Collection of *confirmed* Panther info. - Page 3

Maybe they (or we) are confusing their "metal theme" with brushed metal. DVD Studio Pro 2 and Final Cut Pro 4 sport a new theme which is neither brushed metal nor aqua. It uses Aqua-like controls, but is darker and looks somewhat more professional.

Still I doubt this will be system-wide. I think they're just going to split it further (an awful idea): Aqua for general purpose, New Metal for pro apps, Brushed Metal for consumer apps.


Eh? Didn't you just say they'd get rid of Aqua as-is.


But that's Brushed Metal, not Aqua. Aqua is already quite nice.


Nice.


Yah, yah *nods*.


Except that NetMeeting has been dead for a few years


Spreadsheet or database? That's two different things. I can't imagine using FileMaker for spreadsheets.


Er, no.

My take on the "system wide metal" rumor is that Carbon apps will support .nib files in Panther and that developers can easily make Brushed Metal interfaces in Carbon apps as they can in Cocoa apps today.

This is a system-wide support indeed, in a sense.

Where the **** is the real Universal Software Update to which any developer could hook up his apps?

1. launch Project Builder
2. new Project
3. "Carbon Application (Nib Based)"

Yeah, what Chucker said.

Carbon apps have supported nibs for a LONG time. A number of carbon apps use them.

Well, that was a real yawn. I find it interesting that so few of these reports and our own speculation focus on the system software per se. Most of this report was about apps, not the system.

Forgot about that

Must be because I don't have any nib based Carbon apps.

But is it easy to make a brushed metal look if you don't use IB?

You *do* use IB (I think. I don't do Carbon.).

I don't think people are using IB if the code in CodeWarrior or other developer tools.

Anything you do in IB, you can do programatically, by hand.

It's just a royal pain. Well no, it's not really any harder than doing any other programmatic building of a GUI... in other words, it's a royal pain.

If they use CodeWarrior, they don't use Project Builder either.

Which I never said they did.

Point is:

You can use Carbon NIBs from IB, or CodeWarrior. One's just a whole lot easier than the other.

JLL,

a ) EITHER they use Project Builder, choose "Carbon with nib-based Interface" and use Interface Builder to build the nib

b ) OR they use CodeWarrior or whatever else and need to do this manually

But choosing b ) does NOT mean they can't use nib files. It'll just get needlessly difficult.

OK, stop it now! I get it - you just didn't understand what I was asking about earlier.

I said: But is it easy to make a brushed metal look if you don't use IB?

You said: You *do* use IB

I said: I don't think people are using IB if they code in CodeWarrior or other developer tools.

You said: If they use CodeWarrior, they don't use Project Builder either.

I said: Which I never said they did.

Confusing conversation

Just out of curiousity, can you use other textures that are'nt metal? It would be kinda cool to have a "water" texture or something.

CodeWarrior can read and integrate NIBs generated with Interface Builder, so the answer to using NIBs in CW is the same as the answer for PB. Both Carbon and Cocoa apps developed in CW can use IB interfaces.

A system wide metal interface can mean either some of the following or all of them :
- All iApps already brush metal
- other Apple apps managing media "brushmetalizzed" : Mail, Preview, Sherlock, TextEdit (or next Appleworks)
- Apple utilities : Airport Admin Utility, Disk Uitlity, Disk Copy, ColorSync Utility etc...
- Apple System integrated utilities (no apps per se but os features or "configuration panels" : Print Center, Preferences, NetInfo Manager, Terminal, Console, Help...

My guess is that Apple will have in brush metal all its apps that manage media (text, pictures, sound, video) -,including Mail, Sherlock and maybe Help ; and Utilities covering different functions will be considered no more Finder features but Apps per se and thus could be metallized:
- Print Center (1: install, choose and configure printers, 2: manage trays and print jobs and printed layout)
- Network Utility
- ODBC Administrator
- Disc Utility

With that, a System wide brush metal interface could be considered as a reality while Aqua Finder would be still there. That's why rumors speaking of the system wide metal interface could be not so inaccurate even if Aqua is still there.

On a side note, some Utilities could be gathered in a special Advanced Prefences Panel : Colorsync Utility, Display calibrator, Audio Midi Setup, Airport and Bluetooth Utilities, NetInfo, Keychain...they are hardly apps and more settings panels.
Why not go further and set this thing in brush metal...

I think that iChat would be great with a feature that Safari brought us: Tabs. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm on iChat, I am usually talking to 4-5 people at once, in individual chats. To eliminate that chaos would be great. Imagine: all of your chats grouped into a single window. Nice.
Another app that iChat could take on would be Proteus. Proteus provides users with compatability with AIM, Jabber, Yahoo--the whole gamut of messaging services. iChat: the universal messenger.

At least per Apple's UE guidelines, it does make sense that apps like Disk Copy, Airport Utility and Disk Utility would be brushed metal since they specifically interact with physical devices. That's saying nothing of the metal guidelines Apple wrote of course.

I'm quite cool about iapps having 'metal' interfaces. It distinguishes it, for me, from the rest of the Aqua desktop. I wish they'd can the interface pin-stripes. Classic iMac is gone...and I think they should go from 'X' as well.

Apple white would be fine...or metallic white...a hint of grey here or there to add depth. Bit like that subtle stuff that goes on in their print adds...

Or make translucent blue like the dock. Either way, let go of the pin-stripes.

I'd also like to see more 3d effects and QE gubbins. More fluid effects. The 970 should herald the oomph to do 'pile' type effects and have multiple desktop screens on rotating Cube style transitions.

The option to take stuff out the dock and plonk it on your desktop. Put the trash there. Have the 'X' support 'Mac 9' interface layout if necessary...to get over more of those 25 million Mac users across. Does it really matter to secure Next's place in history? I'd like more 'Mac feel' to the next release. More clickety-bickety sounds. Jaguar's good. But it's far from the finished item in terms of the deft touches enjoyed by Mac 9 users. Optimisations could afford more, no?

I like 'X'. But it doesn't have the charm of 9 yet. Ironic that all the eye-candy in the world can't give you that 'X-factor', eh?

Lemon Bon Bon

man, I have lost faith in LoopRumors
their website has become muddled, whereas it used to have a nice clean website....

also, they used to be conservative in their sayings, now they are throwing out these outrageous claims!

I wonder if this means you can print Finder windows again. (PS: I know about the drop proxy on the Print Center trick.)

Is there any doubt that this will be advertised as a Major Feature in the Panther marketing campaign?

Out of curiosity, why do people print finder windows? for a list of file names and some attributes? (assuming the list isn't too long..)

It's usually for backup/inventory purposes. Really, Apple should couple it with either their .Mac Backup app or with Disk Copy in some capacity.

I see Apple changing OS X to take the jobs of several small utilities: you know, Windowshade X, Transparent Dock, Fruitmenu-- all of the OS X customization apps.

It would be nice to have more customisation options in 10.3 than is now available built-in to the OS. Bring back the system sounds!

Now this is a good call. I sincerely hope they will.

Somehow I doubt they would just add these things straight-up. If they did add the functionality, they would probably do it in a way that fits the current window management model they have now.

Hmmm... Windowshade and BeHeirachic started off as third party additions before being incorporated into System 7. So it's not infeasible!

Amorya

To clear it up: You don't have to use nib files to get the brushed metal look, so you don't have to use IB either. Even RealBasic has no problems making metal windows, and RealBasic doesn't even use bundles, let alone nib files.

I don't see this happening to any Apple OS in the near future. At least not until it is more common in other software programs. If it will, I'm sure it will be dealt with in a different and more elegant way than ms is now with XP, and maybe not requiering you to give them your personal information. I'm sure it would stop a lot of pirating of OS X which i recon is quite widespread for the moment, and that would earn Apple some more money. For me it will not make much of a difference since I buy "all" of my software anyway, but if it happens, the activation prosedure have to be easy and relatively hassle-free. And I don't think Apple will make unregistered computers stop working after 30 days. Maybe just giving you a message to register for every 30 mins or so, making it enough of a hassle for you to bother to register or buy the os if you're using a pirated version.

Apology accepted
Seems reasonable
This seems most likely I guess.
Taking a "before dinner coffee" myself (time is currently 16:58 here)

I'd believe that in a second. Apple has reportedly been very irritated by leaks of OS X beta seeds.

Especially now that MS is in the midst of developing Longhorn, it's crucial that Apple keep Panther under wraps for as long as possible.

Calling Panther "not G3-friendly", OTOH, sounds misleading to me. That's just the flip side, for example, of "even more optimized for AltiVec". Great for G4+ () users, no effect for G3 users.

that's not a 'public' beta.

that's a developer seed.