Can we avoid using xml files for theming like colors xml the

Question

Can we avoid using xml files for theming like colors xml theme xml in the near future Currently theming is a mix of xml and `MaterialTheme` composable Another question would be if we can set the color of the system bar via compose or is it only via theme xml possible

Adam Powell · Answer

You can take it down to just the one theme file for the starting window if you want Check out some of the insets work < cb> has done in his accompanist library for how to style the system bars and such

cb · Answer

Accompanist doesn t currently have anything in there explicitly for the status nav bars The accompanist insets library helps you handle WindowInsets so you can draw behind them < nickbutcher> wrote this utility which allows easier setting of the colors

cb · Answer

We have spoken about shipping this in Accompanist but haven t gotten around to it yet

Adam Powell · Answer

I always just take over the drawing of bar backgrounds via insets and do my own thing man shrugging

Lilly · Answer

< cb> Interesting utility thanks for sharing < Adam Powell> gt You can take it down to just the one theme file for the starting window if you want Wouldn t I need two one default theme xml and one theme xml with `night` modifier for dark mode Otherwise like u said gt so you could imagine why you might want to make that light dark aware you wouldn t want someone using the app in dark mode to get a sudden bright flash on their screen when your app first loads So we can t expect that xml system is dropped anytime so we don t need to have theme xml

Adam Powell · Answer

while we might reopen some build time dsl explorations we did a couple years back so long as compose supports old platform versions the starting window configuration has to be something that exists in the resources of an apk that the system can load and use before loading the app s actual code

Adam Powell · Answer

you can disable the starting window entirely again via a theme and rely only on what you do in compose dynamically at runtime but I think you ll find that the perceived startup latency of your app is much higher when you do This little smoke and mirrors trick is quite effective slightly smiling face

Adam Powell · Answer

<https cyrilmottier com 2013 01 23 android app launching made gorgeous > goes into a bit more of the mechanism at play Despite how old the post is the info there is still relevant

Adam Powell · Answer

specifically you can try out a fully dynamic way in your app by setting `android windowDisablePreview` attribute to `true` in the theme

Adam Powell · Answer

even though we ve consistently seen android runtime optimizations and devices getting faster apps have also gotten more sophisticated perform a lot of initialization on startup that ends up blocking the critical path to first activity draw

Adam Powell · Answer

often you re still looking at 100 200ms on mid to high end devices for a cold start of an otherwise empty app

Lilly · Answer

Your extensive explanations are great Thanks a lot heart

cb · Answer

gt I always just take over the drawing of bar backgrounds via insets and do my own thing man shrugging gt Same but I feel like we might be a bit on our own in thinking that s the easiest way joy

Cicero · Answer

Just double checking this conversation is there any way even a hacky way or still nothing on sight

Cicero · Answer

So whoever ends up stumbling on this place you can still chop off most of your theme xml anyway and you might know now that you can configure most of your app without it but when it comes down to system configuration status bar and sorts of you might feel limited by the offered APIs Fear no more <https google github io accompanist systemuicontroller >