durandal64
03-26-2002, 01:37 AM
One thing I have to give credit to Windows for is the taskbar. I love the thing. Fast, efficient, versatile. I also love the Dock because of its beautiful icons, but I just hate its obtrusiveness, and I don't like the fact that quick launch applications share the same space with running applications.
So, here's my idea for the perfect Dock.
First of all, it has to take up a constant amount of screen space. The gaps on the sides of the screen aren't being used by anything. Like the Windows and Linux task bars, it should have its own space on a side of the screen.
This space will be defined by a tab stripe (one of those stripes that goes under tabs in OS X). Pop up folder can be placed on this stripe, and it is the vehicle for resizing the Dock.
The background of the Dock should have user-definable transparency and color (or a gradient mask, let's take full advantage of what Quartz has to offer).
The leftmost side would have an OS 9 style Apple menu. It would have shortcuts to all the preference settings, websites, whatever you want to put in there.
Next to that are your quick launch applications. Since the Dock would be resizable, you can view the app icons in all their photo-quality glory, if you choose. Or, you can fit multiple rows of smaller icons in the same space that a large icon would take up.
Next, there are the running processes. Each process is housed in an Aqua-style button, with its icon on the left of the button, followed by the name. If the name is too long to fit into the button, it will gently fade out at the end. Rolling over the button with the mouse will bring up a help tag with the full process name. Processes can be separated as windows and applications, or they can be windows grouped under a single application process button, with the windows accessible through a menu brought up by a right click. Since the Dock is resizable, these buttons can tile on top of each other if the Dock is tall enough.
Finally, you've got your Dockling-like applications. For example, I have LoadInDock and NetStatInDock running constantly, and they give me live updates on CPU and network usage, which I like to see. Applications like those would fill in this space.
After that, whatever. We don't need a clock; we've got our menubar for that. A calendar would be nice, though, I suppose.
Anyway, that's my idea for the perfect Dock. Ideas, comments, suggestions? I was talking with the developer of SNAX a while ago, and he said that he may consider making a Dock replacement, as well.
So, here's my idea for the perfect Dock.
First of all, it has to take up a constant amount of screen space. The gaps on the sides of the screen aren't being used by anything. Like the Windows and Linux task bars, it should have its own space on a side of the screen.
This space will be defined by a tab stripe (one of those stripes that goes under tabs in OS X). Pop up folder can be placed on this stripe, and it is the vehicle for resizing the Dock.
The background of the Dock should have user-definable transparency and color (or a gradient mask, let's take full advantage of what Quartz has to offer).
The leftmost side would have an OS 9 style Apple menu. It would have shortcuts to all the preference settings, websites, whatever you want to put in there.
Next to that are your quick launch applications. Since the Dock would be resizable, you can view the app icons in all their photo-quality glory, if you choose. Or, you can fit multiple rows of smaller icons in the same space that a large icon would take up.
Next, there are the running processes. Each process is housed in an Aqua-style button, with its icon on the left of the button, followed by the name. If the name is too long to fit into the button, it will gently fade out at the end. Rolling over the button with the mouse will bring up a help tag with the full process name. Processes can be separated as windows and applications, or they can be windows grouped under a single application process button, with the windows accessible through a menu brought up by a right click. Since the Dock is resizable, these buttons can tile on top of each other if the Dock is tall enough.
Finally, you've got your Dockling-like applications. For example, I have LoadInDock and NetStatInDock running constantly, and they give me live updates on CPU and network usage, which I like to see. Applications like those would fill in this space.
After that, whatever. We don't need a clock; we've got our menubar for that. A calendar would be nice, though, I suppose.
Anyway, that's my idea for the perfect Dock. Ideas, comments, suggestions? I was talking with the developer of SNAX a while ago, and he said that he may consider making a Dock replacement, as well.