Mac OS 8 will enable the look of the Macintosh interface to be customized in rich, new ways while still maintaining both the consistent feel of the Macintosh interface and the stability of the system software. The Mac OS 8 Appearance Manager provides the robust foundation by which a pre-designed suite of custom interface menu, window and control elements, contained in a theme file, are displayed. Applications will automatically display the current theme elements when running Mac OS 8 if they behave correctly and use toolbox calls for their menu, control and window definitions.
Applications get theme capability with Mac OS 8 for free if Apple development guidelines have been followed!
Restrictions On The Use And Development Of Themes
Apple wants to remind developers that the Macintosh interface, including the screens and themes, is Apple's proprietary intellectual property and protected by copyright and patent law. Apple highly values its intellectual property, and if necessary will take action against infringers to protect and defend its rights.
Accordingly, Apple wishes to caution and remind developers that the theme designs in Mac OS 8 are protected, intellectual property of Apple Computer, Inc. and therefore may not be reproduced, modified, distributed, performed, or displayed without the express, written permission of Apple Computer. In particular, the theme designs in Mac OS 8 cannot be legally implemented in third-party operating systems and/or third-party applications designed for execution on those systems.
Apple would strongly discourage developers from attempting to replicate elements of the Mac OS 8 interface, such as the themes, within the operating system or applications under System 7. Such attempts would almost certainly infringe upon Apple's intellectual property rights, and moreover, are likely to provide end-users with a poor and inaccurate impression of the interface advances in Mac OS 8.
Apple is very serious about its intellectual property, including the Mac OS 8 themes. If you have any questions whatsoever about the legality or propriety of your plans or ideas concerning the use or development of themes, or about what you can and cannot do with Mac OS 8 themes and theme elements, please contact Apple before you proceed at: macos8_user_expfeedback@apple.com.
Visual And Appearance Transitions From System 7 To Mac OS 8
If you have already made the determination to provide a grayscale version of your System 7.5 application, a document called the "Apple Grayscale Appearance For System 7.5" will be invaluable in making sure that your implementation of that grayscale appearance is consistent with the default grayscale theme in Mac OS 8. This document can be retrieved by ftp from: ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Developer_Services/Technical_Documentation/Human_Interface/Apple_Grayscale_Appearance.sit.hqx.
Generally, any alterations made to elements of the System 7 interface require system patches and custom window, control and menu definitions that will cause them to visually appear as they were coded, instead of inheriting their proper appearance from the current theme in Mac OS 8. Implementing the "Apple Grayscale Appearance For System 7.5" includes the same risk of incompatibility that any custom interface definitions will have when switching themes under Mac OS 8.
Creation Of Third-Party, Custom Themes For Mac OS 8
Over the course of the next 12 months, we will be finalizing a process by which content owners and developers can create custom themes for Mac OS 8.
We are currently developing an internal toolkit to be used in creating the few themes that will be included with Mac OS 8. As soon as reasonably possible, we will select a few third-parties to assist in the testing and completion of the toolkit. This testing period will allow us to confirm our ability to achieve a number of goals with this toolkit, including the quality of tool, the quality and consistency of the custom themes developed by the tool, and the viability of a business opportunity for custom theme development. Once the above goals have been achieved we intend to make the toolkit available as a software development kit (SDK).
