Brought to you by the authors of Greg's Buttons, Greg's Browser, and DoubleScroll.
greg@math.harvard.edu (Greg Landweber)
This is our main address for tech support, comments, and bug reports.
http://greg.math.harvard.edu/
edv@amargosa.com (Edward Voas)
Ed no longer provides support for Aaron, but he is still a nice guy.
http://users.aol.com/isysdev/
(An Amargosa web site is coming soon to www.amargosa.com.)
shareware@kagi.com (Kagi Shareware)
This is where you send your registration form. Kagi is a service that handles the shareware fees for us, and all they know about Aaron is that it costs $10.
http://www.kagi.com/
While we attempt to answer all e-mail, the response to Aaron is quite overwhelming and our mailboxes fill up very quickly. Please forgive us if we do not always reply promptly to your messages. We assure you that we do read all incoming e-mail, and in particular, we keep track of all bugs that are reported. If you do not hear back from us, it most likely means that we do not have anything helpful to tell you yet. To make our job easier, please read through this documentation file before e-mailing us. Also, please do not include screen shots or lists of all your system extensions as these take up a great deal of space and are usually not necessary. If we need such information, we will ask you for it.
(We do not provide snail-mail or telephone support for Aaron. The Kagi Shareware address is for registrations only, not support. Most importantly, do not call the Harvard Math Department.)
Please do NOT distribute modified versions of Aaron. It is difficult enough to support the versions that we release, and it becomes a nightmare if we have to support versions that we have never seen. Also, please distribute Aaron as a complete package, including Register, Espi Sans 10, and this documentation file.
Aaron is an extension that transforms your Mac's user experience to resemble the Mac OS 8 Default Theme. To use it, just drop it in your Extensions folder, or drop it on your System (Mac OS) folder and let the Finder put it where it belongs. When you restart, you will see the changes listed below. To temporarily disable Aaron, hold down the mouse button while it loads at startup.
Note: Aaron is based on Apple's official user interface specifications for the MacOS 8 Default Theme. So what you get with Aaron is (mostly) exactly pixel for pixel what Mac OS 8 will actually look like. However, Mac OS 8 will also offer several other themes, each with a substantially different appearance.
Aaron is a “Fat Binary” containing both 680x0 and PowerPC native code for optimum performance on both Macs and PowerMacs. In other words, Aaron is Accelerated for Power Macintosh. Aaron requires a 68020 or better, so in particular it will not work on a Mac Plus. Sorry.
Shareware info
Aaron is shareware; it is NOT free. If you use Aaron for more than a week or two, you should pay a $10 registration fee. Registrations for Aaron are handled by the Kagi Shareware service run by Kee Nethery. In addition to cash in various currencies and US dollar checks drawn on US banks, Kagi Shareware also accepts credit card registrations by snail-mail or e-mail (your card number is scrambled). For organizations, they handle invoices and site licenses, too. For more information, read the enclosed “How to Register” document.
List of features
• Replaces the windows, floating windoids, scroll bars, push buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, and popup menus with ones based on the Mac OS 8 Default Theme.
• Aaron's windows have a thick border which you can use to draw the window from any side. These windows also have a WindowShade widget at the top right of the title bar. Clicking on it collapses the window to just its title bar. The System 7.5.x WindowShade extension does not work correctly with Aaron; if you double-click the window title bar, the window does not collapse completely.
• Substitutes Espi Sans Bold 10 for Chicago 12 as the system font. Espi Sans Bold 10 is not quite the same font that Apple uses in the Mac OS 8 Default Theme, but Espi Sans Bold 10 is a good match. This substitution affects Chicago 12 everywhere it appears, even if you select it as the text font in a document. If you are using Greg's Buttons, then this feature disables itself. In that case, you need to switch on the Substitute System Font feature in Greg's Buttons and select Espi Sans Bold 10 yourself.
• The menubar and menus have a gray background with subtle 3D tinges and dividers. Selected menu items are highlighted using the window color specified in the "Color" control panel.
• Finder windows have gray headers with subtle 3D tinges and dividers, and for iinactive windows, the header text is grayed out. In list views, the selected column header is drawn in bold instead of underlined.
• Automatically installs the Mac OS 8 Default Theme folder icons. There are many versions of these icons floating around in cyberspace. The ones included with Aaron are the exact icons that Apple is currently planning to use with Mac OS 8. Aaron does not change your system file, so your icons will revert to normal if you disable Aaron.
• Patches the progress bars in the Finder and various applications with ones based on the Mac OS 8 Default Theme. The progress bar color it determined by the window color specified in the "Color" control panel. These progress bars look so cool that you will be copying and trashing files just to see them!
• Alert boxes have a gray background and a red tinted border. Some dialog boxes also have a gray background.
• Gives you the alert icons (stop sign, caution, and note) used in the Mac OS 8 Default Theme.
• Gives the disclosure triangles in the Finder a slight 3D effect.
• Adds spinning zoom rectangles to the Finder. You can disable this feature ResEdit by editing the "WPrf" resource in a COPY of of the ~Aaron file (editing the currently active ~Aaron file causes a crash).
The Espy Sans font family
Espy is a new font designed by Apple's Human Interface people for easy readability on computer screens. Aaron installs Espi Sans Bold 10 as your system font in place of the usual Chicago 12 font, and the font Espi Sans 10 is included with the Aaron package. You should try selecting Espi Sans 10 as your Finder font using the Views control panel. Some people prefer the Espy Sans 9 size for Finder views, but all the Copland screen shots use the 10 point size.
You used to be able to get the entire Espy font family as part of the eWorld software. Alternatively, these fonts live inside the Apple Guide extension, so you can make a copy of your Apple Guide extension, change its file type to FFIL and its creator to DMOV, and then open it like a suitcase to extract all the Espy fonts. Do not put the whole Apple Guide file into your fonts folder; drag the fonts out of the Apple Guide file and put them loose in your fonts folder. I am told that this font is also used by the Newton and comes with the Newton Toolkit as well as the Newton Toolkit Demo (part of “Programming for the Newton“ by McKeehan and Rhodes). Please note that since Espy was designed to be a screen font, there are not TrueType or PostScript versions for use with printers.
The “Paste this onto your hard disk” icon
Aaron comes with a Copland-style hard disk icon for you to install on your hard disk. To install it, select the “Paste this onto your hard disk” file and choose “Get Info” from the “File” menu. Then click on the large icon at the top left of the info window and choose “Copy” from the “Edit” menu. Close the info window and select your hard disk icon on the desktop. Choose “Get Info” again and click on the icon at the top left of the info window. Now select “Paste” from the “Edit” menu and close the info window. Your hard disk should now have a Copland-style icon.
Here are some quotes about Aaron
“I don't think everyone realizes the power of a ‘change of scenery’ to alter your mood or outlook on life...it makes you literally feel different.” — Kevin Lesniewicz
“I never thought I'd get that excited about a button.” — Ed Voas
“What can I say? — it works.” — Leo Breebaart
“...Aaron is awesome! I never dreamed that a few subtle changes in the Mac's 'User Experience' could get me so excited about Macintosh all over again!” — Dave Mah Ming
Known problems
Netscape 3.0b5
Netscape 3.0b5 crashes while launching if both Aaron and the Japanese Language Kit are installed. This problem is fixed in Netscape 3.0b6. (Please note that this is a specific conflict between Netscape 3.0b5, Aaron, and the JLK. If you are using a different version of Netscape, or if you do not have the JLK, then any problems you may experience are completely unrelated to this one.)
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage Dictionary version 3.5 and earlier (including versions 3.0 and 3.0.1) is not compatible with Aaron. This problem was fixed in version 3.6.1 of the American Heritage Dictionary, and the latest as of this writing is version 4.0 (which also fixes this problem). Contact SoftKey for an upgrade.
FreePPP
Some older versions of FreePPP and Aaron did not work together. As of this writing, the latest versions, FreePPP 2.5rf and Aaron 1.5, appear to work together just fine.
Ircle
Ircle 2.2 (and some early 2.3 beta versions) is not compatible with Aaron. This problem is fixed in Ircle 2.3b48.
HoverBar
HoverBar 1.2.7 or earlier can corrupt folder icons, and the WindowShade widget does not work with Aaron. This incompatibility was fixed in HoverBar 1.2.8
WindowShade
The System 7.5.x WindowShade extension does not work correctly with Aaron. If you double-click the window title bar, the window does not collapse completely; it leaves a few pixels hanging below the title bar. You should get used to using the WindowShade widget to collapse your windows anyway. (This is not a symptom of a more significant problem, so if you don't mind those extra pixels, go ahead and double click the title bar as much as you want.)
Now Contact
The windows in Now Contact jump a few pixels to the left every time they are activated or moved. This is a bug in Now Contact—it does not like windows with thick borders—and there is nothing we can do about it. If you have this problem, you should report it to Now Software.
The Grouch
The Grouch does not work when Aaron is running. I am told that it works correctly if you make "The Grouch" load after "Aaron" (by naming it "~The Grouch" for instance).
Greg's Buttons
If you are running Greg's Buttons, the system font substitution feature in Aaron disables itself. If you want the Espi Sans Bold 10 font, you need to switch on the Substitute System Font feature in Greg's Buttons and select Espi Sans Bold 10 yourself. This is a feature, not a bug. Both Aaron and Greg's Buttons have the same font substitution code, but in addition Greg's Buttons gives you an interface to switch it on and off and select the font.
The menu colors in Greg's Buttons override those in Aaron. If you want to use Aaron's menu colors (as well as its color highlight), you must turn off menu colorization in Greg's Buttons.
Canvas
The menus in Canvas become unreadable when Aaron is running.This is a long standing bug in Canvas that conflicts with substitute system fonts. To work around this problem, you can use Greg's Buttons to select a different substitute system font or turn off that feature entirely. If you use Greg's Buttons for this purpose only, you do not need to pay the shareware fee.
Menubar Indicators
If your monitor is set for 256 Colors, then the indicators for DiskLight, In Use, or AppleShare in your menu bar are drawn in yellow and do not show up well against the light gray background. This is a problem with the system's color inverse routines, and there is nothing we can do in Aaron. If it bothers you, you can install Greg's Buttons and change the menu colors.
Menu Colors
If you are using or have ever used another program to change your menu colors (such as Aurora or Kolor), then your menu color settings may override Aaron's. This can happen even if you have set your menus back to black and white since those utilities may have left a rogue color resource (specifying black and white as the colors) in your System file. Aurora 3.3 will remove this color resource if you tell it to de-install. Otherwise, to get rid of this, you can either remove all “mctb” resources from your System file with ResEdit or perform a fresh install.
CE Toolbox
Aaron must load after the CE Toolbox extension. That is why it is named ~Aaron.
FrameMaker
FrameMaker may complain about a font error when starting up. This is due to FrameMaker's overzealous font checking. There really is no problem, and FrameMaker should continue to work normally. However, some people have reported that FrameMaker refuses to load in this case (while others are still able to use FrameMaker).
I am told that FrameMaker has trouble updating its windows with recent versions of Aaron. I am working on a fix.
Find Pro III
Find Pro III crashes when drawing its "Item not found" alert box. This is due to a bug in Find Pro III, and I have discussed it with the author.
PlainTalk
Aaron prevents PlainTalk (speech recognition) from recognizing button names in dialog boxes. I am told that the latest version of PlainTalk no longer has this problem.
Now FolderMenus
Now FolderMenus draws a tiny extra arrow on the scroll bar arrows if its arrow drawing feature is enabled.
Finder Window Title Bar Icon
If you change the icon while the window is open, it will not get the changes until the window is closed and reopened.
Since I only get icons when I need them, if you do change the icon, and then say, drag the window to another monitor with a different depth, which requires a different version of the icon from the icon suite, you may end up with a weird looking icon because you may have the mask from the old icon with the new icon on top of it. Yuck.
Changes in version 1.5
New Features/Improvements
• Menu dividers are 3D.
• Finder window headers are much improved. When inactive, they become flat and the text is grayed out. In list views, the active column header is bold instead of underlined. The spacing is improved, and clipping windows and the clipboard have gray headers. The "About This Macintosh" window gets a gray header, too.
• Check boxes use check marks instead of crosses. This is a recent change in the Mac OS 8 default theme.
• Aaron patches the startup progress bar (once Aaron has loaded, of course).
• Inactive scroll bars arrows are slightly darker.
• Inactive default button rings are flat, just like the buttons are.
• Eudora's alerts and progress boxes have gray backgrounds, and Aaron patches Eudora's progress bar.
• The FreePPP Connection Status window has a gray background, and the disclosure triangles in FreePPP Setup are 3D.
Problems Resolved
• The Speed Doubler 1.3 trash dialog box popup menu now works correctly. Speed Copy's progress bars also look slightly better.
• Fixed a problem that caused some inactive Finder windows to have a white square instead of a grow box.
• Fixed a problem with Vision from Opcode where popup menu icons would appear in the main window.
Changes in version 1.4.1
• The QuicKeys Close Window and Zoom Window "mousies" work with Aaron's windows.
• Fixes a bug introduced in version 1.4 that could cause various crashes, including those with the Mac OS 8 Tour, Microsoft Project, and PowerBar 2.5 (which was also fixed in PowerBar 2.5.1).
• Desktop Printers use the correct Finder window title bar icon with the latest Desktop Printer software.
• Inactive windows and buttons are flat, and modal dialog boxes have a shadow. These are recent changes in the Mac OS 8 Default Theme.
• Minor fixes involving the progress bar and the Finder window title bar pop-up menu.
Changes in version 1.4
• Aaron colorizes the mini icons in the Open / Save box folder popup and the Finder window title bar popup.
• Improved the Finder window title bar icon routines. The icon for desktop printers is not crossed out, and the trash window icon shows whether the trash is empty or full. It also recognizes stationery and more file types.
• The dotted outlines when moving, resizing, or spinning a window are two pixels thick.
• Fixed a few minor progress bar glitches.
• The menus in SoundEdit and Director revert to black and white. These programs use custom menu drawing routines that are badly written and do not handle color menus correctly.
• If you try to zoom a collapsed window, the window waits to expand until after you release the mouse.
• Fixed a bug that can prevent floppy disks from ejecting.
Changes in version 1.3.2
• Fixed the "Unimplemented Trap" errors on Macs running System 7.0 or 7.0.1.
• Aaron no longer patches PhotoShop's floating windows.
• Adobe PageMaker's fill pattern menu works correctly.
• Now Tabs no longer interferes with Aaron's floating shareware reminder window.
• DragStrip's floating windows draw correctly without a title bar.
• In CalcWorks 1.5 and earlier, the iconized display no longer has a title bar, and the minimized window uses Aaron's Copland style windoids. (CalcWorks 1.5.1 and later use different windoid routines that do not have these problems.)
• Aaron now includes a distinct icon for shared folders.
• Fixed a few minor bugs with the popup menus, windows, floating windows, and scroll bars.
Changes in version 1.3.1
• Fixed a conflict with Extensions Strip that caused it to crash when launched.
• The floating windows in DragStrip work normally.
• The floating windows in DragThing update correctly when other floating windows (such as from AppleGuide or HoverBar) covering them are moved.
• Fixed a conflict with the Colortron Calibrator control panel popup menu.
• Photoshop's floating windows do not draw their titles.
• Avid VideoShop no longer crashes when launched.
Changes in version 1.3
New Features/Improvements
• The Annoying Shareware Message™ appears in a floating window (which you dismiss by clicking the close box) on Macs running System 7.5 or later.
• The rotating zoom rectangles are much faster, and they work on all Macs.
• Aaron replaces most floating windoids with its own Copland-style version. (More precisely, Aaron replaces the Infinity Windoid with its own floating windoid routines).
• Improved the Finder window header, eliminating the double horizontal line at the bottom of the header and replacing the dotted divider with a 3D bevel.
• StuffIt Expander's progress boxes now have a gray background.
• All alert boxes now have a gray background and red tinged border, and movable alert boxes have a light red (well, more pink) tinted title bar.
• The progress bar draws significantly faster than in previous versions.
• Added an option to the "WPrf" resource to remove the windowshade widget.
Problems Resolved
• Worked around a bug in System 7.5.3 that would cause errors in the Finder (out of memory messages, or errors of type -108 or -192) on Performa 5200-, 5300-, 6200-, and 6300-series Power Macs.
• Fixed a bug that would cause Adobe Photoshop (and perhaps some other applications) to crash the second time it is launched.
• The dark tinge at the bottom of the menu bar no longer gets erased under menu items.
• Snap-To (as well as other extensions that snap the cursor to the default button in dialog boxes) works correctly in alert boxes. This was actually due to a documented bug in the system software which we have fixed with a patch.
• The menus in ClarisWorks and other Claris applications highlight in the correct color instead of black.
• The Apple CD Audio Player red background works correctly once again.
• Aaron no longer draws progress bars in the Apple Video Player controls window.
Changes in version 1.2
New Features/Improvements
• Aaron now uses the window color specified in the "Color" control panel for selected menu items, scroll bar thumbs, and progress bars. Aaron also patches the Color control panel to display new color names. To get back the old purple/blue color scheme, set the window color to "Lavender".
• Modal dialog boxes no longer have a draggable border (except for the title bar of moveable modal dialog boxes).
• Red alerts. You will see what we mean.
• Changed the alert icons (stop sign, caution, and note).
• Redesigned the folder icons.
• Menus now have a slight 3D effect (with light and dark tinges on the left and right).
• Speed Copy's disclosure triangles are now Copland-ized.
• The rotating zoom rectangles are now a tad faster (reduced the default number of steps to 10 from 12).
• The radio buttons and check boxes now have the 3D effect on 4-bit displays (16 colors or grays).
• The progress bar now looks right on black and white displays.
Problems Resolved
• FaxState (a FaxSTF extra) now works correctly when Aaron is running.
• Disabled Aaron's Copland-style windows when running Lotus Notes. This is to work around an incompatibility where Notes would draw using extra-large pixels. We hope to eliminate this problem completely in a future version.
• Finale's scroll bars now work correctly with Aaron installed.
• Fixed a bug with the windowshade feature. On some 680x0-based Macs, if you collapsed a large window completely covering a smaller one, the smaller one would not redraw its contents.
• The rotating zoom rectangles now draw correctly if you change the number of steps (by editing the WPrf resource). Formerly, outward zooms would stop short or go too far if you used fewer or more than 12 steps.
• Clicking on the menubar clock no longer erases the dark tinge at the bottom of the menubar.
• Aaron's windows and rotating zoom rectangles now work with System 7.5 Update 2.0.
Changes in version 1.1.3
• The popup menus in the PowerBook and Auto Power On/Off control panels now work correctly.
• Fixed a conflict with AppleScript that could cause crashes on Power Macs.
• The Encoding popup menus in Netscape now list encodings instead of fonts.
• The PopUpFolder submenus now work correctly in the open/save box folder title popup menu.
Changes in version 1.1.2
• Fixed the Type 11 errors and related crashes when dragging the scroll bar thumb in certain applications, such as Word, Quicken, and Alpha.
• The spinning zoomrect effect is faster and much less pronounced.
• The PlainTalk speech recognition window should appear correctly now.
• The Speed Dial popup menu in MegaPhone now works correctly. The popup menus now support hierarchical submenus (personally, I don't think popups should have submenus).
• The Categories popup menu in Claris Organizer now shows the correct colors. The popup menus now support color menu items.
• The Speed Copy (Speed Doubler) progress boxes are now Copland-ized.
• Resizing the Now Menus control panel should no longer crash (we really mean it this time).
• Improved the trash can icon slightly.
• The disclosure triangles in ClarisWorks 4 are no longer switched.
• Fixed a conflict with the Code Warrior 7 version of PowerPlant Constructor.
• If Greg's Buttons is running, Aaron disables its system font substitution feature.
Changes in version 1.1.1
• WindowShade widget should now function on systems earlier than 7.5
• Fixed potential 'Unimplemented Trap' error on startup when running other extensions such as SpeedyFinder7.
Changes in version 1.1
• Aaron and WindowShade no longer work well together. The WindowShade widget in the title bar works just dandy, though. This was done to fix the problem with Stuffit (mentioned below). This was also done in anticipation of a future addition to Aaron.
• Added Copland-style floating windows.
• Added spinning zoom rects in the Finder. These are Finder version dependent. If they do not work for you please let me (Ed) know which version of the Finder you are using and I'll adjust it to work properly for you. Also, you can tweak these zoomrects via the 'WPrf' resource. Increasing the number of steps will improve the effect, but they will be slower.
• Photoshop's Curves dialog box is no longer transparent.
• More's window will no longer roll up and and cause scroll bars to be drawn on the desktop when doing a File:Open.
• Wünderbar now works correctly with Aaron. No more clicks going 'thru' the window.
• Fixed a second conflict with MicroPhone.
• Fixed a conflict with StuffIt that caused crashes when collapsing windows with the WindowShade widget.
• Fixed a conflict with MacUSA/MacGlobe
• Trying to resize the window for the Now Menus control panel should no longer crash.
• Fixed a conflict with the Text control panel.
• Fixed once and for all the system bug that could cause gibberish in the menu bar or crashes when launching applications. So, you no longer need to mess with the "mctb" resource (in fact, it is no longer there, although that is not related to the fix). Many thanks to Steve Kiene for tracking down the cause of this problem and suggesting a fix. There are actually two fixes in place to make sure this problem never reoccurs, so if you do experience a crash when launching an application, it is probably some other unrelated bug.
• Fixed the problem where the system font would occasionally switch to Espi Sans Bold 10 on systems that don't use Chicago as the system font (such as KanjiTalk). Again, we have two fixes for this problem: one to avoid the thing that was triggering it, and another to substitute the correct font back in if it were to be triggered in some other way.
• Fixed a memory leak that could cause the Finder to run out of memory.
• Eliminated the slight delay when opening some windows. Window drawing should be significantly faster.
• The Script Editor's grow box works properly now.
• The ghost thumb is fully functional. It should no longer conflict with anything, not even Scrolling (though with Scrolling, you will not get the ghosting). This feature is now turned on by default.
• Aaron now uses the correct Finder window title bar icon for volumes such as CD-ROMs, file servers, or the System 7.5 RAM Disk. It still doesn't get icons from the disk drivers yet.
• Aaron now recognizes the System Folder, Extensions, Control Panels, etc. on volumes other than the startup disk.
• Popup menus near the bottom of the screen pop up from the button instead of down.
• The folder popup menu in the Open and Save dialog boxes no longer duplicates the first item.
• Aaron no longer attempts to draw 3D progress bars in America Online, eWorld, or PhotoShop.
• ClarisWorks' color palettes no longer show the progress bar effect in the gray and blue wells.
• The default button outline no longer leaves stray pixels around the corners if you are using Greg's Buttons.
• Aaron does not draw its 3D menu bar tinges if you colorize your menus with some other utility.
• Eliminated the rogue vertical line on the right side of the progress bar in Anarchie.
• The push buttons now have white titles when pushed.
• Tweaked the scroll bars slightly.
• Zooming a windowshaded window should no longer cause part of the desktop to poke through the window.
• Improved behavior on black and white monitors.
• The popup routines should now work with MacApp (they now store the last selected menuID and item in the private dataHandle structure where MacApp expects to find them).
Disclaimer
The authors, Gregory D. Landweber and Edward Voas, make no warranties, either express or implied, regarding the fitness of “Aaron” for any particular purpose. Use “Aaron” at your own risk. The authors claim no liability for data loss or any other problems caused directly or indirectly by “Aaron”.
