"An interesting patent application recently filed by Microsoft may offer a glimpse at the future of the Windows interface. The patent describes a 'method for managing windows in a display' that seems to describe a method of task switching that is neither Taskbar nor Expose, but something in between." It reminds me of a feature called 'iconify', where you can minimise windows into an icon on the desktop (as CDE has, for instance), a feature I miss in most modern desktop environments.
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Member since:2005-06-29
This is not minimising a window to an icon on the desktop - it sure does sound like it, but it is not. That's why I said "reminds me of" in the teaser.
What this patent application details is how when you minimise, say, a browser window showing OSNews.com, a 'clipping' will be made of that window (by default, the top left section) which will then be placed on the desktop; not a scaled image of the entire window. So, live previews in Vista, minimising to a desktop icon, progress icons in a taskbar, they are not the same as what is being described here.
Please, read the article before commenting. The Ars article CLEARLY describes the behaviour.
While this idea is kind of interesting, it is of course ridiculous something like this can be patented in the first place, I agree with many of the other posters here on that issue. Software patents like this, lots of them coming from Microsoft and Apple, do nothing to foster competition. In fact, they stifle it.
Edited 2007-07-17 11:57
Member since:2005-11-10
Member since:2006-01-04
Is this a little like a mixup of the features of the OS X dock (status reporting in the icons) and the thumbnailing features of other OSes.
It seems a pretty simple evolution of the ideas present in all other OSes, and especially considering this sort of work was being put into GNOME (similar intention, different implementation) it seems a bit stupid that it can be patented.
To be honest though, it's not that great compared to the dock for instance. The dock seems a lot better than this idea would be.
Member since:2005-07-08
Exciting. Instead of scaling the window to the desired size, just show a piece of it. Simpler and less effective.
I should patent a system for promoting movies by distributing a low-quality version. Instead of downsampling the resolution, I'll just crop it to the upper-left corner and only include the sound for the first fraction of the movie. It's simpler and less effective than downsampling, but more importantly, nobody's been dumb enough to think of it before.
Member since:
2005-11-10
"where you can minimise windows into an icon on the desktop"
Or Windows 3.1 for that matter