~/.local/share/applications
~/.local/share/desktop-directories
~/.local/share/gnome-do
~/.local/share/mime
~/.local/share/Mono Paint
~/.local/share/Trash
~/.local/share/tracker

It turns out that the hidden folders $HOME/.local/, $HOME/.config, and $HOME/.cache are default values, specified by the Freedesktop.org Basedir specification. To override these values one may set some environment varibles:

• $XDG_DATA_HOME for user specific application data.
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME for user specific configuration data.
• $XDG_CACHE_HOME for user specfic ‘non-essential’ data.

The BaseDir specification has shades of the Windows user profile file structure, but in a good way. Agreeing on such cross-desktop conventions will solidify Linux as a desktop platform for ISVs, but there’s still a way to go.

Other Freedesktop.org specifications build on BaseDir, for instance the Trash specification. So now Gnome’s trash applet knows where a deleted item should be restored to.

If you’re looking for a DBA, a system administrator, someone skilled in GIS support, or in application support - then please email me or call me. My CV is online (as MS Word, OpenDocument, or PDF).

Although work in progress still, I think the window looks cleaner already. Most importantly the chat history scrollbar now lies flush with the window edge. To achieve this, I’ve created a customized gtkrc and made a small patch for pidgin.

GTK+ theming

GTK can be themed on a per system, per user, per application or even per widget basis.

Each visible widget has a style attached. The style is specified in gtkrc files, in a manner similar to CSS. A GTK+ theme is a gtkrc file, perhaps bundled with some images. The default GTK+ theme is functional but ugly, so Linux distributions usually create their own. On Ubuntu the default theme is Human.

To override Human, one can:

• Install a new GTK theme, such as ClearLooks or Human Compact.
• Override the default theme by creating a ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file.

The gtkrc that I’ currently using is subhuman-gtkrc-20. To use this, download it and save it as .gtkrc-2.0 in your home folder. Any GTK+ programs started from then on will have padding removed. Gedit, Anjuta and Gnome Terminal respond well. Seahorse and undoubtedly others aren’t as good.

Application patching

Theming, still leaves the problem of the border and the users list in Pidgin. The border is taken care of by pidgin-chat-border.patch (attached to Pidgin bug 6987). Swapping the user list I’m working on, so no patch yet.

Next steps

The customized gtkrc file is still raw, it’s causing visual glitches such as lack of an outline around the Pidgin chat history and the Gnome Terminal VT. So my first priority is fixing those, without shifting the boundary. Apple OS X appears to draw no window decorations along the vertical edge of a window, I’d like to experiment with this.

If there’s interest I’ll refine the gtkrc and release it as a GTK theme. For now,  I aim to get the border removal merged into a future Pidgin release and submit a patch to swap the user list and chat history.

Now I’ve become obsessed, I’m spotting extra borders and pixels in nearly every application on my desktop.

Fitts’ law

Fitts’ Law: The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target. AskTog

Fitts’ law models the effort to point at something, for instance adjusting a scrollbar with the mouse pointer.

A scrollbar at the very edge of the screen is much easier to hit than one inset by a few pixels. Effectively, anything at the edge of the screen has infiite thickness, so it’s very easy to hit. If there is a border surrounding the application, when it maximized the screen edge becomes useless.

Firefox, Evolution, Gnome Terminal, Nautilus, Scite & others get this right. When maximized their scrollbar reaches the screen edge.

Pidgin, Gedit, Synaptic, MonoDevelop, Qt Designer, Glade, Anjuta & many more get it terribly wrong. The scrollbars are inset from the window’s edge by a few ugly, infuriating pixels. These applications need fixing and their designers subjected to aversion therapy.

The true culprit

In fact Pidgin and Gedit are innocent, they’ve been framed (so to speak) by GTK+.

The GtkNotebook widget is the multi-tabbed container for GTK+ applications, such as these. GtkNotebook draws a thin border around anything placed on one of it’s pages, this border is unavoidably drawn when the tabs are shown.

The effect can be seen by opening a new Gnome Terminal, maximizing it, then opening a new tab. The scrollbar shifts inward by a few pixels.

Firefox gets around this in some way I haven’t divined. Either it doesn’t use GtkNotebook or the GtkNotebook doesn’t contain the pages. Instead Mozilla seem to have implemented their own paging.

For those using KDE, the message is mixed. Qt is no better - out of the box QTabWidget places a similar border around controls placed within it. Konsole 3.x suffers from this, although Konsole 4 & Kate 4 do not. Props to the KDE project.

Microsoft Windows also fairs poorly, though Office 2007 pulls some new tricks. try maximizing Internet Explorer or Outlook.

How things should be

How can this be fixed? Should it be fixed? GTK+ and Qt implement their tabbed containers like this for presumably sane reasons, but it makes these applications harder to use and frankly it looks butt ugly to me.

Many will groan at this, but from what I’ve seen Mac OS X gets this right. The lines are clean, applications look very uncluttered and everything extends to the edge of the window - there are few borders, if any. For instance, compare this screen shot of Adium to the earlier Pidgin screen shots.

I’m want Gnome or KDE to look just like Aqua, but they could simplify much along those lines.

Accessories to the crime

Dead space is present in other areas of the Free desktop. Often around scrollbars. On Ubuntu, with the Human theme many GTK+ applications, including Evolution and Synaptic, have padding between lists or text areas and their scrollbars. Some rehabilitation can be done with the gtkrc file or an alternative theme such as Clearlooks Compact. More in this next time.

This Wordpress installation can now send emails, thanks to the Configure SMTP plugin by Scott Reilly.

If you have any problems, please email me, my address is alex@moreati.org.uk.

In September 2007 the BSI had voted ‘No - with comments’, attaching a long list of reasons. The response had been prepared in the open over the web, using the BSI OOXML Wiki. It was applauded by many, including members of other national standards bodies, a BSI report to the All Party Internet Group (APIG) stated:

BSI has been making its scrutiny process transparent by assembling comments on the Web in public view, and is recognised as leading the international scrutiny effort. The German standards body DIN are adopting a similar process, and one US standards committee member has written “when I compare [our process] to the BSI’s excellent work developing detailed comments on a publicly-readable Wiki, I think we in the US should be ashamed …”

The wiki hasn’t been substantively updated since October 2007. I’ve been unable to find any stated reasons from the BSI for the reversal of their position or in fact any announcement by BSI of their final vote.

On 30th April the UK Unix Users Group (UKUUG) requested judicial review of the BSI’s reversal. In June this application was rejected by a Judge. On the 19th UKUUG appealed, the BSI made no public comment. Unless it becomes public record in court, their reasoning will remain secret.

This post isn’t about the BSI or ISO 29500/OOXML.

Open Politics

I’ve come to the opinion that the UK Government systemically favours large, closed, all encompassing IT projects. They are institutionally closed source. These projects nearly always go over budget, beyond their deadline or under deliver. Government IT is a running joke.

The civil service and the UK political establishment is wedded to the closed source model of software development. Project decisions are made in private by a few blessed individuals, then published as a fiat accompli. Opportunities for public scrutiny are rare, it takes parliamentary questions to drag basic details out of whitehall.

I believe the civil service and the government would function far better by adopting open source development techniques and culture. The following practises would improve the quality and value of software delivering our public services:

1. Design, debate & decision making regarding public IT conducted in public, on the record.
2. Development of public documents in public, versioned repositories.
3. Development of services and systems in small increments, with new features deployed early and often.
4. Public bug tracking, where this doesn’t compromise privacy.

I’m not talking about adopting Free/Open Source software in the UK public sector, though this would help. Instead I am arguing for a change of mindset, from the big closed-cathedral like practises we now follow, to a messier & more open bazaar model.

My last ever LugRadio Live is LRL 2008, which will be the perfect opportunity to pickup CDs of the now newly released Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS.

See you there, July 19th - 20th.

Please stop writing comment systems with half-assed threading. I understand you had to replace all those icky newsgroups on usenet, but you could have done a better job.

Take a look at Google Groups, Gmane. See how all those conversations are nicely grouped together? See how nobody is writing @previous_author? Please sort it out, because the status quo doesn’t work.

Sincerely, Alex Willmer

P.S. To anyone commenting here: I know I’m not eating my own dog food. I am ashamed.

T-Mobile are very up front on their Mobile Internet Access rates page, but  it takes advanced double-think to state “unlimited” within 200 pixels of the limit.

Mandatory bandwdith labelling must be just around the corner, along with sorting out the mess of 0870.

Section "Device"
Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
Driver          "nvidia"
Option          "NoLogo"        "True"
Option          "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts"      "True"
EndSection

This will reduce the time your CPU spends on spurious interrupts. Your laptop should run cooler and longer as a result.