Hackinations: Making any OS X app full-screenable in Lion

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img align="right" alt="" border="1" class="aligncenter" height="199" hspace="4" mce_src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8052/screenshot20110725at309.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; border: 1px solid black;" src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8052/screenshot20110725at309.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 4px auto; max-width: 640px;" vspace="4" width="244" />Today, Steve Sande begged me to add a full-screen button to Colloquy. He offered me chocolate and kittens, neither of which is particularly good for me. But he's a good guy and I like him and his wife so I went ahead and figured this out. [<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Editor's note: Actually, she was offered chocolate-covered kittens, not chocolate and kittens.</span>]</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I am so warning you: if you are not comfortable at the command line, just skip on to the next post.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Seriously.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Still here? Let's go then.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Copy the App</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>You probably don't want to edit the original, so copy the app to the Desktop.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Locate the compiled nib files</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Compiled nib files can be found in the app bundle's Contents/Resources folder. In more internationalized apps, they may appear in lproj subfolders. You need to locate the nib files you want to edit.</div> <ol style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 24px 1.5em;"> <li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">cd whatever.app/Contents/Resources</li> <li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">grep -iRl NSWindowBacking *</li> </ol> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> This returns a list of all nib files which define the NSWindowBacking key. That key more or less tells you that there's a window definition there. You can try to edit them all, or you can do what I did: just edited the three files in Colloquy's Resources folder that matched: JVChatWindow.nib, JVTabbedChatWindow.nib, and JVSidebarChatWindow.nib.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Convert to XML</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Use Apple's plutil or my plusutil to convert each nib file from a binary property list to proper XML.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> plutil -convert XML1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">filename</span>.nib</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Edit those XML files</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Once converted, open the now text-based XML files in TextEdit. Search for the NSWindowBacking key/value pair in each file. After that pair add</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> NSWindowCollectionBehavior<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />128</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> This tells the window that its behavior includes full size resizing. Save your changes and close the file.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Convert back to BPlist</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Convert your edited files back to a binary plist. Strictly speaking? This isn't a necessary step. It just pleases me aesthetically.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> plutil -convert binary1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">filename</span>.nib</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Run it</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>With luck, your app now has full screen zooming support. Enjoy it. Make sure to back up the original app before replacing it with your edited version. And do not expect to upgrade this version, like, you know, ever.</div> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="152" mce_src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3589/screenshot20110725at251.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px;" src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3589/screenshot20110725at251.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 8px; max-width: 640px;" width="259" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">UPDATE:</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If you don't mind installing SIMBL, a system level bundle loader, you can check out chpwn's well-received maximizer app as well. SIMBL allows you to enhance existing applications with new functionality and features.</div> </div> </span></div>

Hackinations: Making any OS X app full-screenable in Lion

Today, Steve Sande begged me to add a full-screen button to Colloquy. He offered me chocolate and kittens, neither of which is particular...

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