OK, look, before we go any further, let me just say, your Mac wouldn't have exploded actually. I just have this irrational fear that someone's going to email me saying "I double-clicked on your ReadMe file and less than 20 minutes later my multi-processor 9600 blew up anyway. I enclose a bill..." No, really, it was just a little joke, ha ha, to encourage you to read this. Any spontaneous combustion of your Macintosh computer or indeed clone running MacOS is not in any way connected to this file. Not that they ever do catch fire. Or not that I know of at least, which makes this all a bit redundant.
What is Kaleidoscope?
Kaleidoscope is a Control Panel which allows you to customise virtually any element of the Finder GUI. If you donﾕt have it, it can be obtained from http://www.kaleidoscope.net/ . This module will work with Kaleidoscope v.1.5 and above only. If you have an earlier version, Kaleidoscope will refuse to load Hidden Gold.
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Whatﾕs special about Hidden Gold?
Many of the Kaleidoscope modules available are far more exciting than Hidden Gold, but tend to hurt the eyes after a while. Hidden Gold is probably the most understated module ever - most of the time it shows the world a very dark exterior, until you click on a button - then suddenly itﾕs very pretty indeed.
What do I do with it?
Drop it into the folder ﾒKaleidoscope Color Schemesﾓ in the Extensions folder (in the System folder, dummy). Then open the Kaleidoscope control panel and select Hidden Gold.
What colour modes does this work in?
It should work in any number of colours, although anything less than 256 colours and it looks terrible. No really, just take my word for it.
Who are you?
What do you care? Actually Iﾕm a musician, who on occasion spends days sitting in front of my Mac working on arrangements of music, so a module that didnﾕt attack the eyes was needed.
Is this really all your own work?
Umm... yes and no. Much of the credit should go to Koshﾕs Nightshade module. It can be obtained, along with some other lovely modules of his, at http://home.earthlink.net/~kosh/kaleidoscope.html. While officially all the buttons etc. have been changed, much of the artistic copyright is still really koshﾕs.
Do I owe you anything?
Apart from everlasting gratitude, no, of course not. This used to be freeware, but it's now emailware (if you're using it, email me), for this very simple reason - I was shocked to discover that as of the beginning of June, 1997 (most up-to-date info) Hidden Gold had been downloaded more from the colour scheme archive (see below for URL) than any other, and yet I had received only one email about it! Email me with suggestions too (praise and complaints). It's nice to know how many people are using it.
How do I get my desktop looking like that gorgeous screenshot at the top?
It is good, isnﾕt it? Open the Colour control panel, and set Window Colour to ﾒGoldﾓ, and Highlight Colour to ﾒOtherﾓ: RGB 80:60:20. In the Kaleidoscope control panel, you need to use Espi Sans Bold 10 for your screen font, and ﾒcolorizeﾓ (I may be Canadian, but I hate North American spellings) your Finder Windows to RGB 80:80:80. As for the picture, itﾕs Hirtleﾕs Beach just south of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia, Canada at some ungodly hour in the morning. Go take your own picture. Alternatively, you can download it from my website - http://users.netmatters.co.uk/rosmond/.
Finally, legal stuff and where to get the latest version
Boring, boring. I retain legal copyright over this colour scheme. You may redistribute freely on condition that it is unaltered and this documentation remains with it, also unaltered.
In particular, please please don't change just one small thing and rename the scheme. Much better to email me if there's something you think could be improved, and I'll probably change it. I'm not pretending this scheme is perfect (though it is damn good, if I do say so myself)
The latest released version is always available at the Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive, at http://www.kaleidoscope.net/schemes/ and also from my own website, at http://users.netmatters.co.uk/rosmond/
Version History:
1.0
First release - to kosh only
1.01
Fixed a horrible red dialog
1.02
Made compatible with Smart Scroll (Marc Moini - marc@kagi.com)
1.5
Made compatible with Kaleidoscope 1.5
1.6
Added marbled effect
Changed window-resize gadget and window-top icons
1.6.1
Decided I didn't like marbled effect - changed it.
Decided I didn't like window-resize gadget and window-top icons - changed them.
(Fickle or what?)
1.6.2
Fixed the masks on highlighted and sliding scroll bar thumbs, an oversight pointed out by Eric & Heather Reid
1.7.0
Made fully compatible with Kaleidoscope v.1.7 - darkened the Menu bar as well.
1.7.1
Not released to general public.
Changed the mask on the window-top icons so that they still worked if you clicked in the middle bits (don't worry if you don't know what I'm going on about).
Changed the scroll bar button to be more compatible with the rest of the interface (thanks to Mr. Stux for both of these ideas)
1.7.2
Added the "barber-pole" pattern for MacOS 8, as implemented in Kaleidoscope 1.7.1.
1.7.3
Added pattern to highlighted menus and improved golden pattern so that it looked more textured. Changed shadowed scroll bar thumbs to golden from gray. Not sure I like it. hmmm...
1.8.0
A lot of changes. All the icons have changed - they are more textured now, darker, and there are a lot of them - anything the MacOS 8 Appearance Manager can do, I can do better! Menu highlight text is now dark, and I have also added Window-widget sounds - a rather impressive (if brief) tam-tam - quite appropriate I thought.
