Annoying tight horizontal stripes in OSX windows

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 54
    reidreid Posts: 190member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    In case you guys missed it, BuonRotto was referring to the rounded corners of the screen, not just of the windows.



    Does OS X still round off the corners on CRT displays? It doesn't on the LCD / Flat Panel screens that I've used.
  • Reply 22 of 54
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    The top left and top right corners on the menubar, yes. It should be the same on LCDs because the images for the corners are hard-coded into the Extras.rsrc -- unless Apple is doing something really funky and ignoring that #pxm resource on LCDs. That, I doubt.
  • Reply 23 of 54
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    They're rounded on my LCD.



    I kind of like the aqua stripes though, I've tried non striped themes and they looked too plain, too platinumish. Brushed metal can suck it though.
  • Reply 24 of 54
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I think I would like the stripes better if they were lower-contrast and perhaps closer-packed together instead like 1-pixel white and 1-pixel grey. That would still give "substance" to the open spaces but be less intrusive.



    By the way, you guys know that Microsoft is finally copying this aspect of Mac OS X and putting horizontal pinstripes in Longhorn, right?







    I'll try to dig up the screenshot.
  • Reply 25 of 54
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Ah, here is it. It's from a farly old build, though, and may have changed since then:



    http://www.etplanet.com/windows/long...03-05-14_6.jpg
  • Reply 26 of 54
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    I think I would like the stripes better if they were lower-contrast and perhaps closer-packed together instead like 1-pixel white and 1-pixel grey. That would still give "substance" to the open spaces but be less intrusive.



    You'll notice that there are 2 types of pinstripes in OS X: the ones for toolbars, status bars and especially the menu bar have a light gray (I agree that the gray value could be a touch lighter) pinstripe in a mostly white field, then there's the 1 : 1 gray-to-white pinstripe in title bars and most other places. I like the thin gray stripe in the mostly white field more than the latter appearance, a true pinstripe. I think like the Classic Mac OS appearance, both in Platinum and the original black and white look actually, use pinstripes intelligently: indicating grabbable/draggable areas. I think OS X could use this rationale a bit more and just pull back on the pinstripes a bit. I wouldn't want all texture eliminated from the standard Aqua look, just selectively.
  • Reply 27 of 54
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Actually, if you dig through the rsrc files, you'll find that there are a dozen or more various kinds of stripes. Given, some of them are identical to others, but there are many more than just two.



    I do like your logic about draggable areas.
  • Reply 28 of 54
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    Actually, if you dig through the rsrc files, you'll find that there are a dozen or more various kinds of stripes. Given, some of them are identical to others, but there are many more than just two.



    I do like your logic about draggable areas.




    Yeah, I might be post-rationalizing the pinstripes in Platinum a bit, but that seems to be a good way to do it.



    Ugh, sounds like a less-is-more policy should be enacted on the pinstripes. I assume there's a technical reason why some are duplicated, but one is probably enough, maybe two: one white with gray pinstripes and one gray with white pinstripes?
  • Reply 29 of 54
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DiscoCow

    If anything, Apple should at least add a few new options for button/widget color.





    I WANT MY RUBY AQUA!




    No, no, man. You know what'd be even better than aqua buttons that look like blood droplets? Chrome Aqua.



    They'd look like beads of mercury, that scroll, and glow, and ripple. Very neat, and it'd go so well with the chrome neck on the iMac, or the metal drive bays on the PowerMac, or the chrome apples they are affixing to all their hardware. They're all very chromy, why not the OS itself, too?
  • Reply 30 of 54
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    Speaking of customization, I saw a mention of "Tinker Tools" (name correct?) somewhere.



    Questions: What is this? Is it recommended by Insiders? and Where can I get it?
  • Reply 31 of 54
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Tinker Tool is a third-party system prefence panel that allows you to alter hidden options for the Aqua GUI.



    Tinker Tool
  • Reply 32 of 54
    discocowdiscocow Posts: 603member
    You know what would be better than ruby (aka blood) or Chrome Aqua?



    BOTH!!



    I can dream can't I?!
  • Reply 33 of 54
    Works for me! I'd like to see ruby, and pearly white with chrome, as well as:



    -Snow

    -Bondi

    -Blueberry

    -Strawberry

    -Tangerine

    -Grape

    -Lime

    -Key Lime

    -Indigo

    -Sage

    -all of them



    I think maybe blue dalmation and flower power, too? maybe. I mean, I wouldn't use it? ¬_¬
  • Reply 34 of 54
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    Chrome, blood, and quicksilver (like that on the Jaguar Server boxes.) That'd make me happy.



    And yeah, tone down the friggin' stripes.
  • Reply 35 of 54
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    I haven't really decided on whether brushed metal should be system wide (probably not), or if the pinstripes should stay or go...but I do think Apple should add a few different themes to OS X. Instead of having many themes like OS 9, mainly differing in color, OS X should have a few themes differing greatly, like the difference between aqua and brushed metal.



    I like the Mercury theme idea, and the ruby. Sounds cool.



    Oh, BTW, please take away my rounded corners! I really dig the top corners being rounded, and the bottom square.
  • Reply 36 of 54
    Well, no one ever got what they wanted just by doing nothing? except Ghandi.



    Let's flood their inbox, that'll get their attention.
  • Reply 37 of 54
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    WHere are the resource files for the stripes and aqua buttons located on an OS X mac? And how do you modify these images?
  • Reply 38 of 54
    discocowdiscocow Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    WHere are the resource files for the stripes and aqua buttons located on an OS X mac? And how do you modify these images?



    I don't think so Tim.



    The last time I tried to modify aqua I was left with an unusable system (you only notice this after you reboot or log out.....pure blue screen anybody?)



    The only way (that I know of ) to fix this without wiping out your hard disk and reinstalling ten, is to boot up from an os 9 cd, install os 9, switch the startup disk to 9 (unless you have it installed already) reboot, (unless you have a second optical drive, then you can skip the last three steps) shove in a os x install cd and copy the UI files from the system on cd to your system...





    problem solved





    here it is:



    system/library/frameworks/carbon.framework/hitoolbox.frameworks/versions/a/resources/



    ...or something along those lines
  • Reply 39 of 54
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Placebo, just do a search for posts by me that include the word "theme" or "extras.rsrc".



    Fuahaha.



    Here's one of the first ones that popped up in that search, actually:

    Quote:

    I take it you've never read any of my tirades about the inherent problems to installing themes, right?



    One of the many problems with themes is that the installers are "stupid". No, really, I do mean that. An "intelligent" installer would at least check the files to see if they contain the same resources as the original system's versions. Rather, installers like Duality just blindly replace the system resources, only performing very minimal checks for compatibility.



    What's wrong with just blindly installing over existing components? Well, if I sent you a custom kernel for Mac OS X, would you just blindly replace your own kernel with it and not somehow try to check if it was the right kind? I might have sent you a kernel from an old Darwin build, the Public Beta, 10.0, or some other amalgamation I just made up. The resources that these themes replace are crucial for the OS to run, to even boot up for that matter. When Apple makes changes or additions to these files and you try to replace them with some older hacked versions, it's very likely that you will run into problems.



    *sigh*



    But I digress. The themers think their tools are sufficient, but when novice users run into problems, they're just out of luck. Sometimes problems can be fixed by running an Aqua restore package (also risky), but other cases may require booting into single-user mode and trying to figure out some terminal commands or just reinstall OS X from the original CDs.



    Do you see where I'm going with this?



    If you are adamant about running a theme on your system, you need to be EXTREMELY cautious about installing anything after a system update from Apple. If any of the files that themers hack have been changed, the theme packages themselves will have to be updated. The theme installer apps may have to be updated as well. Before you apply a theme to your newly updated system, double-check and triple-check that the theme you have has been updated specifically for the new OS version you are running.



    So, to answer your original question, yes, several interface files have been changed in the recent 10.2.3 update. You will need to get updated themes and probably an updated version of Duality.



    and another:

    Quote:

    The system is made with a number of interdependencies. One framework may rely on another framework to be up-to-date in order to work properly or for certain features to be enabled. When you install a "theme" you are taking very large parts of the Carbon and HIToolbox frameworks and CoreServices, deleting them from your hard drive, and replacing them with very heavily modified/hacked versions. If you have an older version than the system needs, you are bound to run into some problems.



    This is what happens when you install a theme and the system has been updated recently. The system expects version 'y' when your theme is a hacked-up version 'x' -- THAT is one of the reasons you have problems like you did with 10.2.1 or 10.2.2.



    You can't blame Apple for updating these frameworks. To fix bugs and add features, there's no other way. It's people's own faults if they decide to muck around in /System and things start to break. Apple had good reasons for disabling "write" access to /System for all users but root. This is one of them.



    And I could go on and on and on...



    DiscoCow is just one of the many people that have had major problems by trying to modify Aqua.
  • Reply 40 of 54
    mokimoki Posts: 551member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BuonRotto

    You'll notice that there are 2 types of pinstripes in OS X: the ones for toolbars, status bars and especially the menu bar have a light gray (I agree that the gray value could be a touch lighter) pinstripe in a mostly white field, then there's the 1 : 1 gray-to-white pinstripe in title bars and most other places.



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