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Can't 'edit' Mac Dock Appearance!

-BigMac-

-BigMac-

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
2,498
2,886
Melbourne, Australia
Hi guys.

I decided i want to change the way my dock looks in Mavericks.

I have tried Mirage, and to my surprise, that didn't work in 'making the dock transparent'.

I tried the terminal commands, to at least make the dock 2-D.

Didn't work. I have been doing that terminal hack since 10.5, never failed before.

Going through the Dock Options pane, i could move the position of the dock to the sides, where it would become 2D, so it is not broken.

Anyone else seen this? I can't change the appearance of it at all.


Thanks :D
 
I have a feeling that the side dock appearance (white, 2D) will be the default appearance for all dock positions in the final build of Mavericks. Maybe there will be an option to choose (for the bottom) but I'd put money on a 2D bottom dock.
 
Nero Wolfe said:
I have a feeling that the side dock appearance (white, 2D) will be the default appearance for all dock positions in the final build of Mavericks. Maybe there will be an option to choose (for the bottom) but I'd put money on a 2D bottom dock.
Click to expand...

I'd like to believe this, especially since the old 2D terminal option no longer works. Somehow I have my doubts, though.
 
Nero Wolfe said:
I have a feeling that the side dock appearance (white, 2D) will be the default appearance for all dock positions in the final build of Mavericks. Maybe there will be an option to choose (for the bottom) but I'd put money on a 2D bottom dock.
Click to expand...

So maybe those sarcastic "what if Jony Ive got hold of Mavericks" mockups on the iOS 7 threads might be partially true?
 
ValSalva said:
So maybe those sarcastic "what if Jony Ive got hold of Mavericks" mockups on the iOS 7 threads might be partially true?
Click to expand...

Nah. It's just the Mountain Lion dock un-3D'd (is that a word?). Really, it looks like the dock from Tiger more than anything.
 
Last edited:
sad that mirage no longer works. hopefully some change is in store, it looks quite dated.
 
As of Mountian Lion, the Dock is rendered by the OS, instead of the OS using a set of image files like in Lion and before, so it can't be edited.

The 2D dock terminal trick only worked via a string item in the Dock executable. As of Mavericks, that string item has been removed.

The only way to edit the dock would be to patch the encrypted Dock executable, and inject software to re-render the Dock differently in memory. Not a simple task.
 
meme1255 said:
Copying ML's Dock to 10.9 Dock wouldn't work? There are some changes in APIs but..
Click to expand...

This is a no. The executable simply won't launch. Just to be sure I went ahead and tested myself. Swapping the app, swapping just the executable, either way it won't.
 
Last edited:
Dalton63841 said:
As of Mountian Lion, the Dock is rendered by the OS, instead of the OS using a set of image files like in Lion and before, so it can't be edited.

The 2D dock terminal trick only worked via a string item in the Dock executable. As of Mavericks, that string item has been removed.

The only way to edit the dock would be to patch the encrypted Dock executable, and inject software to re-render the Dock differently in memory. Not a simple task.
Click to expand...

We wouldn't be able to change the color of the many many png images in /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources in order to change the color of the Dock?
 
Spikestrip said:
We wouldn't be able to change the color of the many many png images in /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources in order to change the color of the Dock?
Click to expand...

Take a closer look. The pngs in that location are for certain small aspects of the dock(stacks background, "poof"), and the dashboard, but none for the actual look of the dock itself.
 
I like the new dock better than the old one - just some cleanup and icon change and I'm happy;)
MvQW+
 
Maybe we can go about it another way... is it possible to force the new look for the dock when it is on the left or right, but place it in the bottom still?
 
Dalton63841 said:
As of Mountian Lion, the Dock is rendered by the OS, instead of the OS using a set of image files like in Lion and before, so it can't be edited.

The 2D dock terminal trick only worked via a string item in the Dock executable. As of Mavericks, that string item has been removed.

The only way to edit the dock would be to patch the encrypted Dock executable, and inject software to re-render the Dock differently in memory. Not a simple task.
Click to expand...


What does "rendered by the OS" mean?
 
DockMac said:
What does "rendered by the OS" mean?
Click to expand...

Oh god I suck at explaining things, but I'll try... Previously, the Dock was made up of a set of .png images. The Dock.app binary basically just said, "Hey CPU/GPU/whatever, these .png's need to show up *here* when Dock.app is active."
Now, however, the Dock.app binary says, "Hey CPU/GPU/whatever, this set of pixels on the screen need to be colored *this way* when Dock.app is active. You can handle that right?"
 
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