Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, WWDC, Mods, Leopard
Non-transparent mod for Leopard's new menubar
If you've seen any pictures or movies of Leopard's (mostly) final UI in action from this week's WWDC events or the new Leopard section at apple.com, you've probably noticed that Apple has introduced a new design to their menubar, Desktop and Dock (watch the video to see these new toys in action). The new Dock features an updated design with some eye candy that some might find more useful than others, while the menubar has gone semi-transparent in an effort to place more emphasis on an uncluttered desktop and allowing users to feature their favorite photos and desktop images.As usual, when an OS maker dabbles with revamping some of their most standard UI conventions, not everyone will want to hop on the train for a ride. Peter Maurer and the crew at Many Tricks (makers of apps like Butler, Service Scrubber, yFlicks and more) are apparently so uninterested in taking a trip with the transparent menubar that they produced what is quite possibly the first non-transparent menubar hack for Leopard. Being that I am but a lowly professional blogger, I have no copy of Leopard on which to tinker with this mod, but given the historic quality of work from Maurer and Many Tricks, I would imagine it's written well, and the source is even provided for those who would like to have their way with this modification.
Now that we've seen the true Leopard in action and a mod for part of its UI has appeared less than a week after the unveiling, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the Mac community - particularly the developers who have the power to make modifications like this - will lay down their opinions through work like Maurer's.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Thayne Miller said 9:29PM on 6-15-2007
I read in the hands-on review of leopard from macrumors that the transparent dock is an option that you can disable. Either way, it wouldn't be hard to make an app that adds 10-20 pixels of white on top of your wallpaper. Personally I think the transparent menu bar looks like vista and it's unappealing to me. I think anything transparent only distracts from the work I'm trying to get done.
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Thayne Miller said 9:29PM on 6-15-2007
I read in the hands-on review of leopard from macrumors that the transparent dock is an option that you can disable. Either way, it wouldn't be hard to make an app that adds 10-20 pixels of white on top of your wallpaper. Personally I think the transparent menu bar looks like vista and it's unappealing to me. I think anything transparent only distracts from the work I'm trying to get done.
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CarbonFree said 9:58PM on 6-15-2007
Thayne Miller:
After looking at the source code, that's pretty much what it does. It makes an NSRect the size of the menubar and places it behind the menubar. Rather straightforward. :)
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Kevin said 10:33PM on 6-15-2007
I made a similar utility the day after the keynote while here at WWDC but I didn't release it publicly since it uses Leopard-only code (I sprinkled in some CoreAnimation and gradients). But yeah, it does the exact same thing, just with a little more polish :)
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Michael L. said 10:42PM on 6-15-2007
I switched to Mac earlier this year after deciding that I wanted nothing to do with Vista, so the Leopard menu bar gave me a sinking feeling. I'm glad there will be a way around it. These translucent effects remind me too much of shower curtains (Vista much, much moreso than Leopard).
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Joe said 10:51PM on 6-15-2007
Can someone mod the dock in Leopard please :) I'm really not keen on the wavy shadow across the new "A" sided dock. The shadow/line feels uneven with it's shallow S shape. It feels like a fancy bit of decoration that doesn't need to be there. Just a plain dock please or a shadow/line that's at least even.
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Luigi193 said 11:19PM on 6-15-2007
OOOOOO I have lepoard!!!!! Go me, Go me, Go me, Go me!!!!
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MrCynical said 11:21PM on 6-15-2007
Transparency is a bit 'meh'.
One thing I was curious about: Does the new dock have the 'icon magnification' effect (as the mouse moves over the icons) from previous versions? I noticed that Steve's dock icons just sat there.
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Just Dave said 11:27PM on 6-15-2007
I'm sorry but everybody needs to understand that change is for the better. Would you buy the same clothes year after year. Apple is just trying to update a really old Gui and it may or may not appeal to everyone. Get a life. When you buy something new, furniture, a car, a house, a tv, whatever you are looking for something different. The same old crap is boring. Let's move on and embrace the new.
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Cycomachead said 11:34PM on 6-15-2007
I understand that Apple needs to update this but the certainly needs to @ least be a pref for it. And If no where else is should be under Universal Access cuz transparency things are hard to read - well for me it is
And it looks like apple is copying vista - which I dont like even if M$ copied Apple And there better be magnification in the dock or steve's gonna see a visit from me - somehow
Oh and I agree about the curvy line
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TJ said 11:57PM on 6-15-2007
@Dave
Well think of it as like this. As you said you dont want to buy the same shirt every time... lets put it in clothes analogy as well. I dont want to buy the same shirt but I want to buy a similar one, Lets say I prefer crew neck rather than a v neck shirt. If I wer to choose I would get the crew neck rather than the new v neck. I am not buying the same shirt but something similar. Same type but different design.
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Dave Chartier said 12:13AM on 6-16-2007
Dock magnification is turned off by default in Mac OS X; it's a feature you actually have to enable post-setup.
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Cycomachead said 12:26AM on 6-16-2007
oh yeah guess so
I had my dock on magnify for as long as I've had OS X I forgot it wasn't a default
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sine nomine said 12:43AM on 6-16-2007
@ TJ
Good analogy, but you missed the obvious place to take it: Not only do I want a similar shirt, but I'd prefer it not be transparent. ~:o)
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Alain Meyer said 12:46AM on 6-16-2007
Incase you wanted to test transparency on your Mac to see how it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgLSwM29Lpw
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Dave Chartier said 12:52AM on 6-16-2007
#13: Same thing happens to me sometimes. It's part of the reason I'm thankful I live close to an Apple Store in a mall. When we go shopping I sometimes duck into the Apple Store if for no other reason than to brush up on my Mac OS X defaults to make sure I don't give readers the wrong instructions when writing how-to posts.
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ric said 3:06AM on 6-16-2007
ok, I don't mind the transparent menu bar, but surely the pull down menus, should be just as transparent, it just looks ridiculous. I mean Glossy see through menu bar, papery menus.
other than that the rest of the GUI changes in leopard seem rather good, although the reflective dock seems to be just blingy.
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The Jerk said 3:29AM on 6-16-2007
I say bring on the transparencies! I was so sad when Panther came out and got rid of the beautiful transparent tops of background windows (and made menus less transparent too). I'm glad to see things going more transparent again, and I hope the menus get the transparent treatment, too.
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eccramer said 3:42AM on 6-16-2007
Tell me when the reverse is available. I want to transparent-enate the tiger finderbar.
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Daniel said 4:29AM on 6-16-2007
Surely the menu should be just as transparent as the title bar, otherwise it just looks weird, hope there is an option to turn this feature off. Saying that I'm hoping they've included more options in the Appearance prefs pane for changing the GUI colours, transparency, etc.
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