Re: Belated look at the OSXhints April Fool's front page

Chris Ridd <chrisridd@xxxxxxx> wrote:

(Rowland McDonnell) said:

Chris Ridd <chrisridd@xxxxxxx> wrote:

(Adrian Tuddenham) said:

Peter Ceresole <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Adrian Tuddenham <poppy.uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

To me, the Dock is a major pain that I have to evade and avoid and work
around and I'd love to not have it at all.

Seconded!

Okay. I used to think the same, but then I made it a lot smaller,
switched off magnification (and much later put just a bit back in). In
fact it works extremely well I think by refusing to embrace it, you're
both depriving yourselves of a real pleasure and a useful tool.

I need the full screen as an audio editing window and don't want
anything appearing unbidden on top of it.

This is another example of OSX disobeying the basic rules: if the user
has put something in the background, that is where the user wants it to
stay. The OS must never over-ride the user's wishes.

Do you object to the space used by the menu bar too?

The menu bar is nothing remotely like the Dock, though. About the only
thing they have in common is that they are user interface elements in
MacOS X.

The menu is the system's UI element for controlling the current
program. Apple feels you need this permanently present.

`Current'? Frontmost, I think you'll find. I think I need this
permanently present too.

The Dock is the system's UI for managing multiple running programs.

Not only for that: it's for doing a lot of other jobs too, and it's very
bad at all of them. It's the UI for giving access to programs to
launch, to giving access to points in the file system, for giving access
to Web locations, for holding minimised windows, giving access to the
trash, giving access to open app windows, and I'm sure there are some
other things I've forgotten to mention.

Too many jobs rolled into one tiny, awkward, malformed pile of crap.

The old Application Menu was far superior for the `app switching' job
when compared to the Dock. I had a hiearchical Application Menu that
let me go to any app window. That might have taken a 3rd party
addition, but I liked it lots.

Glidel rings a bell.

Apple also feels you need this present.

That's not quite right: it is Apple's current policy that this is what
we're going to get. I'll bet significant money that some in Apple think
it's as much of a bad idea as I do.

Maybe you do, maybe sometimes
you don't - that's why you might choose to hide the dock in some
circumstances.

I want no dock at all, and different UI elements for performing Dock
functions. I want a launcher, an dedicated app switcher, and
windowshade (no haxies! - pukka only, please).

DragThing gives me the first two but I have no way of getting
Windowshade back in a fashion I'm willing to install, so I'm screwed on
that one and still need to keep the Dock.

Of course the dock doesn't work so well when you overfill it but then
nor does the menu bar.

`Overfill it'?

In other words, what you mean is that if my use of my Mac is such that
the Dock becomes useless due to too much stuff in it, then it's my
fault? That I should not want to use my Mac that way because Apple's
given me a crappy UI that doesn't permit me to use the power of my
computer?

Oh, come on!

As for `overfilling the menu bar' - that has only become an issue since
Apple took the Control Strip away from us. Again, a superior approach
to the job that's been removed for no obvious reason.

As far as I'm concerned, the menu bar is for the frontmost app with the
`Apple' and `App Switcher' system-wide hierarchical menus being
available too. Oh yeah and a menubar clock 'cos I like 'em. That's
*IT* - all else should go into the control strip. It was good, that
was. It's gone now.

Apple had it all sorted out - all /decades/ doing careful research into
user interfaces, and they had it bang on.

See what I'm saying? Apple worked it out, and worked out something that
worked out very well indeed due to working at the job carefully for a
very long time, working out what worked well and what did not work so
well and they gave us the good stuff.

Then they wrecked it with OS X...

Rowland.

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Relevant Pages

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