[Martijn]

Currently theme and colour are stored as global settings and are reset when switching skins.
Ideally these should be moved to skin specific stored variables. This way switching skins you retain the theme/colour you choose for a specific skin.

Additionally these could be stored as skin specific settings as well:

• sounds
  
• startup window
  
• skin zoom
  

[Koying]

Maybe already answered, but is there a reason (beside historical) why the skin-specific data aren't stored in addon_data, like any plain addon?
If you experiment a bit with skins, guisettings.xml is spammed with skin settings forever, which, imo, doesn't belong there.

Furthermore, I don't know if it's related or my fault, but I more than often loose view settings when switching skins...

[Martijn]

Maybe already answered, but is there a reason (beside historical) why the skin-specific data aren't stored in addon_data, like any plain addon?
If you experiment a bit with skins, guisettings.xml is spammed with skin settings forever, which, imo, doesn't belong there.

Furthermore, I don't know if it's related or my fault, but I more than often loose view settings when switching skins...

no one has ported it yet to be stored like other add-ons. so simply lack of time
There's some other thread where this was brought up as well. Ideally skin settings would indeed be completely stored in addon_data yes.
Same story as splitting up installed add-ons per profile.

viewsettings are stored in separate database so it could be that it stores the view ID specific to that skin. Switching to another skin might not have that view and it falls back to the default one. (don't shoot me if i'm wrong on this)

[Montellese]

View settings are saved per skin so you shouldn't loose those. But they are also per path.

Concerning skin settings there are (at least) two ways to move forward:

1. Simply store the settings (in the same format) that we currently store in guisettings.xml into ther skin's addon data directory in a settings.xml file
   
2. Force skinners to write a proper settings.xml like every other addon. That will allow us/them to also make use of the addon settings dialog but it will also limit their possibilities a lot.
   

The former shouldn't be too difficult to achieve but it will still leave us with two different setting systems used for skins and other addons.
The latter would completely unify the two settings systems but it would most likely be completely backwards incompatible for skins and would be a lot of work for skinners.

Also moving the whole addon settings system to the same system we now use for core settings is still on my TODO list and we're probably quite a bit closer now than we were with Helix (with the group titles/labels) but I think there are still features in the addon settings system that will be difficult / hacky to implement in the core settings system.

[ronie]

[*]Force skinners to write a proper settings.xml like every other addon. That will allow us/them to also make use of the addon settings dialog but it will also limit their possibilities a lot.

-1 for the reason you mentioned.

skin settings are very flexible and allow you to do just about anything.
addon settings on the other hand are limited and clumsy (especially the visible conditions).

[Montellese]

-1 for the reason you mentioned.

skin settings are very flexible and allow you to do just about anything.
addon settings on the other hand are limited and clumsy (especially the visible conditions).

Yeah that's what I figured. But storing them in a settings.xml file in the skin's addon data instead of in guisettings.xml shouldn't be an issue right?
The only downside I can think of is that the settings are lost when manually uninstalling and then re-installing a skin (but that might already be the case right now, I don't really know).

[Koying]

The only downside I can think of is that the settings are lost when manually uninstalling and then re-installing a skin (but that might already be the case right now, I don't really know).

Not a (pure) downside, imo. At least, there would be a way to get rid of them.
Afaik, currently, just giving a skin a try makes those settings stick in guisettings forever.

[ronie]

But storing them in a settings.xml file in the skin's addon data instead of in guisettings.xml shouldn't be an issue right?

yup that would be fine.

The only downside I can think of is that the settings are lost when manually uninstalling and then re-installing a skin

afaik we don't delete addon settings. ever.

[Martijn]

The only downside I can think of is that the settings are lost when manually uninstalling and then re-installing a skin

afaik we don't delete addon settings. ever.

Indeed. Addons settings are kept forever, till user wipes his userdata of course. Uninstalling addons has no effect on this