Modifying what the three color buttons do

[Tomaltach]

Since Yosemite changed what the green button does from making a window fill the screen but stay windowed to entering full screen, I was wondering if there is a way to change that on and application specific basis. Somewhere in the info.plist perhaps. Also I have an application that I modified to run as an agent, but I want to be able to hide the window too. For this specific application (controller mate) the red button quits it and I need to have it running I was hoping I could modify that. Is this possible and if so what. Actually come to think of it I doubt it is as simple as modifying the info.plist, but I just thought that is here the agent and other UI elements are so I just figured it might be done through that as well...

 

[chas_m]

Since Yosemite changed what the green button does from making a window fill the screen but stay windowed to entering full screen, I was wondering if there is a way to change that on and application specific basis.

No, but you can activate the old behaviour by holding the option key when you click the green button.

For this specific application (controller mate) the red button quits it and I need to have it running I was hoping I could modify that. Is this possible and if so what.

The red button has ALWAYS quit that app. This is not new to Yosemite. Use the yellow button -- what you describe (hidden but not closed/quit) is precisely what it is for.

 

[pine man]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the red button only closes an app but does not quit it.

 

[chas_m]

Let me correct you: you're half right.

Apple and developers are *extremely* inconsistent on this point. Originally (and still on Mavericks) the red button was supposed to quit the active window, NOT quit the app. See Safari for an example of this behaviour.

But I guess Windows switchers were terribly confused by this (as they should be), so now it's helter-skelter as to what the red button does. In Apple's own Disk Utility, for example, the red button quits the app.

I'm sort of gathering that the "rule" now is that single-window apps quit when the red button is pressed, while apps capable of multi-windows just close the active window. Which makes a sort of sense, I guess.

 

[pine man]

My main reason for noticing the behaviour of the red button is because when I open Quicken with a password and 'close' it with the red button and then open it again I do not need a password. If I manually quit the program i do need a password to reopen it. MS Outlook remains active when you close it with the red button and now I am starting to realise that Safari, if closed with the red button, actually 'quits' automatically after a further 30 minutes!

 

[chas_m]

All of the apps you mentioned can have multiple windows open, so this fits the "rule."

 

[Tomaltach]

So the yellow minimizes the application, making it still visible in the dock, my goal is to keep it running and completely hide it, like what command-h does. Unfortunately since I have turned controllermate into an agent so as to hide the dock and command-tab icons, command-h does not work because finder is technically the active application even when I am in the controllermate editor. If there is some way to access the window menu that would work as well, but as I said, Finder is the considered the active application so I do not see controllermate's menu items. Alternatively, if anyone knows anything about controllermate, a great piece of software I would recommend to anyone looking to really customize keyboard, mouse, and you guessed it, controller, functions, the problem I am having is that the macros I have made cannot be executed without the app running. Normally there is a helper agent that has access to the macros and executes them without the editor open, but that doesn't seem to be working. Either way, It's not a huge deal, but just one of those little aesthetic things that I want to work out.

 

[toMACsh]

I'm sort of gathering that the "rule" now is that single-window apps quit when the red button is pressed, while apps capable of multi-windows just close the active window. Which makes a sort of sense, I guess.

Yeah, it's been that way at least since Leopard, my first OSX. Not "helter-skelter" at all. Now, there might be an exception here or there...