Thread

ThemeChanger works almost perefectly

ThemeChanger works almost perefectly Troubleshooting 12 posts Dec 29, 2002 — Dec 31, 2002

#1 Sun, 29 Dec 2002 - 14:00

I always used to install themes manually, because the two big theme switchers gave me nothing but nonsense error messages, and didn't give me enough control but recently I've tried ThemeChanger and I think it's great. It always works great except for a problem or two. When switching DSX it does the switch and then hangs. It just spins the sprod for ever until I force it to quit. Luckily the switch actually works fine but the force quit makes me nervous. The other problem is that it will tell me that I have the wrong version of the OS, especially with Max's brushed theme, but then things go fine after that. Does anyone have any help for me with these 'problems'?

Another thing I found is that there is a typo in the info.plist for the new version of the DSX theme. The part pictured below reads DSX.theme1 and should actually read DSX.theme. I want to let Iza know but I don't know if I should just write him in English or what. Does anyone know him? Can someone tell him? It's also in the Aqua restore that comes with the theme.

#2 Sun, 29 Dec 2002 - 14:06

I believe he's messaged me in English once... Also, I too have gotten the "takes forever to switch" but actually after I leave it for like 15 minutes, it finishes. Also lots of themes just use 10.2 as the tag for their themes since apparently Duality can't handle the 10.2.3 tag which works with ThemeChanger. Some people still use the new tag anyways...

#3 Sun, 29 Dec 2002 - 14:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Synotic:
I believe he's messaged me in English once... Also, I too have gotten the "takes forever to switch" but actually after I leave it for like 15 minutes, it finishes. Also lots of themes just use 10.2 as the tag for their themes since apparently Duality can't handle the 10.2.3 tag which works with ThemeChanger. Some people still use the new tag anyways...

I think the 10.2.3 tag is stupid since most themes (all?) that work with 10.2.3 still work with 10.2-10.2.2. And I use the 10.2 tag since Duality can't handle 10.2.3, just like you said. The dialog in themechanger you can just dismiss.

#4 Sun, 29 Dec 2002 - 17:09

Quote:

Duality will never handle the 10.2.3 tag. Duality is quickly moving away from the tag based system all together. Duality really is beginning to start ignoring tags all together, as Duality doesn't really need them anymore.

#5 Sun, 29 Dec 2002 - 20:53

An eventual big update will fix this hanging problem.

We're just enjoying holidays right now ( watching movies, playing games, having a social life), but expect a big update soon.

We also have to work on our other product, PodNews 3...

#6 Mon, 30 Dec 2002 - 08:02

Suggestion for ThemeSwitcher - since you can select what things to install, you should have a discription for all the items so the user knows which to use..

#7 Mon, 30 Dec 2002 - 14:00

Quote:

Originally posted by bOOzo:
Suggestion for ThemeSwitcher - since you can select what things to install, you should have a discription for all the items so the user knows which to use..

.theme allows you to specify name tags for the components. .dlta doesn't. I'm reluctant to have any explicit stuff for individual files, since they're all arbitrary and what files are replaced is up to the themer.

#8 Tue, 31 Dec 2002 - 05:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Angus_D:
.theme allows you to specify name tags for the components. .dlta doesn't. I'm reluctant to have any explicit stuff for individual files, since they're all arbitrary and what files are replaced is up to the themer.

Ok, but still. I think the items could be grouped and have an explenation.

For example, I don't think you want to disable one button on the login panel, so you could group all buttons and the login panel and mac os x text into one group called "login panel". So if they don't want their login panel themed, they just need to uncheck one item.

And quartzdisplay and bootpanel could also be group.

Bootx should be alone though.

Maybe the grouped items could have a arrow on them (like a folder in list vew) so if you do want to disable a specific items in a group, you can click the arrow and you will see the content.

I don't think this is that hard to do.

#9 Tue, 31 Dec 2002 - 06:39

There are other more important things to do, though

Also, no theme should replace BootX. No theme sould replace any executable code at all. So I guess I might have to write a little thing which just overwrites the icons, grr.

#10 Tue, 31 Dec 2002 - 14:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Also, no theme should replace BootX. No theme sould replace any executable code at all.

Why do you say that? Seems like most themes now replace BootX. How are you going to decide what's too dangerous to replace? Most themers obviously disagree with you about the BootX or it wouldn't be in there.

#11 Tue, 31 Dec 2002 - 15:20

Quote:

Originally posted by mrtew:
Why do you say that? Seems like most themes now replace BootX. How are you going to decide what's too dangerous to replace? Most themers obviously disagree with you about the BootX or it wouldn't be in there.

Most themers obviously don't understand that they should not be replacing executable code. I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to replace the boot icon, but to do that they shouldn't replace the BootX code too. Of course, with the current (inflexible) theme formats, this is not possible.

With a bit of forethought and planning, it would easily be possible for themes to not be dangerous and not distribute Apple intellectual property (most themes out there have Apple resources in them, and therefore by distributing them people are violating Apple's copyright and so are technically breaking the law). I don't understand why this hasn't happened yet. Instead of sitting around and complaining, I hope to actually address those issues with ThemeChanger

#12 Tue, 31 Dec 2002 - 18:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Instead of sitting around and complaining, I hope to actually address those issues with ThemeChanger

Sounds good! I don't think Apple is that hard on themers, but if you can make a format that does not "brake any laws", that would be nice.
I've started including BootX in most of my themes since I think it can be important to make the theme feel complete.