[Stevos]

This is my latest blog entry at Aquasition.Net. Nobody reads that (or read that particular entry, anyway), but I'd like feedback on this so I'm reposting it here.

In the last few days, we have seen an abundance of OS X theme news. Unsanity released ShapeShifter, a new theme application that promises to do more than the old method of replacing system files ( changing text colors, for example), as well as remove the stability problems associated with such replacements. This is good for everyone -- theme creators have stopped worrying about hosing user's systems or having their work stolen easily. They also are prepared to pay far less for bandwidth now that 20 MB themes weigh in at 900K.
Unfortunately, I have a number of problems with the product. First and foremost, the guikit format is closed. There is no way of creating guikits besides using ThemePark. There is no schema for guikit. This has the goal of, apparently, not allowing people to open a guikit, slightly modify files, and release it as their own. There are problems with this though: ThemePark creates new themes by loading the system resources, which, when you have a theme loaded, are the resources inside of these guikits. So first of all, guikits do not succeed in their attempts for security, nor can they really, since it's a matter of time before some other app comes along that can save the system resources it loads after ThemePark's security hole is fixed (who knows how, though). So anyway, guikit is not secure, but because it is closed it does not play nice with others. If ShapeShifter is so spectacular (and there is no reason to believe it isn't) , Unsanity and Geekspiff should let guikits play fair in the open market.
Next, theme creation is still so unweidly. I should be able to open a 800x1200 or so PSD template, that has on it all the metrics for the various controls, and I should be able to simply create my theme on one file, save it as a TIFF, and have some application convert that TIFF into a guikit. Some people were against this when I brought it up, saying it would be the realbasic of themes. I have to disagree, though, because I think a lot of GOOD artists are turned away from making OS X themes because of the obscene complexity of the process. We're using Macs for a lot of reasons, but one of them is ease of use. Don't assume that the OS X theme group will go the same way as the wincustomize group. More themes is better for everyone, and I'll be damned if it isn't better for Unsanity/Geekspiff trying to sell their software.

[smeger]

Hey Stevos, welcome to the boards.

Oddly enough, I'd already read your post (and I love your webpage design, btw).

The deal with ThemePark being able to read and modify guiKits that have been installed into the system is not a security hole - it's by design. The intent is to make it possible to tweak an existing theme to your own liking (not for re-distribution, of course, just for personal use). This feature is not going away.

Regarding your suggestion on making theme creation easier, I agree with you completely. Know why it doesn't work that way? Because it's hard to do it that way. Download some of the early 0.x betas of ThemePark and see how far its come in ease of use. It's nowhere near where I want it to be yet, but if I just went directly from start to finish, I'd be sitting around coding for three years with no feedback. So it's an evolutionary process. But rest assured that making theme creation easy is my #1 goal with ThemePark (what else would it be?).

[Stevos]

Yeah, I definitly remember early ThemePark -- the latest versions are much much better in terms of usability.

If you added Applescript support, then the whole process I described above could be done with Photoshop Actions and Applescripts.

[n8x]

I've been wishing for this too.. I don't have time to cut up each peice of the thme into tiny peices and paste each one 6 times into various resources, only to realize i don't like how bright the color is and have to do it all over again.

All I ask for is a big Applescript and a template file!

*waves cheque for registration fee"