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Converting Older Window Maker Themes

The successful conversion of an older theme to the current scheme can be done quickly and easily, with just a little leg work.

First, some background on Window Maker theming:

When Window Maker was at release 0.52 and earlier, the themes consisted of files scattered in subdirectories under the ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker directory. With the release level of 0.60 and higher, the themes were unified under the directory ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes. Each theme was organized under a subdirectory called "[theme name].themed". For example, the files of a theme called Snoopy will be found under the directory ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes/Snoopy.themed.

Luckily, there are tools available which make it easy to convert a theme from the old system to the new.

For the purposes of this article, I downloaded an older theme named "Nocturne" from themes.freshmeat.net. A quick dump of the tar file reveals the file distribution:

$ tar -tzvf ~/nocturne-0.52.tar.gz
Nocturne.lsm
Pixmaps/
Pixmaps/FTitle.Nocturne.jpg
Pixmaps/MenuText.Nocturne.jpg
Pixmaps/Tile.Nocturne.jpg
Pixmaps/UTitle.Nocturne.jpg
Backgrounds/
Backgrounds/Nocturne.jpg
Themes/
Themes/Nocturne 

The file Themes/Nocturne defines the "style" of the theme.

How to Convert Themes

Step 1

Unpack the target theme in the ~/GNUStep/Library/WindowMaker directory.

Example:

$ cd ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker
$ tar -xzvf ~/nocturne-0.52.tar.gz

Step 2

Move the Themes/[themename] file up one directory.

Example:

$ mv Themes/Nocturne .

Step 3

Use the setstyle command to set the theme's style, based on the enclosed style file. Conversion to the current scheme is done automatically.

Example:

 
$ setstyle ./Nocturne

Step 4

Lastly, change directory to the Themes subdirectory (~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes) and repackage the theme using the getstyle command. Ignore any error messages which might occur; they are irrelevant. Note that you may want to clean the subdirectories afterward.

Example:

 
$ cd Themes
$ getstyle -p Nocturne

That's all there is to it! So don't give up on the whole rich history of Window Maker themes; you can use any old theme you like with just a minute's work. Enjoy!