Modding Mac OS X [Paperback]

Erica Sadun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2004

Modding Mac OS X isn't about cutting up your Power Mac's case with a saws-all; it's about modifying Mac OS X's user interface and unlocking secrets and dispelling your fears of the Unix command line so you can take command of your Mac.

Modding Mac OS X starts out with the very basics of showing you how to configure your Mac and do simple things like change Finder views, use an image from iPhoto's library on your desktop, and how to find and use screen savers. From there, Modding Mac OS X shows you how to:

• Find hidden features in your favorite applications
• Dive inside application bundles to find hidden resources
• Change application and system-wide keyboard shortcuts
• Work with the Property List Editor to read and edit property list files
• Wrap your head around the defaults command to tweak an application's settings
• Hack on NIB files to change an application's interface
• Control an application with AppleScript, even if it isn't scriptable

Each Modding example includes detailed step-by-step instructions that even a novice Mac user can follow, while also providing the necessary detail to satisfy the experienced hacker. The knowledge you gain from tweaking one application can be easily applied to the next.

So go on, empower your inner Mac geek. You know you want to.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erica Sadun holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has written, co-written, and contributed to almost two dozen books about technology, particularly in the areas of programming, digital video, and digital photography. An unrepentant geek, Sadun has never met a gadget she didn't need. Her checkered past includes run-ins with NeXT, Newton, and a vast myriad of both successful and unsuccessful technologies. When not writing, she and her geek husband parent three adorable geeks-in-training, who regard their parents with restrained bemusement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596007094
• ISBN-13: 978-0596007096
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,699,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Erica Sadun is the bestselling author, coauthor, and contributor to three dozen books on programming, digital media, Web design, and other topics- Sadun holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech's renowned Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars go further, October 27, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modding Mac OS X (Paperback)

Aimed at a Mac user who wants more personalisation of her OS X machine. Sadun immediately jumps into showing how to tweak your Desktop. Like changing the background and screensavers. For both, you can even import external files if you're not satisfied with what Apple offers. Plus many other options that most users never avail themselves of.

To be sure, linux/unix and Microsoft machines have also had similar options for years. But the Mac tends to do it so elegantly.

Much else is covered by the book. There are several examples of internationalisation. She shows how an application bundle is a directory with subdirectories of local specific data like text, audio and video, arranged in a very logical fashion. You can get an appreciation for what it means to have a program be used in a global way.

Plus, you can ease into unix. Unlike simpler Mac books, Sadun describes extensively how to use the command line to delve deeper into the system.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Geeky tweaks for OS X, October 13, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modding Mac OS X (Paperback)

This book is primarily about tweaking the OS X end-user applications through clever use of the application itself, preference hacking, or finally by using the developer tools to tweak the application directly. It's an interesting read that is focused on that group of folks who aren't engineers, but love to tweak their desktop with custom styles, and make use of fun features like opacity. None of these things are workflow critical, but they are fun anyway.

If you are someone who loves to mod then this is great starting point for you. It's well written and does a capable job walking you through each mod so that you don't break your system in the midst of your play.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than just a tour of your System Preferences, March 17, 2005

By 

S. Nigl "Chugach124" (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modding Mac OS X (Paperback)

When I first laid eyes on this book, I thought it would be a end-user's guide through the OSX preferences to explain how to set up the basics. Desktop patterns, sounds, energy saver and the like. Indeed, the first few pages of the first chapter do cover these things. Turn the pages, and I find that this book well exceeds those initial impressions. It is a starter's guide to hacking system and app resources and preferences in order to change their look and feel. Do you want to learn about Application Bundles, how to add custom keyboard shortcuts to an application, how to customize an app's icons, or how to use AppleScript even when the app does not support it out-of-the-box? If so, then Modding the Mac OSX is for you. The book is laid-out in logical, easy to use sections showing time needed, `geektitude', and difficulty. It has ample graphics and generous margins for note jotting.

Note that Modding Mac OSX Extreme Makeovers is not for the squeamish at heart. There are repetitive warnings that changes are done your own risk; and backup everything. That said...

The first chapter starts off with easy to do tweaks of the
Desktop and finder, but then the following chapters progress into more
advanced changes, such as altering preference files and application
bundles, and by the last chapter explains how to add scripting to
non-scriptable apps.

I found this book to be a very helpful reference book if you need to
know anything about the inner workings of Mac application bundles or
AppleScripting. It is presented in an easy to understand step-by-step
method for each project or tweak to do, and includes exactly what
applications, etc you will need before you start (dubbed a "Bill of Materials"). It also includes a rating system (expressed in a Chinese takeout `hot peppers' scale) for difficulty level and approximate time to do project. When reading the more advanced sections it is helpful if you have a bit of UNIX/Linux background knowledge and maybe some XML (but not required).

There is abundant reference information about where various system files are located (such as preference files, system sound files, icons, etc). But it doesn't stop there, in the later chapters they follow up with precise file information about how to change those files to your
liking. So you can easily customize sounds, icons, preferences, etc.

Included throughout the book (in various projects), is a beginner
hands-on crash course in using XCode Developer Tools. The chapter using Interface Builder (part of XCode
Tools) to change contextual menus, tool tips, buttons, etc is especially good.