Change OS-provided UI

[adrian120]

Hi !

I downloaded Atom three days ago and it’s pretty nice, but I don’t like a thing: when I open Atom, it has the windows 7 form style if we use windows 7, windows 8 form style if we use windows. Now, my question is : how can I change windows form style, I mean how to change the traditional form style of the OS we’re using for Atom ?

Regards,

Adrian

[batjko]

What do you mean by “form style”?
Atom supports themes for its UI and syntax.

But if you’re asking about the window frames and menus that look like the standard Windows thing, unfortunately that can’t be changed at the moment.
It’s the standard Chromium window Electron provides.

[adrian120]

Well, actually yes, I asked about windows frames that looks like standard windows things.
Anyway, thanks for the reply and I hope in the future will be possible to change the Atom window frame.

Thanks,

Adrian

[leedohm]

Here is some more discussion around changing OS-provided elements:

Hide system window title bar

Hi! I raised this as an issue on Atom's repo but it didn't get much attention. I'll quote myself from it: Could it be possible to implement system window title bar/borders hiding like Chromium/Chrome has? If you have used Chromium/Chrome you can notice it lacks the "system window title bar" by default (ie, the bar that says the name of the window and has the minimize, maximize and close buttons), while at the same time providing its own tiny minimize, maximize and close buttons in the top, r…

[adrian120]

I read the discussion about changing OS-provided elements right now. I have to say that i found a comment that said would be more interesting and cool if Atom would have the same appearance to any platform. We all know that if we use Atom on Mac OS-versions it’s very nice, because the Mac has a beautiful provided elements, and the same for Linux distributions( some of them). But if we use it on Windows we all know that it isn’t so cool with the standard elements. That’s the reasons I think Atom team should work at this to let us change Atom core as we want.

Regards,

Adrian

[batjko]

@adrian120 I think you won’t get any rebuttal on that. But those ugly Windows elements are part of the Electron shell Atom is built on/in/with.

Here is a discussion on the Electron repository that deals with improving Electron to implement some sort of theming.

Issue: Support for dark window chrome

[adrian120]

So, forgive me if I wrong, I can say that Electron shell uses the elements and the form style of the OS we’re using. Brackets uses CEF so there isn’t a problem for it and its menus are built with HTML.
Anyway, in the future I think something in the Electron shell has to change. From what I read, all of us wants different style instead of the native chrome style.

[leedohm]

From what I read, all of us wants different style instead of the native chrome style.

If by “all of us” you mean the ten to twelve people that have participated in the various discussions, then you would be correct. It is dangerous to assume that just because nobody has offered a dissenting opinion that one does not exist … or that it is in the minority.

I would much rather that we keep the native chrome style, working with the OS when possible. The problem with replacing the OS chrome, menus, etc is that then you lose all of the built-in OS-native functionality, so things stop working as someone who is used to that platform would expect. Then a ton of effort is invested to recreate that OS-native feel manually across all platforms. Personally, I don’t feel this effort is worth the ability to make my title bar a different color or save a few pixels in height.

[braver]

Also, users have certain expectations about OS chrome. Now Windows is already a big mess, so whatever, but one of the things that allow you to work with any application you never used before is because they tend to stick to conventions. Also, Windows won’t look any better if every application has custom chrome. In fact, if you really dislike the default looks of Windows, having that application-specific custom chrome just removes the possibility of system-wide ui customisation. Really, application specific chrome makes no sense, is not a good idea and should not be encouraged. That you can, perhaps would even like to do it, and that others are doing it, are not good reasons for a project like Atom prioritise such things.

[adrian120]

Hmmm yes, I have to say that I have not considered these points before. However, you right, is not a priority for Atom changing the OS provided elements and will not be also in the future. That was just an idea to improve the aspect of Atom, but I have to say that functionalities are the ones who make an app great, as I could experienced on Atom these days.