Only Serious Aqua-holics Need Apply...

Many of you old-timers will remember the efforts to build a shell replacement that mimicked the OS X Finder. If not, you can find discussions on the subject here and here and here.

As is probably obvious, this never got off the ground.

I am still hoping to help this project see the light of day. However, I can't do it myself, so I need the help of developers and graphic designers. If you are interested, please specify how you can help. Please do not reply unless you can be of serious assistance. For example, "I can code in several languages" is helpful, "I can take screenshots of OS X" is not. Hopefully the third time's charm, as far as this project is concerned.

-godpunk

#118119

well what do you have done already?

Being a group leader is realy no help towards the progect at all and is no diffrent from saying "hey guys someone should make another Y'z dock!!!!". Im shure that a very few devolpers run a deficit of ideas.

#118135

Originally posted by lostspyder@Feb 22 2004, 07:32 PM
well what do you have done already?
Being a group leader is realy no help towards the progect at all and is no diffrent from saying "hey guys someone should make another Y'z dock!!!!". Im shure that a very few devolpers run a deficit of ideas.

gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.

#118172

i can do graphic design if need be.. this would be one mighty kewl project to work on

#118179

I can code some REALBasic, if that's helpful -

I'm also pretty good in Photoshop. I consider myself king aqua maker

And of course I can take OS X screenshots LOL :lol: :rolleyes:

#118221

holy hell, i forgot about that entirely.

#118223

well i can get information, do some things on photoshop and make a traducion to portuguese language :rolleyes: and romanian :lol:

#118225

Originally posted by lostspyder@Feb 22 2004, 05:32 PM
well what do you have done already?
Being a group leader is realy no help towards the progect at all and is no diffrent from saying "hey guys someone should make another Y'z dock!!!!". Im shure that a very few devolpers run a deficit of ideas.

Well, if you remember, alilm released a Finder app called 'Felix' earlier this summer. Felix was intended to be a part of the shell replacement. It was a 1:1 exact replica of the OS X Finder. Do you knwo why it was so accurate? Because I helped him get all the GUI elements in all their states, a process which took hours of Photoshop work.

As far as this project is/was concerned, I was a lot more than a guy saying "Hey, one of you programmers should make this".

: /

-godpunk

#118231

well fwiw, godpunk, i know you have an ibook, but i can also pull any elements out of panther that you might need, and convert them to whatever.

#118245

Originally posted by Photo678@Feb 22 2004, 10:44 PM
well fwiw, godpunk, i know you have an ibook, but i can also pull any elements out of panther that you might need, and convert them to whatever.

That would be great. I also have Panther, so it would be great if we could team up and pull out as many resources as we can. Two noses sniffing out file locations would be a lot better than one!

-godpunk

#118247

well i don't think this has anything to do with this finder but i just downloaded darwin (x86) and want people to make a 'pseudo osx' for it (in case anyone doesn't know darwin is the osx core and it is also for pcs.

#118263

Hey GodPunk, as you well know, I'm already working on one what may be key parts of this project, and would be willing (time allowing) to contribute in some way, shape, or form, to the other parts...

Let's just keep the bit that I'm doing on my own a big fat secret though, shall we?

#118321

Originally posted by Stevie BM@Feb 23 2004, 07:43 PM
Let's just keep the bit that I'm doing on my own a big fat secret though, shall we?

dont tease them... next thing we'll have are the "TELL ME TELL ME" posts .

-The Unknown

#118348

I can code a little C# and have just learned how to make controls. Don't know if that'd help or not though.

Also, I've just learned how to make website where you can post news and progress etc by filling in a form. Kind of like a basic version of VirtuaNews on the front page here. I'd really quite enjoy making you a site because It'll be more practice for me.

Just thought, it'd also be quite helpful for people submitting bug reports and suggestions because you can do intelligent searches on a database rather than trawling through a long thread on a forum. Ooh, I'm getting excited at the thought! Go on... let me make it!

#118356

Originally posted by Ludge@Feb 23 2004, 10:50 AM
I can code a little C# and have just learned how to make controls. Don't know if that'd help or not though.

Also, I've just learned how to make website where you can post news and progress etc by filling in a form. Kind of like a basic version of VirtuaNews on the front page here. I'd really quite enjoy making you a site because It'll be more practice for me.

Just thought, it'd also be quite helpful for people submitting bug reports and suggestions because you can do intelligent searches on a database rather than trawling through a long thread on a forum. Ooh, I'm getting excited at the thought! Go on... let me make it!

Good idea Ludge...

I hate to widdle in your strawberries, but I've already developed a web application in .Net that not only allows enterprise-grade bug tracking, but can also be integrated into applications for automatic bug reporting from the programs themselves... Oh, and it's completely skinnable, and is completely XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant

I'd be willing to contribute that to the project, if someone can get a decent .Net host to put it on...

If you want any help with .Net, though, gimme a shout

#118363

Originally posted by Ludge@Feb 23 2004, 04:50 AM
I can code a little C# and have just learned how to make controls. Don't know if that'd help or not though.
Also, I've just learned how to make website where you can post news and progress etc by filling in a form. Kind of like a basic version of VirtuaNews on the front page here. I'd really quite enjoy making you a site because It'll be more practice for me.
Just thought, it'd also be quite helpful for people submitting bug reports and suggestions because you can do intelligent searches on a database rather than trawling through a long thread on a forum. Ooh, I'm getting excited at the thought! Go on... let me make it!

Good idea Ludge. Perhaps you and Stevie can get together and develop an effective way to keep news posted and report bugs. This would work better than the old email newsletter we had- we had over 100 addresses to keep track of, and it got hard.

Before we get started on that though, we need more developers on board. We need to get a group of people who are serious about making this happen. We'll see if that happens first, then we'll work on news feeds.

-godpunk

#118387

well if you also wanna do a newsletter type thing, i should have time to do that.

so lets recap what we've got so far.

Ludge can do some coding, and some web stuff for bug tracking

Stevie may have some of the basics done for his own project that may or may not be able to

used for this

Godpunk sort of the ring leader of the bunch, resources from the mac etc

Me mac resources, and a newsletter for peeps if need be

looks like we need more coding type people, what about duckie?

#118474

Originally posted by Photo678@Feb 23 2004, 10:48 AM
so lets recap what we've got so far.
Ludge can do some coding, and some web stuff for bug tracking
Stevie may have some of the basics done for his own project that may or may not be able to
used for this
Godpunk sort of the ring leader of the bunch, resources from the mac etc
Me mac resources, and a newsletter for peeps if need be
looks like we need more coding type people, what about duckie?

Yes, coders is our major gap right now. It would be nice to maybe have another skilled Photoshopper, but we could get by with just me and Photo. Duckie may be able to help on the resources/graphic end, but I can't speak for him.

If we can get more coders, we'll be set. I don't know what alilm is doing these days, but he seems to lose interest in projects after a while and abandons them (no offense to you bud!). So unless we get more coders, this project is dead in the water...

-godpunk

#118478

Originally posted by godpunk@Feb 23 2004, 04:55 PM
Yes, coders is our major gap right now. It would be nice to maybe have another skilled Photoshopper, but we could get by with just me and Photo. Duckie may be able to help on the resources/graphic end, but I can't speak for him.
If we can get more coders, we'll be set. I don't know what alilm is doing these days, but he seems to lose interest in projects after a while and abandons them (no offense to you bud!). So unless we get more coders, this project is dead in the water...
-godpunk

Al's just got back from a snowboarding trip (lucky sod)...

With regards to what I've got done and what I can do - I have an enterprise class issue-management tool which I developed, which can easily be extended to support updates et al.; I've got the groundwork done for an application which could be very key to the suite; I've got years and years of coding experience with 30+ languages; and I've got more ideas than you can shake a stick at.

I'm in, if you want me.

#118486

Of course we do Stevie.

As for the GUI end, I just struck the motherlode! This article at Xicons.com tells all about finding icons and resources throughout the system. In the article is two terminal commands that will find resources in your system and compile their file locations in a .txt file. They are:

sudo find /System -name "*.icns" > ~/Desktop/system_icns.txt

sudo find /System -name "*.png" > ~/Desktop/system_png.txt

These two commands will find all the .icns and .png files in your system folder. Naturally, not all of these files will be needed, so this will take a LOT of scouring over. Also, Apple frequently uses .tiff and .pdf files for system elements, so these commands will be helpful too:

sudo find /System -name "*.tiff" > ~/Desktop/system_tiff.txt

sudo find /System -name "*.pdf" > ~/Desktop/system_pdf.txt

When getting these resources, make sure your system is as close to default as possible- I have to disable CandyBar on mine, you might have ShapeShifter, etc. I'll try to post the final, definitive lists of system resources later.

Good luck!

-godpunk

#118513

Here is a zip file containing .txt files for the locations of .png, .icns, .pdf, and .tiff files in the OS X sytem folder. Feel free to look over them, and we'll decide how to divvy up the exporting duties

-godpunk

#118520

I'd be glad to help Stevie with a website. A "minor" problem is that I've never made a single .net web app and have only used .net offline. I meant using PHP in my post. But it shouldn't matter too much because both languages should be able to interact OK. Oh yeah, for the mailing list, PHP should do it quite nicely.

What sort of coding are you after? Someone to start this shell replacement from the ground up? Or has it already got foundations?

If anyone wants to contact me, just get my msn details off the bottom of this post.

Oh, and add me in for a bit of exporting resources if it'd help.

#118521

Whilst I think about it, perhaps it would be a good idea, rather than directly mimicing Finder et al, to make the applications we build highly customisable, but release them with Finder skins...

Also, would it be an idea to see if we can use DX9 throughout?

#118522

Originally posted by Ludge@Feb 23 2004, 11:50 AM
What sort of coding are you after? Someone to start this shell replacement from the ground up? Or has it already got foundations?

Well, I'd contact you on MSN to discuss it, but I think this would benefit everyone.

The shell replacement would likely be built from the ground up, but since I'm not a programmer, I can't say for sure. Compatibility and stability with current Windows software is very important, so if we build from scratch, we have to make sure that we keep compatibility in the forefront. The coders would be better able to answer that for you.

-godpunk

#118523

Originally posted by Stevie BM@Feb 23 2004, 11:51 AM
Whilst I think about it, perhaps it would be a good idea, rather than directly mimicing Finder et al, to make the applications we build highly customisable, but release them with Finder skins...

The more options we add, the more difficult this undertaking becomes. I say we release it, and let others figure out how to skin it.

That's what Apple did.

-godpunk

#118524