[Geany-Users] Visual / appearance question (Geany and beyond)

[Matthew Brush]

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