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generic · Aug 3, 2005, 08:01 PM

Does anyone know of how to or of an applescript to hide that top menu where the apple is on OS X? I know they have it run at the apple store on the iMacs for the kids. TIA.

tooki · Aug 3, 2005, 09:16 PM

It's called the menu bar. There's not really a way to just make it go away altogether. A specific application can choose to do without, but as soon as you switch to another app, it'll reappear.

tooki

chabig · Aug 3, 2005, 09:46 PM

For developers, there are documented APIs to hide the menu bar. But as a user you don't want to hide it because that's your interface with the computer.

Chris

generic · Aug 3, 2005, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by chabig

For developers, there are documented APIs to hide the menu bar. But as a user you don't want to hide it because that's your interface with the computer.

Chris

Actually I'd really like to hide the menu bar, if you have any resources to help, please let me know. thanks.

gruneeitelkeit · Aug 3, 2005, 11:08 PM

There's a program out there called menushade which can change your menubar to a solid color. I use it to hide my menubar when im using mimimalistic backgrounds. If you comebine this with a konfabulator widget called guishade, you can get rid of it all together. Unforetunately, I believe this only works on panther so far and isn't really hiding it persay just camoflauging it.

As far as I know, there isn't really any programs that can truly hide it. But please share if anyone can prove me wrong.

chabig · Aug 3, 2005, 11:53 PM

Originally Posted by generic

Actually I'd really like to hide the menu bar, if you have any resources to help, please let me know. thanks.

Masking tape?

generic · Aug 4, 2005, 12:29 AM

lol, well there is, but I haven't been able to find it yet. If you go to an apple store, the imacs they use for demoing kids software uses it. If you do hit 'apple + H' to hide the flash program, then use the force quit (option + apple + esc), there's only two processes (or maybe three), one is a dock killer and the other is the one that hides the menu bar. oh well. thanks for the responses.

oh yeah i'm using menu shade, but there's no options, it just seems to darken the menu bar.

chabig · Aug 4, 2005, 12:45 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't the menu bar is hidden on the kids iMacs at the Apple store. Aren't those iMacs running a special launcher program? The entire OS is hidden because the launcher app takes over the whole screen. There are APIs for developers to use for this purpose. But for generic, everyday use, you can't hide the menubar. It's a primary user interface tool.

What is it you are trying to accomplish?

Chris

generic · Aug 4, 2005, 02:00 AM

oh perhaps you're right chabig, I don't recall exactly...maybe though.

Well I was just trying to create a cleaner interface, because i am a big keyboard fan and i have quicksilver/spotlight to get me though anything i need. plus keyboard shortcuts rock!

fisherKing · Aug 4, 2005, 09:34 AM

there IS an app to hide the menubar, i had it on my powerbook last year for a few weeks...
someone here at the gui forum remember what it's called??

was fun for a minute, then annoying.

liked the look of the finder...but how much time do u spend there (as opposed to using apps)??

anyway...it worked.

anyone know what/where??

lookmark · Aug 4, 2005, 03:36 PM

Used to be a hack called Bartender for OS 9. Not aware of anything for OS X...

wingchuner · Aug 4, 2005, 03:42 PM

it's called barmaid, but it's very buggy though. i wish the creater would update it, b/c it was very cool app

http://home.comcast.net/~ckoenigsfeld/Barmaid.ape.zip

fisherKing · 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by lookmark

Used to be a hack called Bartender for OS 9. Not aware of anything for OS X...

there IS an x app, i ran it in 10.3. i found it on this very forum (so do a search!)...
cant remember what it's called, i deleted it.

but several people here know it..

EDIT: barmaid is a little odd, and fyi it is a haxie (you need ape).
there was a script that hid the menubar until you clicked at the top of the desktop, worked pretty well.

anyone?

ShotgunEd · Aug 4, 2005, 05:15 PM

There definitely was an app for OS9 called bartender because I remember using it trying to hack my mac to look like it was running BeOS with kaleidoscope.

With OSX it looks like its barmaid or the haxie fisherking is talking about.

G0Ducks · Aug 4, 2005, 07:40 PM

There is deskshade... wich kind of does this... There is Barmaid, wich works only for a while as there seems to be some kind of memory leek that causes it to slow stuff down. There is also another little app that will hide the menu bar when it is in focus. This program really isn't a solution as most people want the menu bar hidden (to act like the doc's show hide) all the time.

I have emailed Unsanity about this. I get the usual, "Thank you for your suggestions..." email. Im not sure they are really interested in making this app as people have been asking for it for a while and no one wants to support it (according to people like Smeger.)

2+3=5

R

gruneeitelkeit · Aug 7, 2005, 05:54 AM

You can do more than darken the menubar with menushade. The options are simply hidden. If you focus menushade(i.e, doubleclick on the app icon or lauch it in quicksilver) and then hit apple+,(comma), a limited option screen comes up.

G0Ducks · Aug 7, 2005, 12:37 PM

man... if they would only make it like barmaid.... That would be sooo freekin' awesome!

R

aristotles · Aug 7, 2005, 04:42 PM

I really wish the developer would update barmaid to get rid of the memory leak or open source it some someone else could update it.

G0Ducks · Aug 7, 2005, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by aristotles

I really wish the developer would update barmaid to get rid of the memory leak or open source it some someone else could update it.

Well, since you have to pay unsanity to use there APE tech, I really doubt this guy will open source his stuff.

Though, this would be the best thing. smeger has said that he wouldn't take this on because he wouldn't want to do the support for it. Heck... its too bad, I would pay at least $5.00 for this little bit of haxie'en.

R

smeger · Aug 7, 2005, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by G0Ducks

Well, since you have to pay unsanity to use there APE tech, I really doubt this guy will open source his stuff.

Though, this would be the best thing. smeger has said that he wouldn't take this on because he wouldn't want to do the support for it. Heck... its too bad, I would pay at least $5.00 for this little bit of haxie'en.

R

Actually, APE is free to license if you don't charge for your product, and $100 for shareware. If you can't make enough from your shareware to pay $100 for the software that lets it exist, you don't have a very good business model.

Anyway, I whipped out something that does what you guys want one night at the hotel during MWSF. It's got some issues at the moment, but some day, I plan to clean it up and release it.

IIRC, the problem right now is that Carbon apps create their windows so that the titlebar is inside of what should be the menubar, meaning that you can't move the window ever. Yucky. Makes it completely non-usable, in fact.

G0Ducks · Aug 8, 2005, 12:01 AM

Oh... I didn't know that about the free part

That's good to know!

ooOOoooOOh.... I see how it is. Dude. Fix it now. Help YOUR business model

We want! You got!

R

MacMan4000 · Aug 8, 2005, 12:38 AM

stupid question:
how can you tell a carbon app from a coco app?

G0Ducks · Aug 8, 2005, 02:27 AM

Originally Posted by MacMan4000

stupid question:
how can you tell a carbon app from a coco app?

Stupid Answer:

One smells kinda burned...
One smells a bit like chocolate

I know... I'm asking for it.

R

smeger · Aug 8, 2005, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by MacMan4000

stupid question:
how can you tell a carbon app from a coco app?

There's actually no simple way, and the two have become blurred a bit in recent years anyway. One way is to navigate into an app's bundle by control-clicking the app and choosing Show Package Content. If you can't do that, and the app has a user interface, it's Carbon and the devs need to update it. If you can, navigate to Contents, then open the file Info.plist (a text editor is fine). If you can find the text "NSPrincipalClass", it's Cocoa.

That's a pretty decent way to tell.