Mcbar

Hi, forum creepers!

Here's my first Aqua related app ever. Compiled together with my first XP-style icon.

I called it McBar. It is a menu bar in Mac style (i.e. close at the top of screen). It captures and shows real window menus of your running apps (no predefined or fixed menus, no language problems etc). Well, try it yourself.

This is a "zero release", i.e. I plan to make much more features than now. The list of bugs and issues is already BIG, and your reports are accepted gladly. Don't expect too much:

- McBar cannot capture menus of Explorer, IE, MS Office, Mozilla, MyIE ...

- McBar handles Delphi and VB applications in a very asquetic way

- Sometimes it pops "Access violation!" but still lives on

- Etc

Well, this release is made most to see whether somebody needs this program and should I spend my time on it. I'll try to grant all your wishes about it, post 'em here.

Obsolete version (the zero release)

Download: http://www.parkerinnovations.com/~alilm/mcbarzerorelease.zip

Screenshot: http://www.parkerinnovations.com/~alilm/action.jpg

Go to my last post to download the newest version (or just see the links in my signature)

#136879

P.S. Thanx... no... THANKXXX to Alilm for hosting this thing @ his server

#136883

Awesome, simply impressive and cool!

#136885

Hmm...

Looks promising cant wait for a full blown release

#136887

Yeah its very promising

#136888

Shows marvelous potental, needs allota work tho, but the engine there is realy good

#136889

Really cool app! Great work

#136890

pretty amazing, this could be the next thing, great job

#136894

Wow this shows so much potential - very very smooth. Keep up the amazing work Rimmer. I ran it for 10 minutes and didnt get ANY bugs or breaks, considering this is an Alpha release - that is very impressive.

Mucho Respect

#136902

very nice,

don't know if you want bugs posted are not,

but i noticed that the menu in iTunes is not recognized

#136907

It looks very promissing as everyone has been saying.

Remember, if you have any questions, this community is here for you.

#136925

After closing it I cannot maximize my apps to the space where the mcbar was, is this a registry setting I can change or something? >.<

[edit]got it back after unlocking my taskbar and moving it around a bit[/edit]

#136941

that happend to me, when i changed the skin and reopended it and closed it again it worked

#136968

Cool app - thanks.

-Aviel.

#136974

here is a shinobi skin, the readme said it wasnt recomended to bother skinning but i felt like it

Shinobi.rar

Attachment: Shinobi.rar

#136997

Originally posted by GillBates@Mar 29 2004, 10:48 PM

After closing it I cannot maximize my apps to the space where the mcbar was, is this a registry setting I can change or something?

I specially made this app in a very "ecological" way: it doesn't leave any trash in TEMP, SYSROOT, Registry etc.

The problem described in this quote sometimes appears in WinXP/2000 and (for only this raw release) should always appear in Win9x (sad but true). It happens because the process of McBar is killed before it can delete it's system panel object. All side effects of running McBar disappear after system restart, so if something's going wrong - don't worry, you know the best way to heal M$Windows :moon:.

#137143

Originally posted by ja450n@Mar 29 2004, 09:49 PM

very nice,

don't know if you want bugs posted are not,

but i noticed that the menu in iTunes is not recognized

YES, I want to see here all the bugs you'll find.

About iTunes: as I already said, McBar doesn't capture the menus of some apps like Explorer or almost any M$Office app (Word, Excel etc). For example, if you see that the window menu has a grip and can be moved - this ZERO release of McBar won't catch it. In case of iTunes (and QuickTime Player too) the situation gets more complicated because these Apple's apps use their own Non-Client drawing (they have even a non-standard window header and border). It's something like a skin, but only one fixed skin.

I now need to get some more info of how iTunes is built, so if someone knows of any articles about this in the Web, please tell me.

P.S. That was really surprising for me to know that iTunes now is compiled together with G-Force visialization software. I knew G-Force since its first release, I made a few presets for it - and my heart almost stopped when I saw my beloved vis plugin working in Apple's program :woot:

#137145

Well you could try PMing localhost about this because his iTunes multi-plugin has an option to make ObjectBar recognize iTunes's menu. I'm assuming all you need to know is what menu handles iTunes uses....I'm sure localhost could help you with that.

#137172

This is amazing. I've been hoping someone would do this moreso than any other app.

Awesome!

What programming language is this written in?

A workaround for people who want their top 20 or so pixels back: Make the windows taskbar unlocked. Move it up top, and then to wherever it was before. viola

#137191

found a bug:

1) open mcbar

2) ctrl-alt-del

3) click the left side of mcbar where it should say Windows Task Manager

4) click the title bar of task manager

5) weird submenu bug can be seen!

#137195

Originally posted by xfluffyx@Mar 30 2004, 06:42 PM

This is amazing. I've been hoping someone would do this moreso than any other app.

Awesome!

What programming language is this written in?

McBar is written in Delphi6, but menu capturing engine uses WinAPI most.

#137473

Thank you for creating this app. I cant wait until it is done. I have always wanted an apple menu. I haven't brought my self to buying objectbar. and i dont do warez. so i had to do without a menu. THANK YOU.

oh and btw: If you need a new name and slick logo let me know.

PM ME

#137512

Really great app!!!

Bugs I found:

- No menu capture in FireFox

- Sometimes menu separator looks like empty menu item instead of horz line

- I've got an application - TOAD... It's "Tool for Oracle App Developer" It's written in Delphi and have menu a-la MSOffice -> floating toolbar (or coolbar in Delphi terms - if my memory is not corrupted ). OK, there no menu capture for this app too.

- sometimes system menu intercepts not fully... only "Restore", "Minimize" and "Close" items... And I think it's because those app is written by Delphi :smartass: and Delphi apps all have hidden window which is always maximized (once more about my memory :naughty: )...

And suggestion:

I found one cool "taskswitcher" -> TaskModule

It's OpenSource.... Maybe you can use it in McBar? for task switching for example :woot:

Thanx

#137523

Oh! One more suggestion... Can you hide window menu after capture? It's will be GREAT!!!

Am I right people? :naughty:

#137524

2 NilColor

Too much to qoute. FireFox is Mozilla. Delphi apps are handled by their TApllication object (it is also a top window of almost every Delphi GUI app). So most of your problems are typical for this release and are described above.

About your suggestions:

Task switching: I have to say that I don't know how exactly Mac's menu works - I've never seen any Mac in action alive or even in screen videos. All I've got is screenshot. And the book (see Acknowledgement in readme). Therefore I don't know how exactly it switches the tasks.

Hiding menu: This makes a problem. For example run Acrobat Reader 4 and turn its menu invisible. Then click McBar it will re-capture Reader's menu and you'll see ... right, NOTHING! All I can offer is to hook the redraw procedure for every window and fill menu with ButtonFace color

#137531