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goMac · Mar 21, 2003, 05:40 PM

We are happy to announce Duality 4 GT, the next great thing for themes on Mac OS X. We have recoded Duality from the ground up (even from the 4 betas) using the ThemeKit framework. As a result, Duality provides better security than ever before.

Users now have control over what Duality changes. Users can choose a safe mode in which Duality has control over what is changed, or switch to a free mode, in which everything in the theme is used. In free mode, users can turn off certain parts of a theme that they don't wish to use.

Icon sets have been improved too. Duality will now automatically generate a preview of an icon set, without the need for including a screen shot.

But most important perhaps are the changes under the hood. Duality now uses ThemeStep, a resource based parser to handle many parts of a theme change. Theme developers now no longer have to include all the resources in a rsrc file, saving space. This also means that Duality can run any theme for any version of OS X on any version of OS X. ThemeKit even examines the resources themeselves to make sure they are compatible instead of "blindly" swapping resources.

Duality also makes use of hashes, part of ThemeKit. Hashes could be compared to a DNA sample of a file. You can use hashes to compare to a hash of a file on the users machine. You could, for example, use a hash to check what version of Bootx a user is using. Duality will not change a file unless the hash included in the theme and the hash of the file match. Hashs are only supported by XScheme themes, but Duality does write Aqua backups in XScheme.

Duality 4 GT supports the following formats: .theme, .dlta, .iconset, and .xscheme.

And this is all for free. Thats right, Duality 4 GT is free, no charge, nada. Users wishing to can upgrade to Duality 4 Pro, which adds the ability to read .tpkg and .rsrc files.

To find out more, check out:

http://conundrumsoft.com/newduality

Duality 4 GT will be available next week. All registered users of Duality 3 will get free upgrades to 4 Pro.

NetworkShadow · Mar 21, 2003, 08:21 PM

Cool! I'm going to download it as soon as I can. I hope this makes themeing more popular, and brings more themes to Mac OS X. The icon changing looks sweet. Can't wait to try it!

zeebe · Mar 21, 2003, 10:57 PM

How much will the pro version cost?

Peter · Mar 22, 2003, 06:51 AM

Nice hope I can get it to work this time

milhouse · Mar 22, 2003, 10:37 AM

Originally posted by goMac:

Duality 4 GT will be available next week. All registered users of Duality 3 will get free upgrades to 4 Pro.

Cool.

Can't wait to try it out.

Thanks for the "free" upgrade path too.

Maquero · Mar 22, 2003, 12:05 PM

excellent job

NetworkShadow · Mar 26, 2003, 04:05 PM

Is it still a System PreferencePane? I thought that was cool in the 4 betas.

pixeljunky · Mar 29, 2003, 11:56 PM

i thought this was suppose to come out this week, well its the end of this week and there is no announcement or signs of its realse.... what happened?

nforcer · Mar 30, 2003, 01:15 AM

It's officially late, no matter what time zone you live in

kovacs · Mar 30, 2003, 10:42 AM

I hope this product can live up to the hype you have created

scaught · Mar 30, 2003, 12:07 PM

can i ask a question here as a "lurker" of the gui customization forum? (yes. almost all my posts are in the lounge)

why are you guys so hard on gomac/conundrum software?

it seems like he announces something, and all i ever see are snide comments and other random negative bullshit. has he done something wrong?

now it appears the software he announced previously is "late". in the software industry? ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!???! call out the ****ing guard.

foobars · Mar 30, 2003, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by scaught:
can i ask a question here as a "lurker" of the gui customization forum? (yes. almost all my posts are in the lounge)

why are you guys so hard on gomac/conundrum software?

it seems like he announces something, and all i ever see are snide comments and other random negative bullshit. has he done something wrong?

now it appears the software he announced previously is "late". in the software industry? ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!???! call out the ****ing guard.

- Each version creates new compatibility issues
- Each version is way overhyped
- Each version is incomplete
- Each version costs money

fireside · Mar 30, 2003, 08:12 PM

** waits

macmike42 · Apr 1, 2003, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by goMac on 3-21-2003:
Duality 4 GT will be available next week.

Remind me how long a week is supposed to be again?

goMac · Apr 1, 2003, 06:19 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Is it still a System PreferencePane? I thought that was cool in the 4 betas.

No, the changes made in the final version were to huge to cleanly move to a system preference pane right away as I had in the beta builds, although I plan to release a prefence pane in a future update.