brushed metal l&f on os x

Found a few cool apple jvm properties for the os x people to play with.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Java/Reference/Java14SysProperties/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000299

apple.awt.brushMetalLook=true
apple.awt.showGrowBox=true

The brushed metal look is kinda neat even though it only skins the AWT components, and the grow box i always thought was not place well in java apps, so i like turning it off.


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12 comments

Andre Mermegas wrote:

Found a few cool apple jvm properties for the os x people to play with.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Java/Reference/Java14SysProperties/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000299

apple.awt.brushMetalLook=true
apple.awt.showGrowBox=true


Got an IDEA screenshot with this L&F? Be keen on seeing it :)

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See, now you're making me cry. Where's my mac?!

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Patrik Andersson wrote:

See, now you're making me cry. Where's my mac?!


Yeah, that sure is pretty. We need to wait for longhorn, and even
then... :(

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IIRC, I was told that we WILL see an option for Brushed Metal in Irida.
You're correct that currently only some parts of the IDE support this (they
used to show up blank if you used brushed metal before), but we'll get to
have the whole thing in Irida I think.

Also considering how Apple is changing their interface again in OS X Tiger
(the OS not the JDK), I would not be surprised to see yet another l&f for OS
X.

R


On 10/29/04 7:09 AM, in article clt8da$f53$1@is.intellij.net, "Amnon I.
Govrin" <amnon@netvision.net.il> wrote:

Patrik Andersson wrote:

>> See, now you're making me cry. Where's my mac?!


Yeah, that sure is pretty. We need to wait for longhorn, and even
then... :(


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"We"?

I'm on windows 2000. Not switching that until I can afford a Mac. I don't have a spare 256 megs just to do the exact same things with XP's gaye user interface.

OS X is another story though. OS X is the Fab 5 of gaye user interfaces :)

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Patrik Andersson wrote:

>I'm on windows 2000. Not switching that until I can afford a Mac.
>


You can get a Mac for 799$.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore/

You'd better buy extra RAM from a 3rd party vendor, like crucial.com

Alain

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It seems from the screenshots that it doesn't "only skin the AWT components", it looks like almost all of IDEA is affected, which is all Swing.

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"it looks like almost all of IDEA is affected, which is all Swing."

You do realize that a lot of Swing is built on top of AWT right? I guess I should rephrase since you seem confused.

The brushed metal property only affects heavyweight components (AWT). Swing components are lightweight (except for the top-level ones: JWindow, JFrame, etc... which is what you are seeing in the screenshot...google for more info.

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The only way Swing is "based on" AWT is that Swing windows are AWT windows which Swing paints onto. I think that setting must affect Swing as well, because it seems that otherwise Swing would be painting its background color onto the AWT window, which would paint over the brushed metal pattern.

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"I think that setting must affect Swing as well, because it seems that otherwise Swing would be painting its background color onto the AWT window, which would paint over the brushed metal pattern."

you think wrong, what you see in that screenshot that has the brushed metal look is painted by AWT, plain and simple.

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cool screenshots.

in related news, quaqua look and feel 2.4 was released. It cleans up some of the inconsistencies in Apple's L&F...

<http://www.randelshofer.ch/quaqua/download.html>

"Quaqua acts as a Proxy to Apple's Swing Look and Feel. Quaqua selectively replaces UI elements of Apple's Swing Look and Feel with elements of its own. The number of replaced elements depends on the VM version in use.

Fixes for Inconsistencies

Quaqua aims at fixing inconsistencies between user interface elements implemented in Swing and those of the native Mac OS X applications. The intention is to give an immediate 'pain relief' to software developers, in the hope that these fixes won't be necessary in future versions of Apple's Java VM.

The biggest inconsistency fix is probably the FileChooserUI. Quaqua's file chooser roughly matches the design of native Cocoa file dialogs. Where as Apple's Aqua Look and Feel is way off.

Alternative Designs

In addition to the fixes, Quaqua gives you alternative designs for some user interface elements. Quaqua's tabbed panes match the Jaguar design, but they do not rotate tabs if they are located at the right or at the left.
You can choose between the design provided by the Quaqua Look and Feel and the Aqua Look and Feel by setting a system property.

Additional Styles

And finally Quaqua offers additional styles for user interface elements. Such as small styles for combo boxes and tabbed panes, as well as a striped style for tables.
You get smaller styles automatically, when you set a font size of 11 points or less for a component. To get the striped style for a table, you set a client property on your JTable."

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