Patch For Scrollbars Without Arrow Buttons

Wednesday, July 27. 2005

Patch For Scrollbars Without Arrow Buttons

I realised some time ago that I never actually use the arrow buttons on scrollbars (especially in KDE, since KDE has intelligent mouse-wheel handling). So, since to me they are a waste of space, I made a patch to remove the arrow buttons, here's a screenshot (300 KiB). The patch applies against recent SVN, and prolly most of KDE 3.x, but this isn't tested.If you try it against a stable KDE release and it applies and works, then please say so in the comments, thanks!

One issue I've found is that now it's hard to tell the scrollbar is actually a scrollbar. The arrow buttons are the key part when visually recognising that the widget is in fact a scrollbar and not just some button or a part of the frame-decoration. Also the patch doesn't work well with the GTK-Qt widget engine, but I know how to fix this, I just can't be bothered yet.

There is no option in preferences, you just have to have no arrow buttons. Maybe one day I'll make it a proper patch with config dialog checkbox, etc. But not yet! I hope the patch is liked by some people.

Apply like so:

/your_SVN_root/trunk/KDE/kdelibs/$ patch < no_scrollbar_arrow_buttons.SVN_2005_07_24.diff

Please note, in the screenshot, the score of 15 for Mike Oldfield's amaroK is partly because, as an amaroK developer, the scores in my collection are mostly bogus (due to testing), and also because the score deciding algo isn't too fair for longer tracks (this one is 60 minutes long). In fact love that track!

Posted by Max Howell in mxcl at 09:52 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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Hehhehe.. Screenshot looks nice, though it DOES look strange and little bit makes the scollbars disappear :S All-in-All good to have you back doing grazy stuff

#1 xatax on 2005-07-27 10:31 (Reply)

I'm using KDE 3.4.0 level "b", and i just downloaded the newest svn, but the arrows didn't disappeared. It's a great idea, but it doesn't works with my KDE

#2 Sonny on 2005-07-27 12:12 (Reply)

It's not in SVN, it's a patch you have to apply to SVN.

#2.1 mxcl on 2005-07-27 12:22 (Reply)

I think it's good. even better if then the scroolbar is drawn with little arrows in the handle, or with arrowed ends or stuff like that to better highlight its usage.
Can you provide a screenshot using a different (for example an aqua-like) widget theme?

#3 koral on 2005-07-27 13:04 (Reply)

Just tried it with baghira, it doesn't work very well. Graphical glitches where the arrow buttons used to be. So presumably baghira makes some assumptions about the scrollbars.

The arrow buttons don't get removed with Qt-themes as they don't use kdefx, it also doesn't remove the arrow buttons with some other KDE themes, eg. Keramik, so maybe they don't use the parts of kdefx I modified.

Works with Plastik though, and 3 or 4 others I have installed.

#3.1 mxcl on 2005-07-27 13:19 (Reply)

About scrollbar becoming unrecognizable, you can add the arrows to the extreme ends of the sliding bar itself.

#4 floyd on 2005-07-27 13:22 (Reply)

I would also add something to the background of the scrollbar, at the ends.

#4.1 Mitchell Mebane on 2005-07-27 15:28 (Reply)

Please don't ever check this in. If you do, please do not set it as default behaviour.
Usability-wise, taking away one of the few clear items in the window metaphor is not going to help people.

#5 Giacomo (Homepage) on 2005-07-27 13:26 (Reply)

I haven't the kudos to check this in so don't panic!

#5.1 mxcl on 2005-07-27 14:10 (Reply)

And yes, I think it's pretty obvious this would be an optional feature with a default of "show scrollbar arrow buttons". Perhaps some KDE commits make you think we are all idiots, but I assure you, we have at least this much sense!

#5.2 mxcl on 2005-07-27 14:14 (Reply)

wow, that's great, I would love to have this in my kde programs, scrollbar arrows are really a relict of former times, and serve no purpose at all anymore.

Any chance to get that into /trunk ?

#6 Martin Stubenschrott on 2005-07-27 13:43 (Reply)

Perhaps, but as things stand currently, I don't think I could ever get it to work for all styles. Maybe with KDE 4 though.

#6.1 mxcl on 2005-07-27 14:15 (Reply)

but wouldn't it be the best to implement it on Qt-level, so that also non-kde qt programs benefit from the patch?

#6.1.1 Martin Stubenschrott on 2005-07-27 14:29 (Reply)

Trolltech doesn't take patchs really, they don't share copyright of Qt.

Personally I think it would be a bad idea to make this an option. KDE is not lacking in options to say the least.

#6.1.1.1 Ian Monroe on 2005-07-27 14:31 (Reply)

Well this is one of those things that has to be optional, you'll never convince everyone to like it and there's no halfway house that I can see. Also I think it's a more valid option than say "animate progress bars", that should always be on (even though it cheats) as it reassures people that the application hasn't hung.

So add this an option and remove some of the less valid ones. Another example, shade sorted column in ListViews. The only reason this is optional is the current color selection method sucks and makes the listviews look ugly. It can be improved and then the checkbox can disappear.

There's too many options in KDE because things haven't been implemented well enough. I'm not saying people have done a bad job, just that options could disappear if their work was expanded and improved.

#6.1.1.1.1 mxcl on 2005-07-27 14:43 (Reply)

Ok, well if there's a rule that to add an option you have to personally remove 2 options I'd be for it.

#6.1.1.1.1.1 Ian Monroe on 2005-07-27 15:31 (Reply)

Awsome, I hope this makes it into /trunk eventually.

#7 Thrawn01 (Homepage) on 2005-07-27 14:03 (Reply)

Well... you can use the "Platinum" scrollbar style in lipstik (and in comix too, and of course in platinum)... It doesnt remove the arrows completely but only shows them at the bottom (or the left) of the scrollbar grooves... slightly less cluttered look, but still usable...

#8 PaT on 2005-07-27 15:58 (Reply)

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