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Dragon T · May 25, 2004, 06:06 AM

In my latest Theme (still under construction) I have created a fun (yet subtle) little clockwork cog animated in behind the vertical ghost scroll thumb.
It only seems to show up in Carbon Apps.
I'm just wondering which common Apps they are likely to be.
I wanna see it working in a real Application other than the preview.
=)

Dragon T · May 25, 2004, 05:01 PM

So which Apps show the ghost thumbs?
I can't seem to find any. =/

fireside · May 25, 2004, 07:23 PM

what are you talking about?

Holigen · May 25, 2004, 08:11 PM

I have no idea, but it looks like he answered his own question for himself. If he cant find any apps that do this then the type of apps hes looking for must be pretty obscure

mrtew · May 25, 2004, 08:30 PM

I always wondered what ghost thumbs were. I wonder what they are?

Dragon T · 09:17 PM

I can't get a snapshot of my ghost thumb in action....
so here is a rough mock-up of how it looks in action.

Dragon T · May 25, 2004, 09:08 PM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I always wondered what ghost thumbs were. I wonder what they are?

The 'ghost thumbs' are used in the Apps that don't scale/stretch the 'scroll thumbs'.

Scaled/stretched scroll thumbs are a more recent addition to the original Mac OS, designed to help give an impression of the amount of document shown in the window.

Dragon T · May 25, 2004, 09:15 PM

Originally posted by Holigen:
I have no idea, but it looks like he answered his own question for himself. If he cant find any apps that do this then the type of apps hes looking for must be pretty obscure

obscure? maybe... but surely all Carbon Apps use ghost thumbs.
(the Carbon Theme Preview certainly does)
Are there any Carbon Apps still being used?
if not... do we still need to be making Carbon buttons etc in the themes?

Holigen · May 25, 2004, 10:14 PM

Here are some examples of carbon apps:

Finder, MS Office (Entourage?), iTunes, AIM, and Appleworks

Does that answer your question?

JoE950 · May 25, 2004, 10:22 PM

dont forget the best carbon app of all. INTERNET EXPLORER!

Holigen · May 25, 2004, 11:02 PM

Of course, I use that one all the time

Dragon T · May 25, 2004, 11:43 PM

In that case, I'm definitely confused.
Are ghost thumbs used at all these days.?..

Phoenix1701 · May 26, 2004, 07:00 AM

Unless you're using different terminology than I think, the answer is no, ghost thumbs are almost never used these days except in very rare instances with severely out-of-date Carbon apps. Ghost thumbs are the translucent scroll thumbs that appear over the real ones to indicate that the application isn't actually going to refresh what's in the view until after you let go. In Aqua, a ghost thumb in use looks like this:

Experimenting with most scroll thumbs in modern applications will quickly lead you to the conclusion that these thumbs are very rare; usually, the real scroll thumb is just moved in real-time and the contents of the window are updated live (hence the name "live scrolling"). That animation looks really cool; you might consider making it part of the normal scroll thumb as well as the ghost thumb.

eyevaan · May 26, 2004, 08:17 AM

Phoenix1701:
thank-you for the explaination... I actually learned something today.

Dragon T:
I don't know what you are creating but that little mock slider is awsome!!

Dragon T · 05:52 PM

Originally posted by Phoenix1701:
Unless you're using different terminology than I think, the answer is no, ghost thumbs are almost never used these days except in very rare instances with severely out-of-date Carbon apps. Ghost thumbs are the translucent scroll thumbs that appear over the real ones to indicate that the application isn't actually going to refresh what's in the view until after you let go. In Aqua, a ghost thumb in use looks like this:

Experimenting with most scroll thumbs in modern applications will quickly lead you to the conclusion that these thumbs are very rare; usually, the real scroll thumb is just moved in real-time and the contents of the window are updated live (hence the name "live scrolling"). That animation looks really cool; you might consider making it part of the normal scroll thumb as well as the ghost thumb.

Thanks, =)
Being an old Kschemer, I was used to using ghost thumbs.
I might try a version that includes the animated normal scroll thumb. But the aim was to have it look normal, until it was moved. Having the little 'cog' visible all the time might look a little... 'whacky'.

I'll play with it some more. (Theme)

At first I wasn't too keen on this Theme... but it's growing on me.
=)

Dragon T · 07:24 PM

Just found something a little unexpected.
In one of my BrassPaper versions, I moved this vertical cog thumb into the active position... so that it could be seen.
In the Finder windows it works fine.
However, in Safari it appears to run backwards!
This suggests that safari accesses the animation images in the opposite order to the way that the Finder does.
Wouldn't it be nice if Aqua was consistant in its structure.

Sage · Jun 1, 2004, 06:11 PM

****, why didn't you join the OS X themeing scene a couple years ago?

You're finding new things every day, and you're not afraid to test anything. Hot damn, if you don't push the barriers of OS X themeing, I dunno who will...

fireside · Jun 1, 2004, 07:21 PM

yes, but unfortunately, he's using a language so strange, no one can under stand what the hell he's talking about. gog? cog?

Dragon T · Jun 1, 2004, 07:30 PM

LOL =)
Ooops... typo.
my head is full of typos.

(a cog is a small wheel with teeth)
similar to those found in pre-digital watches
(teeth that do not byte)
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/search.aspx?define=cog

'time' is something you travel through when you are not moving.
=)