General makeover / alignment with organisation standards

[sgoudham]

Hey 👋 @mbeckrich,
First and foremost, I hope you're doing well.

I've been meaning to take the time to raise this issue but haven't had the time/motivation until now. Essentially, I'd like to work towards this repository being a bit more friendly to work on / align with some standards Catppuccin seems to have picked up over the last few years/months.

I will have to apologise in advance as these "standards" that I'm referring to are mostly in my head and really should be documented. I'll get around to that!

That being said, I'd like to see this repository:

1. Stop using development branch which is continually pushed to. We favour "topic/feature branches" across the organisation so it would be great to merge the development branch into main.
2. Document / explain how the theme is currently published to the Obsidian store. I haven't used Obsidian in a while, but I assume that it's under a personal account of yours? It would be amazing if we could get the plugin under an organisation account so that it's not tied to a single person and if possible automate the publish to the store.
3. Move away from opinionated changes, i.e. stop changing anything outside the realm of the colours. I appreciate that this is quite the undertaking given the history of the plugin.
4. Given a general makeover, this is a little subjective funnily enough:
   • Avoid hardcoding Catppuccin colours and use @catppuccin/palette's SCSS offering.
   • Stop using volta, switch to pnpm, move away from stylelint, etc (general makeover related to the npm ecosystem)
   • Stop committing the dist folder to source control.
   • Add new previews and align with the template given in catppuccin/template.

This is definitely not something to be done overnight or in one PR but I'm happy to get involved to simplify the maintenance burden of this theme. It's worth noting that points 3. and 4. are generally alluding to an entire makeover of the theme itself and would be considered a brand new major version since we shouldn't be modifying any CSS outside of the colours.

[sgoudham]

Apologies, forgot the most important message of all. Thank you again for continuing to care about this repository and updating it when possible!

[mbeckrich]

Hey hey,

I am happy to work toward the items on this list. Real quick:

1. Development was just there for my own source control and then so there was an easy way to get feedback on the rewrite of theme. Definitely don't need it and will fully switch to the feature/branch model going forward.

2. I need to look into this further to be sure, but I don't think anything wrt the theme is tied to me, specifically. It uses my name only because I'm not sure there was even much of a Catppuccin org when I first made it, but I believe I can just change the manifest.json file from my name to "Catppuccin" or "Catppuccin Organization" or whatever you think is best. It might also be that I need to open a PR with Obsidian to change things in their master list, but I will double-check. Anyway, nothing is tied to me account-wise, so if I get hit by a bus, you guys are all good. :) Anyone who can push to this repository/merge PRs can update the theme in the Obsidian theme store. Basically, the manifest.json file gets a version change, the repository gets updated, and the theme store pulls the changes in and users are good to go. I will make the process clearer in documentation soon!

3. To the best of my memory, there is only one opinionated feature in the theme—the sunken buttons and their transitions—and that is already phased out in the development branch. There are some user-requested tweaks implemented through Style Settings, but those are opt-in. This is actually a super easy change to make; I just have to get up the nerve to merge the development branch lol. :(

4. I use mise for other projects now instead of Volta. I've just kept the repo on Volta to avoid breaking anything. Is okay to switch to mise going forward or are you asking for pnpm only? I didn't realize the dist folder was in source control. I think someone else added that and I just didn't catch it, my bad. I also did not create the previews, so let me take some time to review the template link you provided and get some new ones up!

All the items on this list are very doable. I'll see what I can get done over the next 2-3 weeks and give you an update then. I'm moving and having hip surgery soon, so I'd like to get everything done before that. Thanks for checking in, and sorry the repo has gotten so unwieldy!

[itpropro]

Just for reference, as the issue is also about opinionated changes beyond colors, in this case transition, which are beyond the scope of catppuccin themes: #123

[sgoudham]

Development was just there for my own source control and then so there was an easy way to get feedback on the rewrite of theme. Definitely don't need it and will fully switch to the feature/branch model going forward.

I think it would be good to merge this branch first before any further improvements 👍

Basically, the manifest.json file gets a version change, the repository gets updated, and the theme store pulls the changes in and users are good to go. I will make the process clearer in documentation soon!

That's good to hear, appreciate you summarising it.

There are some user-requested tweaks implemented through Style Settings, but those are opt-in. This is actually a super easy change to make; I just have to get up the nerve to merge the development branch lol. :(

I'm guessing the hesistation of merging the development branch comes from the fact that it'll be the released version on the plugin store? Or is there another reason?

Is okay to switch to mise going forward or are you asking for pnpm only?

Sorry if it feels unfair, but I'd appreciate if we could stick with just pnpm to align with majority of the other repos in the organisation. However, I'm not the one maintaining this theme so I'd be happy to hear the case for mise if you really think it's worthwhile.

I also did not create the previews, so let me take some time to review the template link you provided and get some new ones up!

Refreshed previews after merging the development branch might be good!

All the items on this list are very doable. I'll see what I can get done over the next 2-3 weeks and give you an update then. I'm moving and having hip surgery soon, so I'd like to get everything done before that. Thanks for checking in, and sorry the repo has gotten so unwieldy!

Again, I appreciate you sticking by the repository and I hope your surgery goes well! I'm sure I don't need to remind you that life comes before Catppuccin!

[mbeckrich]

Development was just there for my own source control and then so there was an easy way to get feedback on the rewrite of theme. Definitely don't need it and will fully switch to the feature/branch model going forward.

I think it would be good to merge this branch first before any further improvements 👍

Basically, the manifest.json file gets a version change, the repository gets updated, and the theme store pulls the changes in and users are good to go. I will make the process clearer in documentation soon!

That's good to hear, appreciate you summarising it.

There are some user-requested tweaks implemented through Style Settings, but those are opt-in. This is actually a super easy change to make; I just have to get up the nerve to merge the development branch lol. :(

I'm guessing the hesistation of merging the development branch comes from the fact that it'll be the released version on the plugin store? Or is there another reason?

Is okay to switch to mise going forward or are you asking for pnpm only?

Sorry if it feels unfair, but I'd appreciate if we could stick with just pnpm to align with majority of the other repos in the organisation. However, I'm not the one maintaining this theme so I'd be happy to hear the case for mise if you really think it's worthwhile.

I also did not create the previews, so let me take some time to review the template link you provided and get some new ones up!

Refreshed previews after merging the development branch might be good!

All the items on this list are very doable. I'll see what I can get done over the next 2-3 weeks and give you an update then. I'm moving and having hip surgery soon, so I'd like to get everything done before that. Thanks for checking in, and sorry the repo has gotten so unwieldy!

Again, I appreciate you sticking by the repository and I hope your surgery goes well! I'm sure I don't need to remind you that life comes before Catppuccin!

Thanks. This helps a ton. No prob switching to pnpm for this, just haven't really used it before so it'll be a learning experience. :) I'll follow your advice on merging the development branch, then go from there. I should take a couple days to review the dev branch theme, just in case Obsidian has made any changes. And yeah, mostly just worried about a big change to the theme and handling the inevitable issues that come up, but I think it'll ultimately be worth it. Obsidian is much easier to theme now than it was when I first made the theme. Plus, if I don't do this now, it's not going to happen for a while, so I'd love to get things cleaned up before the surgery and then just handle any issues during recovery. Thanks again for your understanding!