enlightenment/www
enlightenment
/
www
7
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Projects Releases Wiki Activity

work on about. 

SVN revision: 81499
This commit is contained in:
Carsten Haitzler 2012-12-21 02:32:14 +00:00
parent 64d0ff3d33
commit eb31fc07db
2 changed files with 6 additions and 4 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

BIN
p/about/e17/d/e-settings.png Normal file
View File

Binary file not shown.
Side by Side

After

Width:  |  Height:  |  Size: 24 KiB

10
p/about/e17/en-body
View File

@ -8,11 +8,11 @@ Enlightenment 0.17 <em>(a.k.a E17)</em> is the next generation of graphical desk
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>
Also be aware that this page is large and is meant to provide a lot of important information. It is not for the tl;dr; (too long, didn't read) set of people with minimal attention span. It contains lots of that scary things called "text" and "information". It is assumed you can make use of the education you have been provided with that allows you to read and comprehend what has been written. If you are after specifics, then skimming may be a useful thing to try. If someone wishes to make summaries of this page, or translate it, they are more than welcome to, but this is intended as a very full information source, not a short summary for the impatient.
Also be aware that this page is large and is meant to provide a lot of important information. It is not for the tl;dr; (too long, didn't read) set of people with minimal attention span. It contains lots of that scary thing called "text" and "information". It is assumed that you can make use of the education you have been provided with that allows you to read and comprehend what has been written. If you are after specifics, then skimming may be a useful thing to try. If someone wishes to make summaries of this page, or translate it, they are more than welcome to, but this is intended as a very full information source, not a short summary for the impatient.
</em></p></blockquote>
<p>
This information assumes you will download and compile Enlightenment and its necessities beyond what your current OS does or can provide. If Enlightenment is provided already as packages, you may want to check them out first as opposed to compiling it all yourself, but if not, then this information will help you do that. There are a few things you will need to use Enlightenment. Firstly you will need to <?php a("download", "Download");?> Enlightenment and EFL library components. You will need to provide the appropriate system dependencies too. The details will be further on.
This information assumes you will download and compile Enlightenment and its necessities beyond what your current OS does or can provide. If Enlightenment 0.17 is provided already as packages, you may want to check them out first, see if they are actually up to date, as opposed to compiling it all yourself. If not, then this information will help you get it set up yourself and take your first few steps. There are a few things you will need to use Enlightenment. Firstly you will need to <?php a("download", "Download");?> Enlightenment and EFL library components. You will need to provide the appropriate system dependencies too. The details will be further on.
</p>
<hr>
@ -20,13 +20,15 @@ This information assumes you will download and compile Enlightenment and its nec
<h3>Misconceptions and assumptions</h3>
<p>
Before we go any further, it is time to clean up some common misconceptions. First, Enlightenment is not new. It is Old. It predates larger desktop environments like <a href=http://www.gnome.org>GNOME</a> or <a href=http://www.xfce.org>XFCE</a>. It is just barely younger than <a href=http://www.kde.org>KDE</a>. It never started life as an attempt to "be a full desktop environment". It started life as simply a window manager. This was back towards the latter part of 1996, and it's first 0.1 release came in the first part of 1997. It was a window manager with some extras to scratch the itch that "everything was gray bevels and UI's had to be plain to be functional or useful, and that computers/X11 were not capable of more". It handily proved that to be wrong. It could manage function AND form more flexibly than anything else, and to this date is still in an enviable position of flexibility in both behavior features and in terms of visuals. In fact its Achilles heel simply may be that it has too many options and too much flexibility. Some of the extras filled in the gaps like setting wallpaper, that was always done by 3rd party tools and not the window manager at the time. If you are after a constrained and simple UI, then Enlightenment (E) is not for you. It can be configured to be plain and simple, or to be buzzing with activity and complexity. Its default is somewhere in between to give you a taste of what it can do on both ends of the spectrum.
Before we go any further, it is time to clean up some common misconceptions. First, Enlightenment is not new. It is <b>OLD</b>. It predates larger desktop environments like <a href=http://www.gnome.org>GNOME</a> or <a href=http://www.xfce.org>XFCE</a>. It is just barely younger than <a href=http://www.kde.org>KDE</a>. It never started life as an attempt to "be a full desktop environment". It started life as simply a window manager. This was back towards the latter part of 1996, and its first 0.1 release came in the first part of 1997. It was a window manager with some extras to scratch the itch that "everything was gray bevels and UIs had to be plain to be functional or useful, and that computers/X11 were not capable of more". It handily proved that to be wrong. It could manage function AND form more flexibly than anything else, and to this date is still in an enviable position of flexibility in both behavior features and in terms of visuals. In fact, its Achilles heel simply may be that it has too many options and too much flexibility. Some of the extras filled in the gaps, like setting wallpaper, that was always done by 3rd party tools and not the window manager at the time. If you are after a constrained and simple UI, then Enlightenment (E) is not for you. It can be configured to be plain and simple if you try, or to be buzzing with activity and complexity, but this is up to you. Its default is somewhere in between these to give you a taste of what it can do on both ends of the spectrum.
</p>
<p>
The default look is not what you are stuck with. Enlightenment was the first Window Manager (WM) to introduce themes in X11 (pre-packaged sets of data that you just grab and select, providing you with a vast new look and feel). Today in Enlightenment, these themes come as "Edje" files (.edj), and are pre-packaged data files containing all images, layout, animation etc. that you may need. They never get "unpacked". They are used "live as-is", and only the data needed from the file is sourced and decoded, so even if the theme is massive, only the pieces needed at any one time are decoded into memory, which is normally a fraction of the actual file size. It is an accepted fact that the default look will not be for everyone. It tries to strike a balance of being unique (not mimicking some other desktop look), yet still stylish. It is meant to echo some of the past from where Enlightenment comes from, and yet roll in modern effects and feels. It sacrifices some "usability" for look, yet tries to keep a balance and still be functional. It will not be for everyone, but it is hoped it keeps you mostly happy until you find other themes that exactly meet your visual needs. You will find this as an on-going philosophy in Enlightenment. One size does <em><b>NOT</b></em> fit all. That's what options are for. Do not have the misconception that what you see is what you are stuck with. You are expected to experiment and discover what is good for you. Maybe the default is fine. Maybe it is not. That's why we pioneered themes and spent immense amounts of time making them nicely packaged, efficient and powerful enough to fine-tune almost any aspect of the UI.
The default look is not what you are stuck with. Enlightenment was the first Window Manager (WM) to introduce themes in X11 (pre-packaged sets of data that you just grab and select, providing you with a vast new look and feel). Today in Enlightenment, these themes come as "Edje" files (.edj), and are pre-packaged data files containing all images, layout, animation etc. that you may need. They never get "unpacked". They are used "live as-is", and only the data needed from the file is sourced and decoded, so even if the theme is massive, only the pieces needed at any one time are decoded into memory, which is normally a fraction of the actual file size. They are also live data and need to be there while E17 runs as it is forever digging bits of data out of these files as it needs it. It is an accepted fact that the default look will not be for everyone. It tries to strike a balance of being unique (not mimicking some other desktop look), yet still being stylish. It is meant to echo some of the past from where Enlightenment comes from, and yet roll in modern effects and feels. It sacrifices some "usability" for look, yet tries to keep a balance and still be functional. It will not be for everyone, but it is hoped that it keeps you mostly happy until you find other themes that exactly meet your visual needs. You will find this as an on-going philosophy in Enlightenment. One size does <em><b>NOT</b></em> fit all. That's what options are for. Thats why we have themes. Do not have the misconception that what you see is what you are stuck with. You are expected to experiment and discover what is good for you. Maybe the default is fine. Maybe it is not. That's why we pioneered themes and spent immense amounts of time making them nicely packaged, efficient and powerful enough to fine-tune almost any aspect of the UI.
</p>
<center><?php img("e-settings.png", "Enlightenment Settings");?></center>
<p>
That leads onto the next thing you may find quickly. Enlightenment has so many options, because we believe that <b>CHOICE</b> is important. If you don't believe that your preferences matter, then maybe another project is better for you, but we firmly believe that they do. We may not have accounted for every single option out there. We may not have presented it to you in a way that makes it childs play to find and use, but we have tried. Over time options will be cleaned up and accessibility to them improved. A lot of them are there simply because they needed to be and not a lot of time was spent fine-tuning how to present them in a fool-proof manner. This will improve over time and with input, suggestions, patches etc. we hope to still offer all the options you need, but in a much more accessible form.
</p>