Apple Inc. has developed an enhancement to its Mac OS X Finder user interface that will allow for different-sized icons within the same window as a means of representing their importance, a recent patent application has revealed.
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This looks to be more than that though. It looks as if based on the number of files within a folder, the icon is relatively sized, making it obvious what folders are more "important." I'm sure that's just one possible application.
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@ Kroc
No, Apple patent regards not the dimensions of the icons which could be free into Amiga.
It just regards the behaviour of the icons, which change automatically their aspect dimensions...
In the same window you will have:
[insert] = Icon of lesser importance
[insert icon here] Standard icon with its normal size
[Insert big icon here] Important icon, or most accessed file, or a directory full of files
[insert huuuuuuge icon here] Very important files are here
And the icons will change automatically their size according to number of accesses... Or if these are icons of directories they will become bigger according to the number of files present in that directory.
It could be an idea, or could be stupid...
It could be useful for the user... Or from another point of view it could be just useless and annoying...
Why? Because this visual hack generates lines of icons of various sizes, so it will became a problem to keep these all aligned in reasonable ordered queue...
To KEEP tHe AligMENT iN Any WiNDow, ThE aspeCT of MACos DIRECTORY ICons (with this visual hack activated) tHeN coUlD bE sIMilAR To ThiS LiNe I am JuSt WRiTING nOw...
There will be bigger icons and quite normal icons and little icons, all mixed one closer to another, and I hope Apple will implement the feature option of align all icons depending from their dimensions importance.
It is a minor visual hack, nothing more, nothing else...
As a PC and Amiga user I have no interest in it, and I want to keep all icons of the same size and aligned, judging their importance by the name I assigned to the files...
(which remains the most logical method of judging the importance of any directory or any file) ;-) .
If I had had the chance to use MacOS X I hope I could easily activate and DISACTIVATE this hack that modifies icon aspect dimensions, reaching it with just a few clicks on the desktop options.
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Looks like it's been in the works for a while. BBEdit is at version 8.6.1 now.
While this is probably more attention-getting than coloured labels, it could be interesting to see what kind of jumbled mess one could make with sizes signifying importance. Hopefully, changing the level would be just a right-click away.
It also needs someone who is obsessive about order to make it work doesn't it? How many people actually rate their songs in iTunes?
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Different sized icons could be enabled using a hidden preference setting back in 10.0 (maybe 10.1 too? I don't remember), but they took it away. Perhaps they reconsidered?
I personally use labels to highlight important files and really miss that when using XP. Different sized icons doesn't sound all that useful, but I'll definitely be open to trying them if this is indeed going to be on Leopard.
A possible practical use would for applications' disk images (main app with a large icon, with a small readme file on the side, for instance)
edit: for those unfamiliar with OS X, labels are simply highlight colors you can assign to files/folders. It was a feature from OS 9 that got removed and then re-added by popular demand to OS X.
Edited 2007-04-05 20:57
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a recent patent application has revealed.
This just shows how ridiculous software patents are. The day will come that you'll simply not be able to sell software on the USA anymore -- you won't afford all the royalties you'll have to pay to companies for using a GIF image, a radio button, a one click checkout, etc...
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Yeah, variable sized icons in the same directory or workspace based on importance or label is a cool feature and all. But is it really something to be patented?
Isn't that like me trying to patent having a shoe store that carries different sizes of shoes under one roof? I'm not really seeing what they've invented here that is patent worthy.
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