I'm missing something fundamental about column layout

[zvi]

I got the css I wanted to work correctly on Tabula Rasa. see the style live and view user layer source

Now, I'm trying to convert it to a layer and a theme (view style live

If I want the Tabula Rasa stylesheet, do I need to copy and paste that directly into the stylesheet in the layout layer? I used function print_stylesheet () { to include the stylesheet because I thought that would call the Tabula Rasa stylesheet, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Help?

Comments

[afuna]

Yes; you'd need to copy and paste the entire Tabula Rasa layout layer to your own layout layer (that's actually how we're going to implement it as a layout which "extends" off of Tabula Rasa, except that once it becomes official, we'll tell the system to do the copy-pasting/duplication for us.

The problem with not copy-pasting, is that the new layout layer is not aware of the Tabula Rasa layout layer in any way.

[zvi]

So, what's the difference between print_default_stylesheet and print_stylesheet in a layout layer? Is there ... not one, except for the formatting issues?

[afuna]

You can't have two of the same function in one layout layer, so, for the sake of layouts that "extend" tabula rasa, etc, we needed a new function. (that's basically it)

[zvi]

So, I ... copy tabula rasa with print_default_stylesheet and then add my own stuff with print_stylesheet? (This is quite confusing.)

[ninetydegrees]

The way afuna explained it to me is this:

Copy/paste TB's code into your layout layer, not only the stylesheet but the whole code. Just c/p really. Then add your own CSS in print_stylesheet.

It may help you to look at the code of one of the other TB-based layouts: Modish for example. See how the first's part is just the Tabula Rasa code? Then you have a second part for the Modish layout.

[zvi]

Yeah, I think I get it now. Thanks.

[zvi]

While I'm asking whacky questions, can I make up Color Properties, as is done in Transmogrified, or is there a Styles Team Doctrine not to do that? At the moment, I am repurposing some of the color properties from Tabula Rasa, but they are confusingly distant from their stated purpose, which will make later manipulation with the wizard difficult. (Honestly, I'm probably never making another Modish color theme again, because that colored sidebar pulls its background color from some bizarre place and, just, no. I don't want Refried Tablet to be confusing in that way, but there's lots of places I need to set color.)

To be clear, I'm talking about lines analogous to

    property Color color_entry_border_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment border"; }
    property Color color_entry_background_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment background b"; }
    property Color color_entry_link_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment b links"; }
    property Color color_entry_link_hover_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment b hover links"; }
    property Color color_entry_link_active_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment b active links"; }
    property Color color_entry_link_visited_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment b visited links"; }
    property Color color_entry_text_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment b text"; }
    property Color color_entry_subject_alt { des = "Alternate entry\Comment subject b"; }
    property Color color_entry_subject_alt_border { des = "Alternate entry\Comment subject border b"; }
    property Color color_entry_subject_alt_background { des = "Alternate entry\Comment subject background b"; }

[afuna]

Yes, you can, as long as you make sure to use a similar naming scheme so it's easy to find stuff (though I'm sure you know that already!) . By that, I mean, don't use anything like Transmogrified's naming scheme, which doesn't *quite* match core2 *g* (to be fair, that layout was done while we were hammering out the naming conventions).

One note, though, if you have one where the color property name is close enough, but the description isn't, I believe you can do something like:

property Color existing_property_name { des = "this description will be the one that shows up in the wizard"; }

Which helps us avoid having unused properties in the wizard, and may help in some cases to keep the number of properties down.

(From feedback, having more color options just means people are more likely to give up halfway through creating a new color theme).