Status Bar color

[.Neo]

I have a small question concerning the interface: Why is the Status Bar color still Mac OS X Tiger-ish light grey instead of using the same dark gradient as Leopard / Snow Leopard's window chrome? Safari's Bookmarks Bar, Pages' Formatting Bar etc. all use a dark color. Also, the text of the Status Bar doesn't have the same indented appearance as the titlebar text, which looks a bit odd compared to other applications.

From what I understood before it was to preserve compatibility with Mac OS X Tiger's Aqua, which I can understand. However, since Transmission now requires Mac OS X Leopard or higher that reason pretty much lost its meaning.

I realize it's a detail.

PS
Really nice to see you got rid of those odd looking buttons in the bottom bar, just having the glyphs makes for a much cleaner appearance.

PPS
Is there any word if a shifting animation such as iChat and Adium will be implemented when transfers change position? I'm guessing using Core Animation that shouldn't be much of a problem anymore, compared to the Pather/Tiger days.

[livings124]

Something just seems weird about using the window chrome. Maybe I'll see if it grows on me. http://img255.imageshack.us/g/screensho ... at101.png/

And shifting animation isn't feasible. Apple uses their own custom code for it. It would be cool, though.

[.Neo]

I'm fairly certain the single black line is the thing that makes it look weird. Pages style (dark + light line combo) probably looks better in the case of Transmission:



The no line option of Safari could work just as well if you maybe remove a pixel of the status bar's hight and add the indented effect to the download/upload text. Plus it looks more modern. Regardless I think both options are a step forward in getting rid of the final elements of the Tiger era. The light status bar just looks out of place nowadays.

About the shifting effect: Can't you look at Adium's code how it's done? They managed to do it, and it's open-source so maybe you can copy their method? Looking at the Panic applications I would have thought adding animations to Transmission using Core Animation would have become easier.

[livings124]

I wasn't aware Adium could do that. Perhaps I'll take a look...

[.Neo]

Yup. For quite some time now I think.

PS I looked at it myself and yeah, the single dark line is definitely the thing that makes your Transmission window look weird when using the default window chrome. Try using the same dark + light color combination as used by Pages:



Compared to your original shot:



Mystery solved!

[livings124]

I'll admit that does look a bit better. Unfortunately, to get this look requires switching to the textured look, which gets rid of the solid line and existing gradient of the window's bottom bar.

[.Neo]

Not sure what that means.

Anyway, I recon it's the only thing that still could use a change when it comes to the main window and makes it pretty much a perfect Mac OS X Snow Leopard application.

[livings124]

It appears that Apple's APIs don't allow you to make a top status bar like that and have the bottom bar with the texture and solid line that Transmission currently has. Do you know of any apps that have both these appearances?

[.Neo]

Well Safari, but obviously that isn't going to help. What happens to the texture exactly?

[livings124]

The bottom bar becomes darker, loses its texture, and loses the solid line. Afaict you can have the bottom bar look like it does now, but you lose the ability to have the textured top bars, or you have to have to have that non-ideal bottom bar (non-textured vs. textured window).

[.Neo]

That's insane.. So how does it work for Safari? It has two extra bars at the top and a status bar at the bottom. Custom code again?

Can't you just change the current light texture of the current bar to one that matches default chrome? Or do you run into problems then when the window turns inactive?

[livings124]

No idea how Sarai does it. It's quite possible custom. I would love to know, though. Hard-coding in textures for the top bar is pretty messy. It won't match the expect behavior when the window is inactive, when the bar is animating for hiding, etc.

[.Neo]

One would expect this to be possible without going through great lengths. I've looked at some applications but so far I haven't been successful in locating one that has a similar top bar as Transmission. That is with the exception of Firefox. But we both know that application uses a horrible custom interface.

[livings124]

I cheated and used a hardcoded color. It's not a gradient but it's pretty close.

[.Neo]

Nice job man, looks great! Big improvement over the Tiger-like appearance, in my opinion, it just looks out of place these days. Does it change light when the window becomes inactive?

PS Just as a friendly reminder: Don't forget to add the indented effect to the upload/download text on the right. Then it's perfect.

I just switched back from uTorrent to Transmission because I couldn't deal with it's insanely buggy interface anymore. After this long uTorrent still doesn't safe any of my settings (like sort options, which list headers etc.).