On 2017-09-21 04:42 PM, Len Philpot wrote:
(I've searched the list archives, but if I missed the answer please direct me)
Although I've just re-subscribed to the list, I'm not a new Geany nor Linux user. However, I'm working on educated guesses in this area and I might be wrong. Please correct me if so.
At home, I'm running Geany 1.30 on Xubuntu 16.04 and at work, Geany 1.31 on CentOS 7 (under Xfce on both). However, they look really different and I suspect it's because of GTK2 vs. GTK3, but that's where I'm not 100% sure. It's purely my personal preference but I vastly prefer the GTK2 look and feel to GTK3.
On CentOS 7: http://pages.suddenlink.net/lenphilpot/img/Geany_CentOS7-Xf ce-GTK3.jpg (GTK3?) On Xubuntu: http://pages.suddenlink.net/lenphilpot/img/Geany_Xubuntu1604 -Xfce-GTK2.jpg (GTK2?)
There are a couple of preference differences (placement of message window, etc.), but is the difference in look due to GTK3 vs. GTK2, just theming or what? Or can it even be determined from a screenshot?
Yes, the GTK+ theme and the icon themes are different between both screenshots, that's the only real difference. You should be able to find a GTK+ 3 theme that looks less horrible than the Adwaita theme you are using (can recommend Arc, Ceti-2, Greybird, Libra, and Numix). You should also be able to use the same icon theme for both versions (the one in GTK+2 screenshot looks like the default KDE4 one).
Bigger question: What can I do to get the "GTK2 look" (if in fact that's the factor) with Geany on CentOS? Is there a theme, or do I need to track down the newest Geany I can find built against GTK2? That one came from the EPEL repo, but I have no problem removing it and installing a local package.
The only thing you can't fix with themes is some of the dialogs like open/save/font/colour/etc, some of which will use the new toy/touch-friendly dialogs from GTK+3.
The default build of Geany is against GTK+ 2. If you can't find a package for your distro, you could build it from source, it's relatively straightforward (see official docs/README/etc).
This has larger significance for me as GTK3 becomes more widespread, particularly now that KDE (Qt) has adopted a similar "Window 8" UI look and feel.
I don't imagine Geany will be dropping GTK+ 2 support anytime in the near future, though the default might be to build against GTK+3 sooner. If you can build it from source, you should be fine for now.
Regards, Matthew Brush