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.
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 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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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...
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.
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.
Comments
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.
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.
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.
http://www.etplanet.com/windows/long...03-05-14_6.jpg
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.
I do like your logic about draggable areas.
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?
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?
Questions: What is this? Is it recommended by Insiders? and Where can I get it?
Tinker Tool
BOTH!!
I can dream can't I?!
-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? ¬_¬
And yeah, tone down the friggin' stripes.
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.
Let's flood their inbox, that'll get their attention.
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
Fuahaha.
Here's one of the first ones that popped up in that search, actually:
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:
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.
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.