CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cxcodemacoscocoa
Jamesp1989
Jamesp1989

Reputation: 335

How hard would it be to create a customisable GUI for mac?

What I mean by this is, how much work would be involved in rewriting/extending default AppKit controls in a way that would allow for both a standard OS X appearance and custom appearance (loaded from image files) if the user so wishes? (Think of WinAmp or Windows Media Player.) Has anyone tried to bring this to the Mac?

I understand how to redraw an NSWindow or a button cell but that's all hard coded. I want something the user can add to themselves. What are my options?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 337

Answers (2)

vtukhtarov
vtukhtarov

Reputation: 1902

Yes this fully possible. But are you shure that you want to do this using AppKit? Maybe better use crossplatform solution like QT that support skinning through CSS?

Upvotes: 0

Itai Ferber
Itai Ferber

Reputation: 29883

Well, it would really involved redrawing all the custom components you'd need from scratch, whether in code, or using images. AppKit wasn't meant to be customized as it strictly follows Apple's Human Interface Guidelines; Apple wants to create one consistent UI metaphor across all native applications.

What that means in practice is that you're going to have to do a lot of custom drawing to theme your app. Using images makes things easier, but not by too much. If you want a custom button, you'll have to create a subclass of NSButton and NSButtonCell to load the images you want and draw (take a look at NSDrawThreePartImage() and NSDrawNinePartImage() for how to more easily draw resizable buttons). To theme NSWindow, you'll have to subclass NSThemeFrame, a semi-private class that draws the standard OS X window look.

Essentially, you'll just need to do a lot of subclassing to get the appearance you want. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it recommended or easy to do? Not so much.

Of course, you have to ask if this is really necessary. The point of the HIG is to try to create one standard look across OS X. If not done expertly, a themed look can be tacky, and possibly even confusing for users who are used to the default OS X look. If you want to include UI theming, there usually needs to be a good reason for it (either to maintain cross-platform compatibility, but in that case, all HIG rules are out the window; or to achieve a specific look, a là game UI), but I really wouldn't recommend doing it, let alone letting users customize your UI themselves.

Upvotes: 2

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