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bOOzo · Mar 16, 2003, 02:24 PM

This is what I would like to see in a new theme format. You should be able to choose preset variations from the popup menu, and theme makers would be allowed to create a "Custom" options which would allow the user to fully customize the theme. Each option would be connected to a .rsrc file containing only the necessary files for that perticular option. So the "Menus" option only contains one PXM, for example. This would allow for tons of different combinations, but the theme would still be very small in size.

I hope that goMacs upcomming release holds something like this.

Feel free to come up with additional ideas..

NetworkShadow · Mar 16, 2003, 02:46 PM

Looks cool. ^_^

daydreamer · Mar 16, 2003, 03:24 PM

This will come im sure.

goMac · Mar 16, 2003, 04:43 PM

What you're talking about might come Friday (cough cough), with the exception of all those snazzy controls. That would be a little harder to implement, but is a good idea for later on. The new Duality still preserves compatibility with DLTA and .theme, so adding in all those custom controls right now would be a nightmare. The new format was designed to keep a semblance of compatibility with other, non-resource based changers, so the focus is not entirely on resources. Maybe in Duality 5. This would certainly be a very good thing for when all the "old fangled" formats are dead and no longer used. The new theme format also does provide an ability to support such a move as this. Certain parts of it were written with a move such as this in mind.

I would keep an eye out for partial resource themes though. I myself have a 6 resource one I've been testing out, wieghs in a 24 k as an rsrc, contains no Aqua resources. You could still create multiple variations in the theme for each resource.

Fluid · Mar 16, 2003, 04:45 PM

So is this screen of an actual program or just one made in interface builder?

Patcarla · Mar 16, 2003, 05:23 PM

That would be a sweet kind of software..

Atomic Rooster · Mar 16, 2003, 07:59 PM

Originally posted by goMac:
What you're talking about might come Friday (cough cough), with the exception of all those snazzy controls.

that cough soundz bad goMac...i hope it isn't that weird virus!

i know, i know...another useless post, but i worry about you'ze guyz sometimes!

Atomic Rooster · Mar 16, 2003, 08:19 PM

Originally posted by bOOzo:

This is what I would like to see in a new theme format.

i wish i wuz a genius...i'd like to know where all those macos 9 gui people went to and those unix geeks that came over to macos X...thingz are really going slow for us dummies (me)...

hey arlo where are you and that other kal guy?...konflatulator iz a cool desktop convaluter but...but...but...

ok bOOzo, good idea...now run with it...heheh...

bOOzo · Mar 17, 2003, 02:29 AM

Originally posted by Fluid:
So is this screen of an actual program or just one made in interface builder?

It's made in photoshop - it's just an idea of how resource theme switching could work.

kovacs · Mar 17, 2003, 10:45 AM

Oh man that would be so cool, I just hope the developers of the current theme changers can get the job done, most theme changers we have now are betas; slow, unstable and/or incomplete. Maybe one of the big boys ( ie Panic ) needs to join the party. I would pay for a good themechanger, one that has a aqua restore funtion, supports partial resource switching and iconsets and /or iCantainers. I'm looking forward to the next version of Duality, I just hope they get this next version out of beta stage before they start working on a new version, C'mon guys make this a killer app...

bbxstudio · Mar 17, 2003, 02:51 PM

Seems a bit complicated to me... I'm assuming you'd need to include tags or something in the theme that would tell the switcher what text to label the fields, checkboxes and radio buttons with, etc. I'd imagine this would be nightmarish to support...

I dunno, wouldn't it make more sense to allow for 'compound' themes?... have a master theme bundle comprised of one or more 'flavours' or named styles (each with it's own preview, description, plist etc) at the root level of the theme directory... all the bundled flavours subscribe to a common set of master resources (maybe a 'master' resource subdirectory/folder), unless otherwise specified (defined by each flavour's unique plist for example). Flavour-specific unique resources could reside within their own specified subdirectories and essentially override those resources which correspond to duplicates within the master set at switch-time.

I know what you're saying, it would essentially allow the user to assemble his own theme from a set of predefined resources, Lego-style. Great in theory, but nightmarish in practice I'd bet.

Just out of curiosity, what might your specific reasons for wanting to put this into practice be, Max? Is it because you get a million different requests for variants stating requests like 'I like this but I want it with this'? I myself long ago took the attitude of 'if it's glaring and I agree with it and it doesn't slaughter the overall design then fine, I'll make adjustment - otherwise take it or leave it'

A guy could go mad trying to keep everybody happy.

[[ Personally (and on a barely-related note), I really don't find things like menu transparency or big PPATs slow down the system to any appreciable or noticable degree. After all, you're creating a theme with requirements for the latest system version - any sane person running the latest system should probably be doing so with some semi-peppy hardware anyways... why go mad trying to accommodate users insane enough to try and run OSX on a less than capable system (those that don't support QuartzExtreme for instance) - they should expect less than stellar performance to some degree if they insist on running the latest system on unsupported hardware. I know a guy who's actually running OSX on a 7300 (asyou can imagine it's pretty pokey). He still bitches about speed hits. Crazy stuff. ]]

swiz · Mar 17, 2003, 04:23 PM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
I myself long ago took the attitude of 'if it's glaring and I agree with it and it doesn't slaughter the overall design then fine, I'll make adjustment - otherwise take it or leave it' A guy could go mad trying to keep everybody happy.

True True!

bOOzo · Mar 18, 2003, 03:25 AM

bbxx- yeah, I guess it's because I want to make everybody happy. The way you describe resource switching might work well, also. I just want to be able to include a bunch of variations without the theme getting 50 MB + in size.

bbxstudio · Mar 18, 2003, 10:03 AM

Originally posted by bOOzo:
bbxx- yeah, I guess it's because I want to make everybody happy. The way you describe resource switching might work well, also. I just want to be able to include a bunch of variations without the theme getting 50 MB + in size.

Well the setup I describe would do that - the only additional resources would be those that vary from the master to create the variants (and the extra lines of text that tell the switcher which resources are associated with which variant). Unless you went crazy changing everything, the file sizes would be much smaller than bundling multiple themes is today.