ShadowKiller.app

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Level 1

36 points

ShadowKiller.app

Does anyone have experience with this app, which has been around for a long time?

In normal use, toggling between its two states ( 1) shadow killed and 2) shadow not killed) is accomplished by double-clicking on ShadowKiller.app. Although not scriptable, the same result can be accomplished in AppleScript with the simple command 'tell application "ShadowKiller" to launch'. Each time invoked, that command causes "ShadowKiller" to toggle, which makes sense to me.

What I'm looking for is some way (in AppleScript) to determine which state "ShadowKiller" is in at a given moment in time -- something like 'exists application process "ShadowKiller"' (but that doesn't work, always returning true). Using a Terminal command would certainly be acceptable.

Any ideas?

MAC pro, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jan 7, 2010 2:47 AM

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Answer 1

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jan 7, 2010 7:02 AM in response to Noaks

I knew nothing of ShadowKiller.app, but I downloaded it, just to see.

In my opinion, ShadowKiller.app is always in the same state. What is toggled is not the application itself, but some Finder or System preference. It seems to me that ShadowKiller.app simply toggles a Finder or System preference, then quits.

If you run the following two lines of code:
*tell application "ShadowKiller" to launch*
*tell application "Finder" to return processes*
you will see “application process "ShadowKiller" of application "Finder"” at the end of the list returned by the AppleScript Editor. But you won't see it if you just run the last one of the above lines. Which means that ShadowKiller.app just exists momentarily.

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

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Answer 2

Noaks Author

Level 1

36 points

Jan 7, 2010 7:37 AM in response to Pierre L.

Interesting! Now to figure out what preference is being toggled, and how to determine its state. Or at least, that's my initial reaction to your finding. Thanks.

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Answer 3

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jan 7, 2010 7:47 AM in response to Noaks

I'm sure you'll find that before me. 😉

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Answer 4

Noaks Author

Level 1

36 points

Jan 7, 2010 8:22 AM in response to Pierre L.

I admire your confidence and I do plan to look at a few things. But I'd welcome any ideas,

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Answer 5

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jan 7, 2010 9:00 AM in response to Noaks

I should have said “toggles a Finder or System +binary value+ ” instead of “toggles a Finder or System preference”. If that value can't be easily changed by the user, it's not really a preference and it may be hidden anywhere else than in a preferences file.

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

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Answer 6

Noaks Author

Level 1

36 points

Jan 8, 2010 10:57 AM in response to Noaks

Still looking for ideas on finding what it is "ShadowKiller" is toggling. (See last few posts by Pierre L. His theory as to what's happening certainly seems plausible.)

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Answer 7

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jan 8, 2010 11:23 AM in response to Noaks

Here's a good idea from [Topic : Disable window shadows?|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1729863]

If there is an app that can delete them, then you might try contacting the author to see if you can figure out what files are used to create them

I doubt, however, that the author of ShadowKiller.app shall be willing to share his knowledge.

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Answer 8

Noaks Author

Level 1

36 points

Jan 8, 2010 11:38 AM in response to Pierre L.

Thanks.

Unsanity has a support email address to which I've sent two queries regarding "ShadowKiller". The total response has been ZERO. So I guess your comment "I doubt, however, that the author of ShadowKiller.app shall be willing to share his knowledge." is probably on target.

But I'll see where your latest suggestion takes me. I'll let you know.

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Answer 9

Jan 8, 2010 12:09 PM in response to Noaks

I spent a grand total of 10 seconds investigating, but since this is Unsanity, and since the binary contains strings resembling several method signatures, it's likely that they're monkey patching some Core Graphics internals.

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Answer 10

Pierre L.

Level 5

4,641 points

Jan 8, 2010 12:29 PM in response to Noaks

The following two files (amongst others) seem to contain a lot of information about window shadows:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Headers/MacWindows.h

/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Headers/MacWindows.r

(Just search for the word "shadow" in each of them.)

For sure, that's not for me!

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

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Answer 11

Hiroto

Level 5

7,467 points

Jan 8, 2010 2:13 PM in response to Noaks

Hello Noaks,

In the following thread, SlavaKarpenko, the author of the application, says it uses an undocumented API of Core Graphics to disable shadows.

HowtoControlOtherAppsWindows
http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?HowtoControlOtherAppsWindows

So, one function call seems to be able to toggle the window/menu shadows globally under OSX 10.2.x - 10.4.x.

---
In the application's binary, I see the following two symbols :
_CGSGetDebugOptions
_CGSSetDebugOptions

which may be the said undocumented APIs, I'd guess.

Cheers,
H

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Answer 12

Noaks Author

Level 1

36 points

Jan 8, 2010 4:41 PM in response to Hiroto

Okay, but I don't have a clue as to how I might use this information. But thanks for passing it on.

Message was edited by: Noaks

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Answer 13

Jan 8, 2010 6:19 PM in response to Noaks

You can't use it; whatever you're trying to do won't work.

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Answer 14

Noaks Author

Level 1

36 points

Jan 8, 2010 6:46 PM in response to Dewey Sachs

Now, that's an optimistic response (although it might be correct).

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Answer 15

Hiroto

Level 5

7,467 points

Jan 9, 2010 3:06 PM in response to Hiroto

Hello Noaks,

I think I managed to write a simple command line program to check whether the shadow is disabled or not. You might try the following C code to build it by yourself.

It will print 0 when normal (i.e. shadow is active) and print16384 (or precisely a number N where N && 0x4000 = 1, i.e., N div 16834 mod 2 = 1) when shadow is disabled.


#include <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>
extern void CGSGetDebugOptions(unsigned int *);
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
 unsigned int t;
 CGSGetDebugOptions(&t);
 printf("%u ", t);
 return 0;
}

Provided the above executable is saved as 'CGSGetDebugOptions' on desktop, you may try the following AppleScript to determine the current shadow state.


--SCRIPT
do shell script ("~/Desktop/CGSGetDebugOptions")
set n to result as number
set _shadowIsDisabled to n div 16384 mod 2 = 1
--END OF SCRIPT

Minimally tested with OSX10.2.8 at hand and ShadowKiller 1.3, but NO WARRANTIES of any kind. 😉

Cheers,
H

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