Remember Zoomin' / Zoom boxes extension

This page is a wiki. Please login or create an account to begin editing.

19 posts / 0 new

Last post

2014, December 16 - 5:19am

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

Remember Zoomin' / Zoom boxes extension

Hello everyone,

So I'm sure everyone is familiar with the "zoom boxes" present in all pre-OS X systems (dotted outlines that "zoom" when windows open/close).

Several INITs exist to disable them. But I am looking for the opposite. I'm sure some of you have seen a few applications that make their zoom boxes do fancy things, like twist. I'm looking for something that applies that effect (or any effect) to all my Finder zoom boxes (btw, I know it's silly). Years ago I heard of this, but never saw it.

I do already have a mysterious extension called Zoomin', which I know relates to zoom boxes somehow (no Read Me). The thing is, when installed, it doesn't seem to do anything. (see link to DL Zoomin' below)

So, is anyone familiar with the Zoomin' INIT, or other way of doing this?

I appreciate your time everyone

BTW, I uploaded the Zoomin' extension here: http://demosamplesite.com/tmp/zoomin.hqx
(I didn't upload to Garden because we don't know anything about it yet)

Thanks,
Gonzo

Comments

2014, December 16 - 6:25am

mrdav

Offline

Joined: 2011 Dec 3

From the ReadMe: "Zoomin' is a simple little extension that will speed up your Macs window opening routine up to 600%" You can find it in various collections here such as PD-ROM F95 and AMUG CD, or Software VAULT

2014, December 16 - 9:15am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

I have one of those mini vMac collection disks (Sys 7.x?) which has that ridiculous spinning window animation you are looking for (enabled by default - sigh). I will upload the file and include a link here.

2014, December 17 - 3:46am

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

@mrdav Thank you! You solved an old mystery for me.

@themacmeister Thank you so much my friend! I knew there was something out there. For the record guys, I agree 100% that this is a frivolous thing indeed. I wouldn't use it on my "real" computer. My fascination with these types of little personalizations (e.g. Zipple, Cursor Animator, etc) goes back to my early days using computers. When Systems 6 - 7 were current, I was a young boy. One of my earliest memories of computers is the Mac LC that sat in the back of the classroom, running DarkSide faders. I used to stare at it for hours (bad idea to have in a classroom of 2nd graders). Those early "toys" and the like sparked a life long love of computers. It showed what a good programmer and computer can do together. Today I make a living writing software. These things still intrigue me and remind me of my childhood. I love that there are others who also enjoy our unusual hobby.

Anyway, macmeister, I anxiously await your upload and sincerely appreciate your effort. You guys are wonderful. I'll make an app page for it, just in case anyone else is crazy enough to like it!

2014, December 20 - 12:41am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

I got really distressed by the added control panels/extensions in these "all in one" packs, and deleted them all. I should have them on my backups somewhere tho... sigh.

2014, December 21 - 9:18am

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

@macmeister: I know I've heard of those vMac collection disks, but I can't recall exactly what they are. Is it a pre-made bootable hard drive file meant to be used with vMac, or is it just a collection of files? I think I remember seeing some of those available for download somewhere at one time, but can't remember where. If these original "collection disks" files are available for download somewhere, just point me in that direction. I don't mind downloading them all until I find the one with this extension. In fact I'd very much like to see the other INITs/CDEVs included in the collection.

I just don't want to impose on you, it sounds like finding this thing will involve more effort than originally expected (the story of my life, too), so if there's anyway I can do it myself, please let me know so you don't have to spend too much time on this.

I really appreciate you looking into this for me though, this is a great community. I'm so glad this site exists!

Thanks again for your time macmeister!

Gonzo

2014, December 21 - 11:01am

mrdav

Offline

Joined: 2011 Dec 3

@snconners

Try

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/bmug-pd-rom-fall-1995

Utilities/Extensions/W-Z Extensions

Or look in the other collections I mentioned.

2014, December 22 - 8:20am

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

@macmeister:

Well, I went through all the INITs/CDEVs in /W-Z and none of those seemed to offer that feature. Now "Zoomin'", the CDEV I originally asked about in this thread, was in there. Should I just go though all the BMUG compilations available here? I don't mind doing that at all, in fact I will either way probably; I'm just wondering if maybe it was in fact in a BMUG compilation, just a different release?

On the other hand, I know I've heard of those Mini vMac collection disks you mentioned before. I did a fair amount of searching on Google for that term yesterday and, while I found couple similar things, I never found anything with that specific name ("Mini vMac Collection disk"), I even checked Wayback Machine for a couple defunct sites and couldn't find it.

Anyway I really appreciate all your help man, any more direction you might be able to give would be greatly appreciated, but I don't want to impose on you any more. With as many obscure INITs/CDEVs as I'm finding in that BMUG collection, I'm betting my silly little "zoom" extension is in one of these.

Thanks again.

2014, December 27 - 6:40am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

I need to go through my Time Machine backups, I had it very recently I think, and then deleted it due to cdev/init overkill on default boot... give me a moment...

2014, December 27 - 8:25am

#10

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

It is Kaleidoscope 1.7.1

If you cannot find it elsewhere, I will upload it here. Checkbox states "rotate zoom rects" or something similar

Problem Solved!!!

2014, December 27 - 8:38am

#11

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

You need at least Sys 7.5 Update 2.0 to use Kaleidoscope 1.8+

Many themes available online.

Kaleidoscope 2.2 available in quite a few languages here -> http://archive.info-mac.org/gui/ks/

2014, December 29 - 10:30am

#12

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

That premade disk file is crap... dropstuff does not work. I transferred it to MacOS 10.9.5, but the Control Panel will probably never work on OS7 again

PS. The system this is installed on is 7.6.1, not 7.5 (if that info is helpful).

See if you can use that link I gave you for 2.2 -- The download worked for me.

BEWARE: Apparently this older version (1.7.x caused no end of crashes and conflicts with MS Word etc.) so you may be better off using the latest version that still runs on your System version.

Cheers.

2014, December 29 - 10:41am

#13

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

Never mind, I used the original HFV disk (with working DropStuff 5) and created this download for you. I posted it under a new APP... available here http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/kaleidoscope171

Enjoy!

2015, January 8 - 5:43am

#14

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

@themacmeister

Sorry for the delay, I've been out of town. Kaleidoscope does it! My zoom boxes are so cool now! To me things like this are half the fun of our hobby. I would have never thought to check Kaleidoscope, so there's no way I would have found it without your help!

One last question, do you think that a separate INIT/CDEV that only does the zoom boxes may still exists? What I'm saying is, since I don't use any of the features of Kaleidoscope except zoom boxes, it would be great to find an extension whose primary function is zoom box animation, just to conserve heap memory. I'm wondering if you may have seen something like this at some point. Not that Kaleidoscope uses that much memory and I certainly don't mind to run it long term if it's the only way. And BTW I don't need to know the name of it or anything. I'm just curious really, but please don't spend anymore time on it though, you've done more than enough already.

If there's ever anything I can help with, don't hesitate to ask. I'm a web developer so if you ever find yourself needing one let me know -- I would like to return the favor.

Thanks so much for all your help! I sincerely appreciate it.

Gonzo

2015, January 8 - 6:37am

(Reply to #14) #15

Daxeria

Offline

Joined: 2009 Apr 8

Kaleidoscope's predecessor Aaron also included the spinning zoomrects, and might use less resources since it only offered the one (OS 8-esque) built-in scheme.

2015, January 8 - 9:15pm

(Reply to #15) #16

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

@Daxeria

Good idea, I will definitely check that out. The only thing is, I bet I can't disable the "skinning" / theme feature of Aaron to get just the zoom effect.

This will sound crazy after everything I've said in this thread about how much I love to customize my old Macs, but I've found that I don't like it customized to the extent Kaleidoscope / Aaron offer. I guess it's just too much customization, I don't feel like I'm looking at System 7 anymore.

By the way I mean no offense Daxeria, I'm not criticizing your idea and I don't want to come off sounding like an asshole .

I really appreciate your idea and I'm definitely going to try Aaron because I agree with your theory that it probably uses fewer resources than Kaleidoscope.

Thanks again for all the help everyone!

2015, January 8 - 9:36pm

(Reply to #16) #17

MikeTomTom

Offline

Joined: 2009 Dec 7

...Kaleidoscope [...] I don't feel like I'm looking at System 7 anymore.

Of course with Kaleidoscope there are System 7 themes

I guess they were intended for OS 8+ users who missed the 7 look & feel, but I know what you mean. I've used Kaeidoscope only for short bursts before reverting to a standard desktop.

2015, January 10 - 4:36am

#18

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

Aaron does the same (same author?)

later updates disable spinning rects tho...

2015, January 10 - 9:24pm

#19

snconners

Offline

Joined: 2014 Nov 20

Of course with Kaleidoscope there are System 7 themes

That's actually not a bad idea. I have seen "System 7" themes before but never gave it much thought. There are many nice features available in OS 8 that I wouldn't mind taking advantage of, but like I said I love the look and feel of System 7. The UI in OS 8 + is too "modern looking" for my taste, but using a "System 7 theme" I could have the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the idea MikeTomTom, I really am going to try that out in my emulator this weekend.

Thanks again guys, you've all been great!