself as active once it has been successfully installed…

And themes could add a menu option if they wanted… No need for it by default, ST only ships with one theme. Some themes might already put themselves in the command palette or something, not sure. Some themes like Boxy are very accessible.

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#3

Sublime stills in development, and as you noticed, there are some missing GUI things. You need to became ninja to adequate, or you could just get involved and implement a package with some extra GUI.

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#4

This already exists, but next to nobody uses it.
It’s also slightly unreliable in edge cases.

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#5

doh, I just did what I don’t like others doing - suggesting to log an issue for something that already exists or that would be a duplicate! :wink: I should have checked first! I guess, if people start using it (I think it’s mainly only useful for theme authors?), then we could find and fix those edge cases :slightly_smiling:

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#6

For the record: https://packagecontrol.io/docs/events

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#7

First of all - thanks for your replys :smiley:
++++++++++++++
Let me just clarify.

You suggest to install a theme the user needs to do the following:

  1. Learn that you need a add-on to sublime that’s called PageControl.
  2. Install that add-on by copying a python code, that is:
    +++
    import urllib.request,os,hashlib; h = ‘df21e130d211cfc94d9b0905775a7c0f’ + ‘1e3d39e33b79698005270310898eea76’; pf = ‘Package Control.sublime-package’; ipp = sublime.installed_packages_path(); urllib.request.install_opener( urllib.request.build_opener( urllib.request.ProxyHandler()) ); by = urllib.request.urlopen( ‘http://packagecontrol.io/’ + pf.replace(’ ', ‘%20’)).read(); dh = hashlib.sha256(by).hexdigest(); print(‘Error validating download (got %s instead of %s), please try manual install’ % (dh, h)) if dh != h else open(os.path.join( ipp, pf), ‘wb’ ).write(by)
    +++
    Into the sublime console.
  • Which by the way is not how any other applikations install add-ons
  1. Then follow a 6 step manual:
  • Open Command Palette using menu item Tools → Command Palette…
  • Choose Package Control: Install Package
  • Find Boxy Theme and hit Enter
  • Restart Sublime Text
  • Repeat step 1, then choose Package Control: Satisfy Dependencies
  • Restart Sublime Text

honestly when i do that there’s no Boxy … until now i have no idea how to make Boxy appear in that Package Control menu, but anywayssss. And manual install did terrible things to my UI, but OK maybe i’m just not smart enough.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I really have to say, that this is not normal. This is not normally how you install a theme. Having to install another addon to install a theme. And that’s actually the easiest way the author of the Boxy theme writtes on his page :smiley: .

I’m sorry guys it’s not normal, its not simple and not how you install themes in any other app.

  1. Download theme
  2. Copy theme to a theme folder in app
  3. Press and activate the theme inside your app
  • that’s it in every other app.
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#8

your facts are out of date. Package Control no longer needs Python code to be manually pasted in. Plus, everybody that uses ST knows you install Package Control before you do anything else. It’s not a step required to install a theme, because everybody already has Package Control installed, or will install the theme manually.

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#9

https://packagecontrol.io/installation

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#10

okay instructions are out of date :smiley:

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#11

ok ok i believe you - but how am i to know that. It’s not even written on the install page -> that i don’t need it :smiley: .

I believe you guys think that all us sublime text users are pros … some of us just use that app to write code in - we don’t have a interest in the app itself, it’s a tool for us to do other stuff. And to be honest i don’t want to have to investigate how the inner workings of a “simple” text editors are .

It’s like back in 1990 when i had to know things about autoexe.bat and config.sys to be able to use and handle windows 1.11 . Users don’t use windows to use windows :smiley: … they use windows to run other apps. Windows is nothing more than a tool to run other apps for 99.99% of the users.

I use Sublime Text to program, i want to know everything about the app in that area -> but why should i need to know how the editor is working in order to change something as simple as the colors and look of the editor, by using a theme?

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#12

I decided to wait until the latest beta had been out for a while before changing the install instructions, so as not to confuse users.

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