add Opacity Slider extension

[NeatNit]

Add new extension: Opacity Slider. I should have done this a year ago, it was ready then. (https://github.com/NeatNit/cinnamon-opacity-slider)

To do before merge:

• clean up code, comments
• add icon (wish I didn't have to)
• add readme
• test on latest Cinnamon (can someone do this for me? I'm not keen on messing with this on my only working device)
• make sure the file structure is all there
• (optional?) figure out how translations work

Hope this will be accepted! I had to basically hijack the menu building function in order to add my custom entry. Perhaps in future versions of Cinnamon there should be a proper way of adding menu items.

All feedback welcome.

[rcalixte]

• test on latest Cinnamon (can someone do this for me? I'm not keen on messing with this on my only working device)

Are you able to setup a virtual machine or use a live USB ISO? Both are common strategies for testing changes without affecting your current system.

• (optional?) figure out how translations work

There is a script in the root of the repository to assist with that (cinnamon-spices-makepot), along with the README, assuming you add the gettext portions in the code for the strings you want to be extracted. (The metadata and settings are automatically parsed.) Take a look at other extensions for an example. You need to cleanup the UUID portion to match the name of the Spice as well. For simplicity, you can use your GitHub username instead of what appears to be an invalid web domain. For faster validation, you can run it locally before pushing to GitHub:

$ ./validate-spice [email protected] (or opacity-slider@neatnit)

Feel free to reach out if you need anything explained further.

[NeatNit]

Thanks for marking as draft, I couldn't find the option.

Are you able to setup a virtual machine or use a live USB ISO? Both are common strategies for testing changes without affecting your current system.

Unfortunately no, I have pretty much no free space right now.

I should clarify, I'm running the latest stable Mint, but I know a new release is coming up soon and that's the one I can't test.

The domain is mine, it's just not used for anything at the moment. If it's really not okay to use it in this state, I'll change it.

[rcalixte]

I should clarify, I'm running the latest stable Mint, but I know a new release is coming up soon and that's the one I can't test.

There are no major breaking changes in Cinnamon so I would expect this to continue working. If anything does come up, we can address it when the time comes.

If it's really not okay to use it in this state, I'll change it.

The current convention is to have the UUID be descriptive-name@github-username.

[NeatNit]

Alright, I think it's done besides translations.

There is a script in the root of the repository to assist with that (cinnamon-spices-makepot), along with the README, assuming you add the gettext portions in the code for the strings you want to be extracted. (The metadata and settings are automatically parsed.) Take a look at other extensions for an example.

Right, I think I figured this out as I was writing this, but it was a bit confusing. I hope I got it right. There's one string that needs to be translated in the code:

cinnamon-spices-extensions/opacity-slider@neatnit/files/opacity-slider@neatnit/extension.js

Lines 86 to 88 in 6097bea

	function updateLabel(opacity) {
	label.setLabel(_("Opacity") + ": " + Math.floor(100*opacity/255).toString() + "%")
	}

Is it correct to use _("Opacity") to get a translated string? I don't remember where I got this from, it was over a year ago. Probably from https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/blob/master/js/ui/windowMenu.js which I referenced a lot.

cinnamon-spices-makepot seems to have figured it out so it's probably good.

PS. what threw me off is that apparently my metadata.json was missing a version, and makepot refused to run because of that. Shouldn't the validate-spice script catch this kind of thing?

[rcalixte]

Is it correct to use _("Opacity") to get a translated string?

You still need to define the function and import the gettext library. The string was parsed correct by the script but it is still not operational for users with other localizations configured on the setups.

PS. what threw me off is that apparently my metadata.json was missing a version, and makepot refused to run because of that. Shouldn't the validate-spice script catch this kind of thing?

It's technically an optional parameter so it should be crashing. The script was updated recently so this might be an oversight. I can take a look at that separately.

[NeatNit]

You still need to define the function and import the gettext library. The string was parsed correct by the script but it is still not operational for users with other localizations configured on the setups.

Can you give me a specific extension example to copy? I'm not familiar with the whole thing, it's a bit confusing.

[NeatNit]

Okay, I'm pretty sure I did it right this time. I tested with a stupid en translation and it worked.

[rcalixte]

Okay, I'm pretty sure I did it right this time.

Congrats on getting this done!