I have Tk version 8.5.3 installed, theming engine support added since 8.5. Still, I don't know how to use themes, default Motif is just ugly:
A:
From the question I take it that ddd is using Tk widgets for its GUI? The answer is that it will take quite a bit of developer effort to make the change.
The problem is that the Tk themed widgets aren't drop-in replacements for the old ones. They necessarily work differently, and far too much code out there existed that used the old widgets' fine details for critical effects for it to be possible to force an upgrade of everyone. Unhelpfully, it's typically production-grade applications that bear the brunt of this; quick scripts can upgrade easily enough since they typically only use features that are compatible, but the more effort was put into tuning the more there is to be undone.
(The other issue is that the native themes for Linux aren't really good enough yet due to messy problems with model incompatibilities and, IIRC, licensing tangles. If your development targets are Windows or OSX this shouldn't matter too much to you.)
[EDIT]: BTW, if it is genuine Motif and not Tk, then you're stuck. That widget set always looked like ass.
Donal Fellows
2010-04-05 06:33:38