As Mac users waited patiently for the release of Themes through update after update, Greg Landweber created Aaron, then Kaleidoscope, to fill the void. While these are revolutionary programs, system level support for a custom user interface became the Macintosh Holy Grail.

The arrival of MacOS 8.5 heralded support for themes! The beta distributions of the OS included the two theme files for which we had waited so many years - HiTech and Gizmo.

Based on feedback from Information Managers, who worried about supporting multiple user interfaces, and concerns by Apple about providing a consistent look and feel within applications, the Theme files were deleted from the final release of MacOS 8.5.

Mac users were back where they started. Almost.

While Apple decided not to release Gizmo and HiTech, the underlying code remained. Any diligent Mac geek should be able to whip up her own Theme files, but it has been proven to be more difficult than originally thought. The Allegro Themes Project has made some headway, but more than a year after the release of MacOS 8.5, there haven’t been any public releases.

So who pulled together the tools and talent to release the first public Theme file?

A company called DS Group (DSG). To understand how they accomplished it, and why, you need to meet the people involved.

Dorian Weisel heads DSG, a company that specializes in interface design and development. He was also the product manager and head of interface design for Designer's Studio, the immensely popular graphical tool for creating Kaleidoscope Schemes.

From the lanai of his home on the side of a Hawaiian volcano, he joins ResExcellence for this interview.

In this age of telecommuting, video conferencing, FAX, and email, the DS Group Inc. is based in California, but the people involved are spread across the globe. I imagine that makes company picnics a bit of a problem, so I asked Dorian what it’s like head a “Virtual Company”.

“All the department heads of DSG live in separate parts of the world and we are in essence a virtual company. DSG owns and operates a corporate intranet that includes real-time conferencing, news, memo boards and a commonly accessed project area that allows us to essentially be open 24/7. Because our staff range is from Italy to Australia, it is not uncommon to have someone saying good night while at the same time someone else is logging on with their first cup of morning coffee in hand.”

What inspired DSG to create and release a Theme file?

“The DSG Theme (Mac) was released as a promotional piece. As you can tell from reading our web site, our focus is broader then a single product and commercial in nature. By this we mean that we are in the business of providing interfaces, and the technology to support them where necessary, to other commercial concerns so that they may manufacture and distribute products made from them. At this time we cannot speak openly about any imminent releases by our clients. We are planning the release of our Windows DSG Theme along with a minor update of the Mac version in the next few weeks.”

Albie Wong, a member of the DS Group, is well known in the Macintosh community for his Kaleidoscope schemes and icons sets. “Pussy Galore”, his most popular scheme, has over 38,000 downloads from the Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive. While Albie is the main window theme designer, it is the effort of over one hundred artists, implementing the various icons, window styles and desktop pictures, that are used in the DSG Themes.

Tom Connolly, who handles Macintosh development for DSG, was also the lead programmer on “Design Studio”.

With a talent pool like this, it’s a little surprising that DSG is developing Themes instead of Schemes.

“Kaleidoscope is a wonderful third party enhancement for the Macintosh OS and has proven to be one of the most successful test marketing ventures we have ever seen. When Designer's Studio was released, Kaleidoscope was still a relatively unknown control panel and there were less then 200 color schemes available to the user with only a handful becoming available in any given week. After the Designer's Studio release that number began to grow daily, but what was of much greater interest to us was the number of people that began to collect schemes. The Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive (KSA) has been very helpful in that it has allowed us to track the uploads of new schemes as well as their downloads.”

Why would that be important?

“We were able to easily track and eventually create very detailed reports of contribution and collectibility within both areas of interest, the user and the designer. By analyzing all the data, we were able to not only track the current figures, but were able to profile a projection based on platform, interests and accessibility. “

After analyzing the data, what conclusions did you reach?

“The most significant figures were those of proprietary graphics and license characters. We noted very early on that these schemes were accessed at a much higher rate than even the better generic ones.”

So does the future of DSG contain a South Park Theme? Without getting into specifics, the company does admit that it has plans to develop and commercially release Themes based on licensed property.

And that’s where the enormous potential user base of the Window’s Platform comes into play. DSG members Chad Boyda and Damian Hodgkiss maintain a PC equivalent of the Kaleidoscope Archive at their page, “Skinz.org”.

They have also released “eFX”, a window-style manipulator for Windows 95, 98, and NT. While this utility does not provide the depth of enhancement that Kaleidoscope does, you can bet that whatever new method DSG creates to implement their user interface on the Wintel Platform, it will rival Apple’s Themes.

Will it be an easy task?

“No, Themes on the PC side are not easy and yes we have a control panel for the Windows OS. Please keep in mind that it is not technology alone that is behind DS Group. We are focused on the GUI as an entity in and of itself and the commercial applications presented by the fact that there are millions upon millions of computer owners worldwide that until now have not been given any choice as to how their computing environments look and feel.”

What about the technology involved in creating those user interfaces. At ResExcellence, a common request is, “How do I make Themes with ResEdit?”. Unfortunately, it can’t be done. in fact, it can’t be done with any single piece of existing commercial software. So what software technology did DSG use to create their Themes?

“We created our own editor designed specifically for this task. In addition to interface design and development, we are software developers. We design and develop our own technology, as needed. Any technology we create such as editors, convertors, graphics applications, etc., are for in-house use only at this time.”

Apple Computer has barely acknowledged Themes and the underlying technology, I was wondering if you asked for and received any help from them, or did DSG map the resources and “crack the code” on their own?

“We have maintained a dialog with Apple since before the release of Design Studio. At the point of our commitment to the theme project we asked for help, but were told that Apple, while not discouraging our efforts, were themselves not able at that time to offer any support. So yes as you say we 'cracked' it in-house.”

Is there any concern the Apple may simply remove the Theme API’s in a future release of the OS?

“We have no idea what Apples plans are. However we do see interchangeable interfaces as a significant part of the computing environment of the future on all popular operating systems. There has obviously been a tremendous amount of resources invested by Apple to develop Themes for their OS. Even if Apple were not to openly or aggressively push Themes, the technology offers developers and engineers endless possibilities for a spectrum of licensing, publishing, marketing and advertising alliances.”

“The bottom line is people want good quality interfaces. They want to collect them, and the technology to switch between them at will. Kaleidoscope proved that and we have to assume that Apple knows this. Whether they embrace or reject this golden opportunity to lead the world toward a more enjoyable computing experience is anybody's guess. But rest assure DS Group is committed to providing high quality interfaces, and the technology to use them where necessary, for all popular operating systems.”

As a final question, how do you feel about Apple as a business, and how are they treating software and content developers?

“Apple is a company that was able to translate a vision into a reality, and sustain that vision in a market place that was without one. Although many questioned their decisions over the years, time has proven that they continue to capture the imagination of the public and follow-up with consistently fine products. As far as developers go, each relationship is different. Suffice to say the rewards and results the platform offers are enough to entice developers to continue.”

The DS Group has attracted many talented people from both the Mac and Windows GUI groups. By releasing the first independently developed Theme, DSG has put some bite in their bark. People on all platforms who love customizing their computers will be keeping an eye on the DS Group, and watching for future releases.

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