> I have carefully set up my desktop environment the way I like it, specifically the way menus are displayed, colours, fonts, icons, keyboard shortcuts, notifications. Ecode does not even make a single attempt to adhere which was not acceptable when Winamp came out and certainly not acceptable in 2023.
I understand what you want, but it's not an easy task I it's not something I care anymore. It's technically possible to create a theme that looks almost exactly like anyone's desktop but I don't think it is worth it. eepp, the underlying technology behind ecode is more like HTML+CSS. All the styling is done via CSS and the layouting with XML, and it's more similar to the web technology than native desktop widgets (such thing stopped to be a thing in every OS except macOS).
> Stop "skinning" software, it is literally easier to do nothing and then the software will automatically do the correct thing and follow the rules.
Then you don't understand the problem.
> When I paste in text, it only shows squares, afaict only a few scripts like Latin or Cyrillic work.
The README file clarifies this. For the moment I don't support wide-characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc) and the editor only supports UTF-8. I'll add support for it at some point. Wide-characters are only supported in the terminal for the moment.
> The input method editor does not work correctly, I can't see what I'm typing.
I guess you're referring to IME support. It's still pending.
> Unusable, into the rubbish bin it goes.
I have no problem with critics, but this is not the way to have a conversation about an open-source application. At least take the time to read the README and understand that this is work in progress. Such comments like yours are a waste of time.