Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 10th Oct 2007 22:44 UTC
"The Dock in Mac OS X is unique in comparison to the user interface of Windows, most Linux distros that emulate the Windows desktop, and previous versions of the Classic Mac OS. Apple has significantly updated the Dock in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Here's a look at what's new and different in our 3-page report."
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Member since:2005-11-21
There were more than one dock extender for NeXTStep.
Fiend being one of the most widely used.
The SUN Icon is Fiend and that's where The WindowMaker idea originated:
http://windowmaker.info/imageview.php?cat=big&id=41
Member since:2006-02-06
"It seems to me very quick, very simple and very easy to implement and use. Why Apple (or any of the other major desktops for that matter - windows, gnome, kde, xfce) hasn't included this is beyond me."
Probably because, at first sight, it is far from easy to understand how it exactly works.
Edited 2007-10-11 06:43
Member since:2007-10-11
Probably because, at first sight, it is far from easy to understand how it exactly works.
Yes, but the hype notwithstanding, everybody has to go through a learning phase before being able to properly use any kind of new interface, whatever the system (and I mean that with the widest meaning, not only computers).
I don't use a mac, but I do have to deal with windows box from time to time. That grouping of apps in the taskbar is one of the most irritating things I can think of.
Even acknowledging that Windowmaker hasn't the best solution (but you'll have to go a looong way to show me one I like better) I just can't fathom why Apple's GUI designer haven't tried to somehow take advantage of the multiple desktops.
I tend to hold the whole "users are dumb and will never be able to remember what they did on their computers ten seconds ago" attitude responsible.
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Member since:
2007-10-11
It's nice they show where the dock comes from, especially with the NeXt desktop.
Myself, I'm running linux with Windowmaker (an unfortunately mostly dead project, cursed be kde and gnome). An interesting point is that it's another derivative of NeXT.
This OSX new dock seems nice and all, but once you take away all the bling, I find its answers to the clutter problem pretty inelegant.
As somebody's mentioned before, leopard will (finally) see the advent of multiple desktops on the mac. I fail to understand why Apple hasn't taken advantage of this.
To give an idea of what I mean, in Windowmaker, you have your dock, which pretty much works exactly the same way it did on the NeXT. But, you also have the Clipper, where you can attach icons exactly the same way you do on the dock. The difference is that there's one clipper for each desktop.
This means that when you have an application which isn't one of your very primary ones (there aren't that many of those for most people) but one you still want to be able to access quickly, you put it on the clipper of whichever desktop you like. The primary way to navigate through desktops is using the wheel on the background, and you can have as many of them as you like.
It seems to me very quick, very simple and very easy to implement and use. Why Apple (or any of the other major desktops for that matter - windows, gnome, kde, xfce) hasn't included this is beyond me.