[Angus_D]

Read it on my blog.

[wagmedia]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Read it on my blog.

In light of all the problems that have been happening, I wonder if the themers should be suggesting a third party menubar clock to use instead of the standard Apple one. That way we could still get a uniform look without making people's systems unstable of just plain old messed-up.

[darkcore]

Angus: One possible way to solve this problem might be to add some sort of theme component filter system to ThemeChanger. For example have a popup menu that has some preset filters such as: "Replace Extras.rsrc only",""Replace all but executable components" that would uncheck certain components. That way ThemeChanger could default to a preset that doesn't select components that have executable code and when someone tries to select one of those components perhaps a warning message could popup explaining why they are problematic.

[Angus_D]

I know darkcore, but I don't have much time to work on TC at the moment.

[smic]

PTHClock
thats what i use, besides changing colours you can have a cool little pop up calendar too

it kicks the built in clocks ass

[fireside]

Just wondering, but what new feaures should Theme Changer .6 have? I hope it has icon set support. :)

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by fireside:
Just wondering, but what new feaures should Theme Changer .6 have? I hope it has icon set support.

Who says there will even be a TC .6? I wouldn't do iconset support in the current codebase anyway, it wouldn't fit in.

[bOOzo]

Good points. I will remove the BootX and the SystemUIServer files from all my themes in the comming week.

However, I think there is no need to remove the QuartzDisplay right now, so I wont. I feel that it makes the theme complete and I'll just have to update it when 10.3 comes out.

Any one who knows exactly what the QuartzDisplay file is used for, except for the Boot progressbar?

[fireside]

So you're just gonna leave ThemeChanger at .5? how nice.

[wagmedia]

Originally posted by smic:
PTHClock
thats what i use, besides changing colours you can have a cool little pop up calendar too

it kicks the built in clocks ass

Yeah, after looking for some different clock options, I agree. I think I'm going to suggest people use this clock if they want to have a white clock for my theme.

[ambush]

Originally posted by fireside:
So you're just gonna leave ThemeChanger at .5? how nice.

Wooooo you're so *logical*.
It's so funny to see some of you (actually, a lot of you) speak as if Finlay (AngusD) OWED you something.

Yes, we will eventually update ThemeChanger but for the moment, it's not a number one priority.

TC's architecture is getting old, and we need to rewrite most of it. Yes, it will take time. We're not robots. We're 15-year-old High School students.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by bOOzo:
Any one who knows exactly what the QuartzDisplay file is used for, except for the Boot progressbar?

It is just a GUI front-end for SystemStarter. I still don't think it's a good idea to replace it on principle, since if it SIGBUS'd or something it'd probably take SystemStarter with it (I haven't looked at the code in some time, but it's part of Darwin so feel free to investigate yourself ), meaning your system would be left half booted.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by ambush:
We're 15-year-old High School students.

Actually I'm 16, but your points still stand.

Originally posted by fireside:
So you're just gonna leave ThemeChanger at .5? how nice.

Well, 0.5 works in general for most people and I don't have any time to work on it at the moment. I have no incentive to work on it because nobody gives me any rewards for it -- seeing as you haven't donated to encourage me to continue development, I don't think you're in a position to complain. Also, attitudes like yours hardly inspire me to further expenditure of effort, do they?

There aren't really any outstanding bugs that I need to fix in TC, the major complaint so far has been either 1) "Get an icon" or 2) "Some theme screwed up my system" -- in the case of 2) it's normally the fault of the theme for replacing random system executables rather than resource files.

So, for the moment at least, TC will stay at 0.5. Or 0.5.1, which is waiting on someone to bother making an icon. Which nobody has done. Or is doing. Bah.

[Dace]

Well, I don't see why Max didn't continue supplying his modified BootX file as a Macboot package. I think this would be the safest way to do it. As for Quartz display...I don't know if it's wrong to replace it, perhaps someone should create an app like Macboot for modifyinbg the Quartz display. I know SystemUI caused a few problems, Izawa mentioned it. Sttill, anyone who themes their OSX should know it's a hack, it's not supported by Apple and could damage their system if their not careful.

So Angus...yes you were right. Is that what you want to hear? Teenagers, always seking attention, reassurance and confirmation

[Dace]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Actually I'm 16, but your points still stand.Well, 0.5 works in general for most people and I don't have any time to work on it at the moment. I have no incentive to work on it because nobody gives me any rewards for it -- seeing as you haven't donated to encourage me to continue development, I don't think you're in a position to complain. Also, attitudes like yours hardly inspire me to further expenditure of effort, do they?

There aren't really any outstanding bugs that I need to fix in TC, the major complaint so far has been either 1) "Get an icon" or 2) "Some theme screwed up my system" -- in the case of 2) it's normally the fault of the theme for replacing random system executables rather than resource files.

So, for the moment at least, TC will stay at 0.5. Or 0.5.1, which is waiting on someone to bother making an icon. Which nobody has done. Or is doing. Bah.

Guess now you know why Duality is shareware...there goes the "free theme switcher" concept out the window. It's your creation, if you wanna "sell" it as being free don't start whining and b*tching that nobody is paying you for it...or you'll look like hypocrites. Also, while I'm here...I believe you guys created PodNews...tried it, didn't work...it seems to get stuck when it tries to send info to the iPod. How come PodNews has an icon?

[ambush]

nm

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by Dace:
It's your creation, if you wanna "sell" it as being free don't start whining and b*tching that nobody is paying you for it...

Uhm... The ones who are being hypocritical are the ones who are taking a free project and then complaining that it doesn't work or that it won't necessarilly be supported. I am saying, I have no financial incentive to work on it. It works OK, it's just as good as the "competition" at the moment, IMO (although that might change if Colin's next release lives up to his hype, in which case everybody who's using TC can switch back to Duality for all I care). If more people donated, then I might be more motivated to work on it. That's the simple fact.

Sttill, anyone who themes their OSX should know it's a hack, it's not supported by Apple and could damage their system if their not careful.

My main point is that this DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THE CASE. It's only the case because people do stupid things.

So Angus...yes you were right. Is that what you want to hear? Teenagers, always seking attention, reassurance and confirmation

No, what I want is people to listen to me and stop unnecessarily screwing up users' systems. I know I'm right, I knew I was right before.

Also, while I'm here...I believe you guys created PodNews...tried it, didn't work...it seems to get stuck when it tries to send info to the iPod.

Well, I recently decided to pull PR2, because of issues like this. Firstly, it was only a preview release and was quite buggy. Secondly, I was apparently wrong in my belief that people should release early and release often. While that may work in some opensource project where the target audience are technically competent, apparently the Mac fraternity is not quite so accepting, and many people form their judgements based on betas and prereleases and start complaining if they lack polish, or don't work. There has been some positive feedback, but I have come to the conclusion that it is better not to bother with public betas. We all make mistakes, this was one of mine. So, I put in a much longer timeout for PR2 and decided we'd target the final release for then. I had hoped to get it out earlier, but unforseen things always crop up, don't they? In fact, I have been quite ill (and in hospital for a few days) recently, and have had mock GCSEs and various bits of coursework, yadd yadda, so the amount of time/energy I've been able to devote to programming projects has been much reduced.

How come PodNews has an icon?

Because we paid Adam Betts to do it. We asked him to do a ThemeChanger icon too, but it didn't work out. I have also contacted various other designers, but none have got back to me as yet.

I don't see why I should have to justify myself to you anyway, but there we have it. Happy?

[fireside]

i wasn't complaining, its just that themechanger is a good product, but it needs some improvements / bug fixes. for insince, when i sometimes instill a theme, it says killing finder, it kills the finder, but the load bar and sheet still stays there.

[Dace]

Originally posted by fireside:
i wasn't complaining, its just that themechanger is a good product, but it needs some improvements / bug fixes. for insince, when i sometimes instill a theme, it says killing finder, it kills the finder, but the load bar and sheet still stays there.

When it does this...go to the ThemeChanger menu, as if you were gonna quit it...and the progress bar magically disappears.

[Angus_D]

Actually I think I probably fixed that in 0.5.1, which I wrote shortly after 0.5 but decided to wait until we had an icon to release. The icon never materialised, and it sort of got pushed to the bottom of the heap.

[fireside]

Originally posted by Dace:
When it does this...go to the ThemeChanger menu, as if you were gonna quit it...and the progress bar magically disappears.

:O thanks. i did not know that.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by fireside:
:O thanks. i did not know that.

Actually, neither did I

[fireside]

Heh, I have another bug / problem. Whenever I install a new theme, the icons go back to the default OS X icons. :(

[ambush]

We have a bug tracker set up.

http://www.clichesw.com/mantis

if you're intersted to see your bugs fixed in the next release.

[Angus_D]

Actually I don't think the ThemeChanger project works, it didn't have any categories before and I never bothered to set them up. I can easily do that if anybody wants to use it, but I don't think many people will.

Originally posted by fireside:
Heh, I have another bug / problem. Whenever I install a new theme, the icons go back to the default OS X icons.

That's because it restores aqua in between to avoid inconsistent mixes of different themes. Apparently this isn't what people want. I would like to point out that the source code is there so anybody can customize it if they want, I don't have the time at the moment.

[bOOzo]

I just tried deleting the QuartzDisplay file from my system, and to my relief, the system would still boot! The file is apparently only used for the Bootpanel text and progressbar, because instead of a Bootpanel, I only got the blue background. So I think it's somewhat safe to continue modifying the QuartDisplay.



Also, Angus - I've been trying ThemeChanger the last few days, and the most important stuff for the next release (if there is such a thing) is to fix:
- The finder relaunches even though I've uncheckd that option, which is really annoying because it closes my windows.
- The progressbar sheet stays even though the theme switch is done. The work around (clicking menu) worked fine, up until today for somereason, now I have to force quit it..

I'm sure you already know about this, but I thought I should tell you.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by bOOzo:
I just tried deleting the QuartzDisplay file from my system, and to my relief, the system would still boot! The file is apparently only used for the Bootpanel text and progressbar, because instead of a Bootpanel, I only got the blue background. So I think it's somewhat safe to continue modifying the QuartDisplay.

Well, yes, that is true. If QuartzDisplay doesn't exist, it falls back to the console display mode (although in 10.2 the WindowServer will be running, so you get a blue background). I forsee problems arising if, for example, Apple changes the API that the display modules use for talking to each other (as they did between 10.1 and 10.2). SystemStarter would then load the QuartzDisplay bundle, and the incompatibilities caused by installing an old version could cause the process to crash. Once QuartzDisplay is loaded, it executes inside SystemStarter's address space, so it would take SystemStarter with it. It's been a while since I looked at the rc scripts, but they might reboot the system if they get a nonzero termination status from SystemStarter.

This is only likely to happen between major version releases, but that doesn't mean it won't happen at other times.

So, I'll reiterate: DO NOT REPLACE EXECUTABLE CODE. It's not your place to, and if I ever update ThemeChanger I'll probably make it refuse to, or at least turn it off by default.

- The finder relaunches even though I've uncheckd that option, which is really annoying because it closes my windows.

Already fixed.

- The progressbar sheet stays even though the theme switch is done. The work around (clicking menu) worked fine, up until today for somereason, now I have to force quit it..

Haven't looked at this for some time, but it may be fixed as a result of fixing the finder relaunches.

[fireside]

hope to see the new release soon

[Homer1946]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Actually I don't think the ThemeChanger project works, it didn't have any categories before and I never bothered to set them up. I can easily do that if anybody wants to use it, but I don't think many people will.

That's because it restores aqua in between to avoid inconsistent mixes of different themes. Apparently this isn't what people want. I would like to point out that the source code is there so anybody can customize it if they want, I don't have the time at the moment.

I think ThemeChanger works well. I also think that completely clearing a theme between changes is the correct behavior because it is the safest and therefore the LEAST likely to cause problems.

If any change is made to this, it would seem an Option for "advanced" users that disabled this feature.

Oh, and thanks for the good work!

-R