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The habit of Windows apps to have entirely custom UIs is relatively unknown on Macs. It's not impossible, just (thankfully) much more rare.
by nknight 15y ago
The habit of Windows apps to have entirely custom UIs is relatively unknown on Macs. It's not impossible, just (thankfully) much more rare.
- kevindication 15y agoProbably one of the initial barriers to porting Steam to the Mac.
- zerovox 15y agoI really don't think that is true at all.
- getsat 15y agoAgreed. It probably had more to do with the fact that their store, game details, etc. views were pretty complex. They seem to have solved a lot of that crossplatform pain by implementing most of that stuff using Webkit.
- eridius 15y agoIt's not a technical limitation, it's a culture limitation. Mac apps care far more about providing a consistent UI than Windows and Linux apps (although I believe those platforms have improved in this regard in recent years). It's certainly possible for a Mac app to muck about with the non-"app" parts of the window, it's just far less common.
- kevindication 15y agoI meant it tongue-in-cheek, but what you say is true and the Steam interface has always been a custom one. I haven't used the Mac version - how did they rectify this on the Mac?
- eridius 15y agoThe Steam UI on the Mac looks exactly like it does on Windows. They skinned the whole thing. And this isn't a bad thing. Steam is intended to be a single cohesive gaming platform. It should look the same on every OS that it runs on.
- statictype 15y agoThe habit of Windows apps to have entirely custom UIs is relatively unknown on Macs Except for all the apps that do. Like iTunes (ships with OS X) and the Mac App Store app (ships with OS X). And Quicktime (ships with OS X). Even some popular non-Apple apps like Twitter.
- thatjoshguy 15y agoAnd Rdio. And Reeder. And Sonora. And Chrome.
- nknight 15y agoEr, those are not entirely custom UIs, they use standard widgets in well-defined ways that the platform/window manager understands.
- statictype 15y agoThe question was about the title bar chrome. iTunes positions the traffic light buttons vertically when compact. The Mac App Store app positions them in the center of the title area instead of the top. Quicktime has its own chrome entirely. I'm not complaining about it, just pointing out that non-standard chromes are present on the Mac in Apple's own apps.
- dagw 15y agoReally? I use both Mac and Windows and it seems to me that custom UIs are just as common on both platforms (at least among the apps I use)