macOS Hacking an app's GUI

[macstatic]

In the old days (MacOS 7 and 8 etc.) I often played around with ResEdit in order to change the appearance of windows, icons and what have you in an application.

Having tried out Photoshop CS4 my first thought was how ugly its user-interface was. Specifically, the square tabs (layers, history, actions etc.). They look like something from the Windows 3.1 days or early Linux. Nothing that belongs on a Mac! I much more prefer the tabs used in CS3.

Not being a programmer, is there an easy way to modify the above GUI stuff? Perhaps, provided the GUI elements are images (e.g. the tabs) I could maybe take them from CS3 and put them in CS4?

 

[kainjow]

Well you could look in the application bundle and see if the images exist. I doubt they do though. Most likely they're drawn/created in code, and you're better off writing your own Photoshop than trying to change that

 

[Darkroom]

adobe hasn't included images or nib files in photoshop's package contents.

i like the new tabs

if, however, you feel equally as offended that after nearly a decade they still haven't changed the "Computer" graphic in Dreamweaver from an iMac G3, adobe has included this image in Dreamweaver's package contents for us to hack like hacking is going out of style

 

[QueenZ]

Yes, you can open .app content resources and see if there are some images you can change Unfortunately i don't know of any other way..

 

[buckyballs]

The reason there's no nib files in the application bundle is because the main CS4 apps (Photoshop/Illustrator/etc) are Carbon apps, rather than Cocoa apps.

This is the reason that 64-bit isn't supported in them on the Mac. In Leopard, Cocoa is 64-bit, but Apple pulled the intended supports for 64-bit Carbon with no notice, so while developers were half-way through making their Carbon apps 64-bit, Apple decided that if the developers make their apps 64-bit, they have to use Cocoa. In Snow Leopard, nearly all the apps included with OS X will be Cocoa, so the remaining Carbon apps (Finder, and presumably, iTunes) will rewritten in Cocoa.

 

[kainjow]

The reason there's no nib files in the application bundle is because the main CS4 apps (Photoshop/Illustrator/etc) are Carbon apps, rather than Cocoa apps.

Nibs exist in Carbon too . It's just that Adobe's software is cross-platform and nibs are not.