Mac OS 8.5 Technote: Part X

Copyright 1998 by Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Previous section] [Mac OS 8.5 Contents Page] [Next section]

Appearance Manager 1.1

The Appearance Manager provides facilities for providing a consistent appearance for graphical user interface elements. The Appearance Manager is not to be confused with the Appearance extension, which is compatible only with previous versions of Mac OS, and provides updates to Control Manager, Dialog Manager, Menu Manager, and Window Manager, as well as providing the 1.0.X versions of Appearance Manager. Appearance Manager 1.1 is delivered as part of the Mac OS 8.5 System File and includes the following new features:
  • Switchable visual appearances.

  • Support for data-driven appearances (though no appearance files are included with Mac OS 8.5).

  • Many new theme brushes and text colors.

  • Drawing primitives for most interface elements.

  • Support for saving and restoring the GrafPort state regardless of whether the current appearance draws using a color or pattern.

  • Several different styles of scrollbars and check boxes.

  • Appearance and font change notifications are provided by way of Apple Events. Each event uses kAppearanceEventClass as its class and one of the constants listed in Table 4 as its ID. There are no parameters to any of the events, and these events are sent only to those processes that have called RegisterAppearanceClient to register as an Appearance Manager client. Table 4 lists the new Apple Events sent to Appearance Manager clients.


Table 4. Appearance and font change Apple Events. These events use the Apple Event class kAppearanceEventClass ('appr').

Constant Name

OSType
Description

kAEAppearanceChanged

'thme'

appearance changed

kAESystemFontChanged

'sysf'

system font changed

kAESmallSystemFontChanged

'ssfn'

small system font changed

kAEViewsFontChanged

'vfnt'

views font changed


  • Animated cursor support.

  • Support for sound during various user interactions.

  • An Appearance folder has been added to the System Folder. The Appearance folder is used as a common location to store Appearance-related data files, and it is also the location of the Theme Files, Sound Sets, and Desktop Pictures folders. Appearance files are autorouted to their appropriate folders when dropped into the System Folder. Table 5 lists the new Appearance folders present in Mac OS 8.5.


Table 5. New folders for Appearance and their FindFolder selectors.

Folder Name

OSType
Description

Appearance

'appr'

Appearance-related materials

Theme Files

'thme'

location for theme files

Sound Sets

'snds'

location for appearance-related sound sets

Desktop Pictures

'dtp'

location for desktop picture files. Files of type 'JPEG' are auto-routed into this folder when dropped into the System Folder.


 

[Previous section] [Mac OS 8.5 Contents Page] [Next section]

To contact us, please use the Contact Us page.