Note: As of 04 June 07, Fumo includes preferences to change the colors of the interface. Opacity can be set with the color, so this trick is now obsolete.

By default, Fumo has an alpha value (transparency) of 90%. If you’d like to see through the interface, or want it to be even darker, you can change the alpha value. This is done by running the following command in Terminal.app (or using Quicksilver + shell):

defaults write com.blacktree.quicksilver fumo.alpha 0.9

Replace the 0.9 with a value between 0.5 and 1, then relaunch QS to see the effect. An alpha value of 1 is completely opaque.

2. The cube effect

Set a trigger for Command Window in Text Mode in the “Quicksilver” section of the Triggers preference pane. Then run it to see the brilliant cube. And there’s not need to worry about wasting time with the animation (if 0.2 seconds are that important to you) as any keystrokes you press will be immediately evaluated when the transition is complete. In simple terms, you can start typing straight away and the text will appear in Fumo once the effect is finished.

3. Flippin’ Fumo

Fumo is able to ‘flip’… This phenomenon may be observed by enabling “modifier-only activation” and ticking “Hide if pressed when already visible” in the “Command” section of the Preferences. Then, as you may expect, activate Quicksilver using the modifier key you have just set and press the key again once it is active to witness firsthand the flipping of Fumo.

(Note: This effect may also be achieved by merely setting a trigger that sends an object to the command window, and running it when the interface is active.)

+ 1 for the smokers

Having received a request to allow the smoking version of Fumo to smoke perpetually (a word which here means continually from when it is launched), this feature is present in the latest versions of the smoking interface, albeit slightly “hidden”. If you don’t care about CPU usage, and want the smoke to run constantly, run the following in the Terminal or shell:

defaults write com.blacktree.quicksilver fumo.alwaysSmoke -boolean yes

Note that Cmd-S will still work to turn the smoke on or off, but it will turn on by itself when Quicksilver first launches.

Note also that the smoke may initially appear to be coming out from nowhere. This is fixed by simply activating Quicksilver once.

Once you decide to quit, and want to stop Fumo smoking every time you launch Quicksilver, just run the following:

defaults write com.blacktree.quicksilver fumo.alwaysSmoke -boolean no

As well as these nifty tricks, the latest version of Fumo also has features such as the ability to center the interface on screen, improved selector sizes and massive speed boosts. Get your copy from the official Fumo download page.

If you have any more requests or ideas for Fumo, please tell me about it. The more interest in this project, the more time that is devoted to it.

The number one request was for the comma trick. Well, as of today, this feature is built right into Fumo using Quicksilver’s own ingenious system. Select an item, press comma, and select another one (or ten).

Tip: Use the comma trick in conjunction with compound commands for maximum efficiency and usefulness.

It smokes correctly

Previously, the smoke would pour out unnaturally from the side of Fumo, or in rare occasions, from different areas of the screen. That’s all been fixed. The only precaution needed is to make sure you don’t drag Fumo around in the first few seconds that it’s loading so the smoke doesn’t get confused about the position, but feel free to do pretty much anything and enjoy!

Choose your own smoke

Tired of that same old gray smoke every time? You can choose the color of the smoke in Disco - why not in Fumo? The new easy-to-use preference pane makes smoke customization easy so you can show off your own colors. And it’s not just the colors you can control. You can change the frame rate, blur amount, the initial temperature of the smoke and lots more in the preference pane. Start or stop the smoke anytime by simply hitting Cmd-S while Fumo is active.

Easy access to the menu

Cmd-comma isn’t for everyone, and there are instances where you need to access the Quicksilver menu. The handy little triangle lets you get into the nooks and crannies of the application.

It’s bigger

Did you know can drag and drop items straight into or out of Fumo? And now, a bigger interface means a bigger drop target giving you the ultimate flexibility and power to get things done more efficiently.

It’s available now

That’s right. Get your hands on it right this instant.

Get Fumo

Tip: Be sure to read the included readme file. It contains all the information you need to easily and successfully install and use Fumo.

Initial reports suggest that the smoke effect does not work on Mac Pros. Some people have also had trouble with dual monitors. The rule of thumb is that if Disco smokes for you and Fumo doesn’t, tell me about it; I need to fix something up. Don’t worry too much though; Fumo is still a sweet-looking interface even without the smoke. The new smoke framework means that the smoke will work on a much wider range of computers.

For the health-conscious, there is a non-smoking version also.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any problems or if there’s anything I can do for you.

With so many people asking, I just can’t procrastinate any longer. You win. Here it is.

It’s most definitely not the finished thing yet. Yes, I have been taking a while. No, there is nothing you can do about it (short of asking for the source and developing it, which you may do by sending me a polite email).

The Fumo Quicksilver Interface

Firstly, there’s the smoking version. In other words, smoke pores out of it when it’s active. It does take a few seconds for the smoke to start and is only supported by more recent Macs. This is obviously courtesy of Disco. Instructions are in the package, but essentially you need to copy the Smoke.framework (included in the .zip file) to /Library/Frameworks/ for the interface to work. Download the entire thing from this wonderful hyperlink. And if you’re worried about performance and what-not, the smoke gets deactivated or ‘cooled’ when the interface is hidden. See? Of course you don’t, you haven’t downloaded it yet.

For those who’d prefer to leave out the smoke, there’s also a non-smoking version, again with another grand hyperlink. There are no installation instructions. Just double-click the .qsplugin bundle (because technically it’s more of a folder than a file) and choose Fumo under the “appearance” section of the Quicksilver preferences. Easy!

Fumo’s undergone major updates recently. You can always find the latest version here.

Still in the works

I think I should just reiterate that this is still not finished. There’s a lot of work to be done (still). To see where development is heading, see Pavel’s original mock-ups.

Now, here’s the part of the post where I kindly ask for feedback. Feedback anyone?

Major update to Fumo: comma trick, fixed up smoke, preference pane, and more

This version’s not publicly available yet. Austin & Co. (developers of the application that uses this effect) need to be contacted, and I need to have an option to turn the smoke on / off. It cools down automatically when the interface is hidden, but I’m sure not everyone likes passive smoking.

Doesn’t it look fantastic?

Another update I’ve made is using bezier paths and curves to draw the interface, rather than letting Quicksilver render it. It had to be done eventually, so I might as well do it sooner rather than later. The fill and the white border were rendered using paths, but obviously they’ll be cleaned up to look good as development progresses.

A preference pane will be among us soon, and possibly a hint of customization in the results pane / drawer. The interface will also be getting a stretch and redesign to make it appear more like the actual concept by Pavel.

Now, can we get some feedback please?

Update: Major updates to all aspects of the interface. See here.

I can understand the frustration of having the short post on the Digg front page and am not in the least surprised that it was promptly buried (I would have done the same), but where I do object is the false idea many people have regarding the development of Fumo. If you don’t like the concept or the mockups, that’s fine, but just because the interface doesn’t look like the concept now, doesn’t mean it’ll never get there. I’m not promising an exact replica, but hey, at least see what it turns out to be before dissing it.

Speaking of looks, here’s what Fumo is currently like.

The “transmogrify” effect has been overridden with a nice effect you may recall from Dashboard (if you’ve ever used Cmd-R to refresh a widget)… You can watch a short movie of the effect, or just download the interface and see for yourself.

(To get the warping effect going, set a shortcut key for “activate in text mode” and hit it)

Update: Major updates to Fumo found here.

Do you have any feature suggestions for a Quicksilver interface or plugin? Or any feedback on the current status of Fumo?

vs.

You can Download Fumo to see how its turning out, and to provide some much-needed feedback.

Features currently added include some pretty stunning animation effects for entry / exit of the interface. (Activate in text mode is also pretty sweet).

There are some very cool animation in this, which utilize Core Graphics APIs, so it really should be a bezel and cube-killer once its ready to be released.

Nicholas Jitkoff, aka Alcor, the developer of Quicksilver has been extremely generous in providing assistance and code. A developer by the name of “ytrewq1″ has also been very gracious. Sincere appreciation to both of them.

Well, let’s take a look at how Fumo is shaping up. I’ve added a sliding transition for when it’s activated so it shoots down from the top of the screen. I’ve also made the contentView of the window transparent, and added a custom view to which the rendering of the background is done. Trust me, it’s easier that way.

The transition for the window exiting (by sliding out) is very crude and you’ll notice that I’ve had to use the “reallyOrderOut:” method on the window since orderOut makes it fade out, and it looks weird if the window slides out of the screen, then reappears and fades.

Final thing, (actually the first real thing I did) was the subclassing of the “activateInTextMode:” method. Try activating the interface in text mode (you’ll need to have a trigger for Command Window in Text Mode). Hopefully you get a very nice warping effect.

Next on the agenda is changing the background and text color of the actual searching views. Take a shot at it if you like. Here’s the source code:

Fumo Source

Update: Download a (still unstable) version of Fumo from this post.

Yeah, I know it’s a far cry from the actual interface mockups Pavel created, but it’s a start. I mean, I’ve been whinging about this a lot, but you try to subclass views that are as cool and extreme as Quicksilver’s - without looking at their implementations. As ytrewq1 described, writing plugins for Quicksilver is a tedious process involving looking through the available code and just experimenting until something goes right.

Having said that, I’m having a lot of fun writing code for my favorite app, and it shouldn’t be too long before Fumo hits the market… uh… streets. It’s a great idea that is just waiting to be created (in fact, it’s been waiting for several months now. Before I knew about it, of course).

Got any ideas for Fumo? Or for a plugin for Quicksilver? I’m eagerly awaiting that comment

Update: Download a (still unstable) version of Fumo from this post.

While various difficulties (trying to write a plugin on top a system that I can’t see, using subclasses that I can’t see the implementations for, etc.) are proving to be tough challenges, Alcor (Nicholas Jitkoff) and ytrewq1 have been and are continuing to be most helpful in providing help when I need it. Alcor has already provided code for the “window” interface that I will be building on top of on, and ytrewq1 has assisted in overcoming various programming hurdles and provided some welcome encouragement.

That’s what’s so great about the Apple Mac Developer community - they’re ready to help people out and provide whatever assistance they can. Sure beats the “read the incoherent documentation” or “Google it” approach employed by various other operating systems regarding development troubleshooting.

And if you don’t know what Quicksilver is, or don’t use it, it’s time to get up and walk out of that dusty cave. Trust me, it’ll relegate Finder, Automator, and System Preferences to “lost somewhere in the HD”. It’s the best thing that happened to productivity, and once you start to tap into it’s power, you realize how much more it has. For example, I had a workflow to scale images. While playing around with the Quicksilver’s preferences, I found that you not only scale images, but also convert images to/from psd, jpg, png, gif, and a plethora of other formats. You can change your desktop background, move / copy / rename / delete files, add and delete lines from files without opening them, get into, do a Spotlight search. You can also add triggers (hotkeys), and integrate it with just about any application that exists. I mean, seriously, this thing is powerful. Get it now, use it now, and wait for Fumo.

Update: Download a (still unstable) version of Fumo from this post.