Themes, Stripes and Duality
Okay, I can't STAND OSX's stripes any longer, and feel like doing something reckless, such as installing a simple theme that will remove them (and I am aware of the usual Brad warnings!)
But when I go to VersionTracker to check out the latest version of Duality, it seems <a href="http://www.conundrumsoft.com/"; target="_blank">Cunundrum</a>'s site is down, and has been for several days...
Anybody know why, and how I can get my hands on Duality?
[ 01-26-2003: Message edited by: Arbernaut ]</p>
But when I go to VersionTracker to check out the latest version of Duality, it seems <a href="http://www.conundrumsoft.com/"; target="_blank">Cunundrum</a>'s site is down, and has been for several days...
Anybody know why, and how I can get my hands on Duality?
[ 01-26-2003: Message edited by: Arbernaut ]</p>
Comments
<a href="http://www.clichesw.com/themechanger/"; target="_blank">http://www.clichesw.com/themechanger/</a>;
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I use it with ThemeChanger, which sometimes halts after installing the theme, but a force quit solves that problem.
Changing the themes is like taking the bits off the engine of your classic car and replacing them with stuff people have cobbled together out of seaweed and snot. It may not hold up in the long run, especially if the component is replaced by Apple during another update.
Themes... simple eye cany they are not. Try to imagine crossing the streams in Ghostbusters. The final result is unknown and may be more than you bargained for.
I *wish* Appple would give us the opportunity to change this one feature... Graphite was a good start, because let's face it, that Aqua blue makes the OS look like a kid's toy. C'mon Apple, you can do it!
in the meantime...
Does anyone have the latest duality installer available for download, or know where I can get it in the absence of the Conundrum site?
I had one on the C64 which would make the machine go three times as fast. There was another for ten times, but I always died in the games because they ran so fast.
(Think Blazemonger(tm) speeds for the Amiga)
Anyways, yes... the same way of playing russian roulette with your irreplacable data.
[ 01-27-2003: Message edited by: nosey ]</p>
I used Duality on my machine at work (I thought I'd better test on a computer that wasn't mine
<strong>Changing the themes is like taking the bits off the engine of your classic car and replacing them with stuff people have cobbled together out of seaweed and snot.</strong><hr></blockquote>This is the best analogy I've read in a while because it is true. Unless you take some initiative to examine these theme files before you install them, you could render your computer completely unusable (short of reinstalling the OS).
[quote]Originally posted by Anders the White:
<strong>So installing themes are like writing random poke numbers on your VIC20 or C64? THAT was the most exciting thing I had ever done before I turned 13.</strong><hr></blockquote>Close enough. You are basically deleting (irrevocably, I should mention) key System files and replacing them with hacked-up copies. This is why themes are especially hazardous when updates come out from Apple: Apple changes something that a theme doesn't have and your System gets confused when it tries looking for Apple's updated files. Result? Who knows, but it usually isn't good.
Russian Roulette indeed.
If you dare to use themes, I must strongly advise you regularly back up your data and be prepared to reinstall the System if things fudge up.
Presumably the stripes in OSX are controlled by a single stripey image, Could I just replace that single image with an image of the same name but without stripes, so that when Apple updates the system it finds what it's expecting to find...?
Puh-leeeze - I gotta find a way of getting rid of these stripes!!!
I'm afraid it is a LOT more complex than that.
The things that most of these themes change are texture resources (of which there are many hundreds) in an "rsrc" file of the HIToolbox framework. There is no single stripe resource. There are separate resources for the stripes in menu bars, window titles, modeless titles, various background fillers, and everywhere else. In fact, the stripes span different *types* of resources altogether as well; you would find them as both the PPAT and #pxm resource types.
I actually hunted them all down and made the first stripeless theme back in the Public Beta days for a handful of AI and MacNN members. Today, I'm sure you can find an updated version from someone else if you look around long enough.
[ 01-27-2003: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
*sigh*
<strong>I use it with ThemeChanger, which sometimes halts after installing the theme, but a force quit solves that problem.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's actually not frozen at all, I think it's just waiting for information from the Finder and Dock to make sure they're running again after it restarts them...
Just choose "About themechanger" from the app-menu to un-halt it.
Cheers!
[ 01-28-2003: Message edited by: Whyatt Thrash ]</p>
I really like Watercolor on ResExcellence. Also, Milk, Platinum Classic (I had no idea it would look so dated though!!!) and SmoothSripes.
Watercolor has really good potential. It just needs to be a little more rounded, subtle rounded corners like on an iBook, and more control over the interface, more things need to be blue. Speaking of this, can a Theme change the background color of Finder windows?
<strong>Watercolor has really good potential. It just needs to be a little more rounded, subtle rounded corners like on an iBook, and more control over the interface, more things need to be blue. Speaking of this, can a Theme change the background color of Finder windows?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I just found this theme last week, and it rules. I agree about the corners rounded a bit, that would be a very nice touch.
You can change the background of a Finder window easily. Command+J, bottom set of options, select color, and then... the color. If you have the "all windows" thing checked above it should be fairly universal.