jonz14 Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 I myself started to try, but then I remembered I don't know how to code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Hmm... Yeah, it's true, this code is NOT easy, and considering most of this is already available in Leopard, there's really not much point in putting in the weeks of effort it would take. If anyone's interested, I'm working on developing a simple AppleScript app to Show/Hide the Desktop icons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted October 12, 2006 Author Share Posted October 12, 2006 Yeah, lostgame, we'd definitely be interested. A lot of these features won't be in Leopard, however, and that's also several months away. If I had the coding prowess and wanted a few extra hundred dollars, I'd go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 *sighs* Well, I spent a couple hours trying this, and realized there's a reason it's in the next version of OS X-it's not easy to implement, whatsoever. It would involve a serious look at the kernel for the desktop, and I'm sorry guys, I just don't have the weeks it would take to develop this and make it usuable. Developing something that could do this would only take a week or so, mostly goofing around, figuring out how to play with the desktop icon's placement-a lot of these issues are easily solved simply by moving icons off the desktop and then, when so desired, placing their x and y values back on to the desktop. Arranging them by top, bottom would be annoying (and probably useless), but changing the left and right is stupid simple if you find the code for moving the icons. It's just all a matter of-where is this stuff stored? ds_store? I really have no idea-I don't know enough about the OS to do that stuf, and it just seems pointless, because by the time I perfect it, we'll have Leopard. =P With that information given, I'll leave others to their work. If it can be done, I will try to make a donation as best as I can, guys. Thanks to all the other Apple devs out there-you guys make the Apple OS worth using, and I love to help. =) Later. Sorry to double-post, but I figured out that the desktop icon info is indeed stored in "/usr/Desktop", in the ".DS_Store" file, this post will contain what will be similar to a ROM hacking guide for the ".DS_Store" files-making an AppleScript to change all these should be a snap if I document it-I'm doing most of the work for you, people. =P It's all going to be about pointers-if you're a newbie programmer and struggle with that, please don't ask me questions-it's not easy to understand, and the only way to learn is by teaching yourself, sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Bump, and eh. Sorry, I just don't have the time to work this out right now, it doesn't seem to make much sense, either. >_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted October 15, 2006 Author Share Posted October 15, 2006 BTW, if several of you want to work on this together, you can certainly split up the money. It sounds like lostgame made some progress in the initial stages of finding out where a lot of these things are stored... Even if you can't implement all the features, you can still earn some cash for the ones you do work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Okay, well, I could use a couple bucks, so I'll release the AppleScript when I perfect it. Here is how it would go: 1 ) Remove the "keep arranged by name" or "snap to grid" values from the ".DS_Store" on the desktop, and make sure it stays that way. 2 ) Return the desktop resolution as a value. 3 ) Depending on the resolution of the desktop, add the width of the desktop to the current x value of the icons (again, stored in .DS_Store)when the little "hide" button is clicked, and assign a value to the fact that they have been moved. 4 ) Logically, you'd have to subtract that value from the icons again. Horray! You have your program. All of the major ideas involving the desktop icon's placement are stored in the .DS_Store file. It's hard to tell what the values are, because it's all hex (I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Fogge Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I was really looking forward to this, but it looks like the challenge has died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I'm sorry, guys... I really am. It's just too difficult, and I don't have the time to learn that whole weird .ds_store format. But, fear not, most of these options are available for Leopard, so don't worry, you can get it when the final's torrented, and just boot it from a DVD. Update: I'm working on a REALbasic version. It's coming along a lot faster-and it seems to be working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I GOT IT. I got it all figured out, I know how to manipulate the desktop icon's positions-it's going to be a simple modification of the source I have to finish-and better yet, it's applescript so it's very easy to edit! I will email the current source to the admin with this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
non sequitur Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 hooray! not only do we get this iAnnoyance challenge crossed off of the list with a fix, we get a new one to code/drool about! good job, lostgame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Well, it's not out yet. There are a couple things it falls short on: - Set horizontal and vertical icon grid spacing With tweaking of the program, it would be possible, but that's just a lot of hassle for something that is in Leopard. - Arrange icons to left, top, or bottom of desktop Top and bottom, makes no sense, and doesn't really work. Left and right is working. - Ability to “map” where icons can be placed on the desktop, meaning that there are certain places they can be placed on the desktop but not others. Again, possible with source, but I'm not quite sure how it could work. When I publish this, don't give me all the money, as I obviously didn't get all the things. But, here's what works: - Hide individual drives while showing others - Arrange icons to left of desktop - Show/Hide all icons with a hotkey Those all work. I'm willing to release the underlying code to the public so they can have a chance to share in this money-here's a quote from my PM to Mash for you to understand my point: And that's all the code you'll need to make this entire program work! This is all the code I intend on writing on this project, to allow multiple people to gain profit from this-I want multiple people to have a chance to make a difference in the Mac Programming community, and because this is much simpler, it will encourage people to maybe even learn to program, which is, I think, what this whole idea is really about. Needless to say, after hours of work messing in the wrong areas and all this junk, I would still like *some* money for it, how much you're willing to give me is another question, just know I'd really appreciate it. So there you go-don't assume it's over yet-you guys will hopefully get the chance to do some easy work for some money, I don't know how much though. All I want to do is benefit the community, and I think this is the best way to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U.C. Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Nice, would love to see it released. BTW is it possible to get a My Computer icon on the desktop???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Your current hard disk icon is basically the "My Computer" icon, UC. You could technically just make a folder with shortcuts to system prefs (control panel and network stuff), network, and your hard disks and CD/DVD drives and that would be your My Computer icon. That's an easy thing to do that requires no programming. Anyone with questions, PM me, email me, or IM me at l0stgame (aim) or lostgame at hotmail dot com (MSN) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suleiman Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 definitely congratulations are in order lostgame. Good job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Thanks, and again, I'm here, I'm just waiting for Mash to give me the . (No pun intended, oh, wait.) =P And remember, the release is the underlying code to make it work, not a "stable release", I'm losing money here to benefit the community, because I honestly just want Mac programming to be something people want to try-and if $50-$100 is the incentive, so be it! I'd love to see multiple people's efforts on this software and have a competition for the best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtraa Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Hi lostgame, thanks for your effort and the time I think everyone appreciate that And don't forget to poste it at macosxhints.com, too, there was a thread on iconspacing and they did not found a solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Still waiting on Mash... He out or something? UPDATE: Heavily modified source to it works better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Okay, guys, I've developed a suite of 4 AppleScripts that do 4 of the requested things. If the resolution of the screen changes at any time, the scripts may need to be run again to apply the changes. 1) Hide Drives This hides the disk drives. The trick is, it doesn't really hide them, it just moves them out of the way to a little corner at the bottom of the screen where they can't be seen. =P 2) Hide Icons Identical to the "Hide Drives" script except it moves everything on your desktop. 3) Align icons to left If you assign this script to run every time you login, it will align all your icons to the left automatically. Otherwise, running the script will just do it once. 4) Align icons to right Obviously identical to (3) but aligns to right. Any others that people are really looking forward to seeing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Awesome lostgame, great job. I'll work to confirm these this week. (Sorry for not getting back sooner - things are pretty crazy school-wise right now, and I was camping for the latter half of the week). One question - can we have a script that returns all the settings to default? Also, something that would keep icons for overlapping would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Oh, yeah, certainly on both accounts. EDIT: Also, may I open-source these now? 2nd edit: For returning them, all you have to do is hit View/Arrange by/Name and it goes back to normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE! It's not perfect (OMG), but if you have major complaints-it's open-source, tweak it to your needs. I'm only providing the AppleScript, but do keep to the first two lines-just leave the first two lines intact, please. By clicking here, I understand this is beta software and contains no warranty whatsoever. If you think it damages your system, just hit (in finder, on desktop) view/arrange by/name and the desktop icons will go back to normal. You've gotta have "keep arranged by" disabled in order for it to work. First known major bugs that I'm working on fixing as we speak: -the icons, when arranged to the right or left, will overlap themselves if there is more than one column. This is being fixed. -the icons will not arrange themselves properly always-it depends on the size of your icons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Huge bugfixes: 1) Your icons can be as big or as small as you want them, so far as you don't have more than two columns, but I'm fixing that. 2) Your icons can be right or bottom aligned (for text) 3) You can use (I think) any resolution, provided there aren't multiple screens. 4) You can have (so far) two columns, which will soon evolve to as many as your computer screen can hold. 5) Automatically arranges icons alphabetically. Release as soon as I fix the columns issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AriX Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Guys, there already is a "My Computer" thing. Go to the finder and press Shift-Command-C. It'll open up something called [Your Name]'s Computer. Just something interesting: the icon for Computer thing is an iMac G4 with the Jaguar desktop picture Also, great job, can't wait to test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McSkywalker Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 I tried it and it's working, congrats The icons go to the lower left corner of the screen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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