osx usability for a windows/linux user

Hey all,

I would like to get some information on OS X.

As my computer is starting to show some signs of aging, I am presented
with the choice of either doing some relatively small upgrade (from
duron 800 to athlon xp 2000) or buying a new system altogether. If I
choose the latter, I have the opportunity of moving to a Macintosh.
I've heard some good things about OS X, so I am researching it.

I've used OS X once, and I must say I didn't quite like it. I was
fumbling with the windows. I don't find it intuitive at all for a new
user, but maybe that is because of my 'windows conditioning'. I've had
no problem using Windows or KDE or Gnome, and I must say I'm quite
content with Windows, and I didn't like KDE and Gnome the worst of
all. A friend of mine says that once I get rid of my Windows
conditioning, I'll love OS X.

I've watched some YouTube video's, particularly the introduction of OS
X 10.0 by Steve Jobs in 2000. There were many things I didn't like.

I'm looking through the eyes of an experienced 'power' user, and I'm
not fooled by nice graphics or cool effects. In effect, my first
impression of OS X (as a graphical operating system) is not good at
all. The only thing that always strikes me is the good looks it has.
If it were not for the fact that it has UNIX functionality, and the
fact that everybody keeps talking about how amazing it is, I wouldn't
have bothered at all. So I'm trying to figure out what's behind this
extremely bad first impression, to see what has caused it to gather
all that praise.

I have a list of requirements. I would like to know if these
requirements can be met, and how. If I'm stating a requirement that is
made obsolete because of some cool feature, let me know. If there is a
source of information that might answer my questions, let me know.

Here are my requirements. I'm using MUST/SHOULD in a manner akin to
but different from their use in RFCs (Request for Comments); MUST is
an absolute requirement and SHOULD is something that would hold
immense value:

* Window switching *
- I MUST be able to switch between the current active window and the
previous active window with a single key combination.
- I MUST be able to switch to the 3rd last active window with an
extension of that key combination (much like alt-tab-tab), and so on.

* Task bar *
- All of the running applications that have open windows MUST be
accessible through some persistent (always visible) system-wide gui
element located at the bottom of the screen, be it a dock, a taskbar,
or something else, as a unified element or composed of several
elements.
- The same goes for minimized and/or iconified windows.
- There MUST be a distinction between 'active' user applications (open
or minimized) and 'background' user applications, much like the
distinction between task-bar windows and systray icons.
- There may or may not be a distinction between applications with open
windows and applications with minimized windows; it doesn't really
matter.
- The icons used in this 'dock' MUST have visible labels attached to
them for all 'active' applications - background apps need not have
them (preferably not).
- This 'dock' MUST support operations on the applications/windows
accessed through it such as minimize/restore/close.

* Quick launch *
- The 'dock' MUST also give access to often-used applications, much
like the Windows quicklaunch section of the taskbar does.

* Folder access *
- The system SHOULD support a system of system-wide recent-location
tracking. If I have a directory open in the file explorer/finder then
that directory must be easily accessible to all file dialogs of any
application. This also goes for locations that are often used.
- There MUST be a distinction in this system between web-locations and
filesystem-locations; I don't need it to track my web behavior.
- It SHOULD be possible to add bookmarks/favourites to these lists (or
have a separate bookmarks list, but most likely you would access them
through the same menu/button).
- This feature could also be extended to documents, but that is not a
requirement for me, as my applications can do that for me.
- It SHOULD be possible to access the 'recent-location' and bookmark
lists as a hierarchical menu popping out of a single icon/button
located on the 'dock', and use it to open files and
folders/directories.
- It would preferably be possible to access the complete file tree in
the same manner, preferably through a different icon.

* Accessibility *
- All system controls that rely on color information (such as window
close/min/max buttons) SHOULD be configurable to either also show
symbol information or to change the default colors used for these
controls (so that yellow may become blue, for example) (this because
I'm a little color blind, and the green and yellow buttons just look
identical to me)

* Appearance *
- System controls SHOULD not (must be configurable not to) have an
animated appearance when they are passive. For example, the MS Windows
Start button must not light up and dim again and light up and dim
again (as it does not), nor should any other button, even when it
holds some special status (such as a dialog's default action (being
the button that is activated when pressing <enter>)).
- It MUST be possible to turn off (some) major animations (such as
window morphing).

* Other *
- It SHOULD be possible to make any window 'always-on-top'.


Allright, that's the list. Those are the things I can't live without.
Windows supports all of the top-level MUSTs. The SHOULDs are what
could draw me to another OS.

Now, I've seen the Dock as it was in 10.0, and I didn't like anything
about it. I pretty much agree with everything Tognazzini has to say in
http://asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html
Everything Steve Jobs called 'cool' I find rather mundane, annoying
and useless.

So, it is possible to configure Mac OS X in such a way that it
supports all of these requirements? And how would I achieve it?

Btw, I am a 'maximized windows' user. I almost never use the desktop.
There is no use for me to make small miniturized versions of windows,
unless they stay always on top, or to 'fold' a window into its
title-bar, so that only the title bar is visible. There is no use for
me to have application icons on the desktop that I can access, if I
can access them through some other means. I only use the desktop as a
workspace, for (temporarily) storing (temporary) files, and to show me
a picture when I need to relax. I want the 'dock' to be as unobtrusive
as possible while still giving me all the functionality I want, while
I'm having like 4 apps open in maximized window mode in addition to a
couple of finders and a couple of shells.

Anyway, if you've come this far, thanks for taking the time.

greetings,
xen

In article <>,
xen <> wrote:

> * Window switching *
> - I MUST be able to switch between the current active window and the
> previous active window with a single key combination.

You can.

> - I MUST be able to switch to the 3rd last active window with an
> extension of that key combination (much like alt-tab-tab), and so on.

You can.

> - All of the running applications that have open windows MUST be
> accessible through some persistent (always visible) system-wide gui
> element located at the bottom of the screen, be it a dock, a taskbar,
> or something else, as a unified element or composed of several
> elements.

That is what the Dock is for and what it does.

> - The same goes for minimized and/or iconified windows.

Ditto.

> - There MUST be a distinction between 'active' user applications (open
> or minimized) and 'background' user applications, much like the
> distinction between task-bar windows and systray icons.

This is a Windows thing; Applications do not run in windows. Windows
are documents.

> - There may or may not be a distinction between applications with open
> windows and applications with minimized windows; it doesn't really
> matter.

Then it is not an issue.

> - The icons used in this 'dock' MUST have visible labels attached to
> them for all 'active' applications - background apps need not have
> them (preferably not).

Icons in the Dock have labels only when the mouse pointer is over them,
so there's only one icon at a time, maximum that has a label.

> - This 'dock' MUST support operations on the applications/windows
> accessed through it such as minimize/restore/close.

You minimize windows with controls on the windows themselves. You can
restore them from the Dock by clicking on them. You cannot close a
window from the Dock, but you can close (quit) applications from the
Dock.

> * Quick launch *
> - The 'dock' MUST also give access to often-used applications, much
> like the Windows quicklaunch section of the taskbar does.

You can put whatever applications you wish onto the Dock.

> * Folder access *
> - The system SHOULD support a system of system-wide recent-location
> tracking. If I have a directory open in the file explorer/finder then
> that directory must be easily accessible to all file dialogs of any
> application. This also goes for locations that are often used.

The Open dialog is not tied to Finder views. But you can customize the
sidebar of the dialog for often used folders.

> - There MUST be a distinction in this system between web-locations and
> filesystem-locations; I don't need it to track my web behavior.

No problem there.

> - It SHOULD be possible to add bookmarks/favourites to these lists (or
> have a separate bookmarks list, but most likely you would access them
> through the same menu/button).

What lists?

> - This feature could also be extended to documents, but that is not a
> requirement for me, as my applications can do that for me.

Then it is not an issue.

> - It SHOULD be possible to access the 'recent-location' and bookmark
> lists as a hierarchical menu popping out of a single icon/button
> located on the 'dock', and use it to open files and
> folders/directories.

That can be done through a system menu, but not easily (if at all) done
on the Dock.

> - It would preferably be possible to access the complete file tree in
> the same manner, preferably through a different icon.
>
> * Accessibility *
> - All system controls that rely on color information (such as window
> close/min/max buttons) SHOULD be configurable to either also show
> symbol information or to change the default colors used for these
> controls (so that yellow may become blue, for example) (this because
> I'm a little color blind, and the green and yellow buttons just look
> identical to me)

There may be a third-party utility that can do that, but it's not
inherent in the OS itself.

> * Appearance *
> - System controls SHOULD not (must be configurable not to) have an
> animated appearance when they are passive. For example, the MS Windows
> Start button must not light up and dim again and light up and dim
> again (as it does not), nor should any other button, even when it
> holds some special status (such as a dialog's default action (being
> the button that is activated when pressing <enter>)).

The default button in a dialog pulses. That's the only animation in a
dialog or alert.

> - It MUST be possible to turn off (some) major animations (such as
> window morphing).

Some of that can be done.

> * Other *
> - It SHOULD be possible to make any window 'always-on-top'.

The active working window is the one that is on top. Some applications
have floating windows that are on top of all other windows in an
application, but those floating windows are usually tool or inspector
windows. Those floating windows are hidden if the application is not
the frontmost application.

Hope this helps.

--
Support the troops: Bring them home ASAP.

xen <> wrote:

> I would like to get some information on OS X.

[snip]

> Here are my requirements. I'm using MUST/SHOULD in a manner akin to
> but different from their use in RFCs (Request for Comments); MUST is
> an absolute requirement and SHOULD is something that would hold
> immense value:
>
> * Window switching *
> - I MUST be able to switch between the current active window and the
> previous active window with a single key combination.

This is done in two layers on the Mac.

Command-Tab switches between two applications (bringing the previous
application's most recently selected window to the front). If you hold
down the Command key long enough you will get a pop-up application
selector which is better than the Windows one - it can be used to quit
applictions, hide applications and the mouse can be used to directly
click on an application icon.

Within a single application, Command-` (reverse quote) will cycle around
all the windows of that application.

Another shortcut is Expose, which is normally assigned to the F9, F10
and F11 keys. F9 shows you miniaturised copies of all visible windows,
which you can then pick with the mouse. F10 only shows you the windows
of the current application, and F11 slides all windows out of the way so
you can see the desktop.

If you absolutely must be able to toggle between two active windows in
the same application with more than two windows open, using a single
keystroke, then it can't be done with standard settings but there might
be a third party solution.

> - I MUST be able to switch to the 3rd last active window with an
> extension of that key combination (much like alt-tab-tab), and so on.

Command-Tab is extended to more than two applications in the same way as
it works on Windows.

Again, note that it switches through applications, not through
individual windows of those applications.

> * Task bar *
> - All of the running applications that have open windows MUST be
> accessible through some persistent (always visible) system-wide gui
> element located at the bottom of the screen, be it a dock, a taskbar,
> or something else, as a unified element or composed of several
> elements.

The Dock does this. There is an icon for each application which is
currently running, marked by a black arrow (plus icons for other
applications you have chosen to keep in the dock but are not currently
running, for convenience of quick launcing).

The Dock does NOT have an icon for each window in each application, and
you can't have multiple instances of the same application running. This
is one area where Windows is noticeably different.

If you are familar with "Multiple document interface" Windows
applications, then almost all Mac applications behave like that, but
without needing to have a background window which occupies most of the
screen.

> - The same goes for minimized and/or iconified windows.

Windows minimised with the orange button in their title bar appear at
the right end of the Dock in miniature form.

There is a separate mechanism to "hide" one or more applications, which
hides all windows of those applications, with no visible way to get them
back. The application itself is still runnign and its icon is visible in
the dock. Clicking on that icon (or switching back to the application
with Command-Tab) will unhide it.

> - There MUST be a distinction between 'active' user applications (open
> or minimized) and 'background' user applications, much like the
> distinction between task-bar windows and systray icons.

The Dock has a little black triangle at the bottom of the icon for
running applications. It is missing for application icons which have
been left in the dock as a convenience for quick launching. If you click
one of these, it will show the black triangle once the application has
launched, and the triangle will disappear again when you quit the
application.

> - There may or may not be a distinction between applications with open
> windows and applications with minimized windows; it doesn't really
> matter.

Nothing visible to show this.

> - The icons used in this 'dock' MUST have visible labels attached to
> them for all 'active' applications - background apps need not have
> them (preferably not).

The Dock does not show the name of applications unless you point to the
icon with the mouse.

There are third party solutions for this. For example, I use DragThing,
which is highly configurable and can show a window listing running
applications with names.

> - This 'dock' MUST support operations on the applications/windows
> accessed through it such as minimize/restore/close.

This is a mixed bag. All applications can be hidden using the Dock, and
some of them let you select application windows, but I'm not aware of
any way to minimise or hide an individual application window using the
Dock. You can restore a minimised window if the application lets you
select windows from its Dock icon. You can't close document windows from
the Dock, but you can quit an application there.

> * Quick launch *
> - The 'dock' MUST also give access to often-used applications, much
> like the Windows quicklaunch section of the taskbar does.

Yes. The Dock does this.

> * Folder access *
> - The system SHOULD support a system of system-wide recent-location
> tracking. If I have a directory open in the file explorer/finder then
> that directory must be easily accessible to all file dialogs of any
> application. This also goes for locations that are often used.

The Mac doesn't do this. Each application has its own separate list of
recently used folders, which is available in file selection dialogs. For
example, Finder has a list of recently accessed folders which you viewed
in Finder, which is accessed via Go > Recent Folders.

There is a system wide list of folders you can choose manually, which is
displayed in the sidebar in Finder and in file selection dialogs in all
applications.

> - There MUST be a distinction in this system between web-locations and
> filesystem-locations; I don't need it to track my web behavior.

You can include web links in the manually created list in Finder's
sidebar. These are shortcuts which open the web page in Safari (or your
preferred web browser). You can also put applications in the sidebar, or
normal documents, which open the appropriate application.

All of these are distinguishable by what their icon looks like (e.g. web
links look like a document with an @ symbol and HTTP underneath it).

In other applications, these will appear in the open file dialog
sidebar, but they are greyed out and can't be selected.

I wouldn't normally bother with this method. It doesn't scale well if
you have a large number of them.

You can also include shortcuts to folders or documents (including web
links) on the Dock. These are physically separated from applications by
a dividing line.

Web links can also be saved as documents on your desktop or elsewhere.
They are just documents which launch your web browser and go to the
specified site.

> - It SHOULD be possible to add bookmarks/favourites to these lists (or
> have a separate bookmarks list, but most likely you would access them
> through the same menu/button).

Each web browser has its own list of bookmarks/favourites. There is no
system-wide list.

> - This feature could also be extended to documents, but that is not a
> requirement for me, as my applications can do that for me.

This is another area where DragThing can be useful. It can set up
multiple docks, with multple layers, that can include applications,
folders, web links and documents. I use DragThing to open my most
frequently used documents and folders, such as my business accounts. I
used to use it for web locations but don't bother any more.

> - It SHOULD be possible to access the 'recent-location' and bookmark
> lists as a hierarchical menu popping out of a single icon/button
> located on the 'dock', and use it to open files and
> folders/directories.

No such feature exists in the standard system; I'm not aware of a third
party solution for this either.

The system does maintain separate lists of recently opened documents and
applications (and file servers), which are accessible through the system
wide Apple menu.

> - It would preferably be possible to access the complete file tree in
> the same manner, preferably through a different icon.

You can do that if you put your hard drive icon on the Dock. I don't
find this feature particularly useful.

I prefer to use Expose to hide all windows and reveal the desktop (F11),
then double-click on my hard drive icon and navigate through the file
system using Finder (Column view works well for browsing through the
file system).

> * Accessibility *
> - All system controls that rely on color information (such as window
> close/min/max buttons) SHOULD be configurable to either also show
> symbol information or to change the default colors used for these
> controls (so that yellow may become blue, for example) (this because
> I'm a little color blind, and the green and yellow buttons just look
> identical to me)

It isn't possible to change the colours of standard system user
interface elements, beyond selecting between some similar themes for the
entire colour scheme.

The colour coded elements of the standard user interface for windows
have positional consistency, and a symbol which appears when you point
to that area with the mouse. From left to right, they are: red "X"
(close), orange "-" (minimize), green "+" (zoom).

> * Appearance *
> - System controls SHOULD not (must be configurable not to) have an
> animated appearance when they are passive. For example, the MS Windows
> Start button must not light up and dim again and light up and dim
> again (as it does not), nor should any other button, even when it
> holds some special status (such as a dialog's default action (being
> the button that is activated when pressing <enter>)).

The default button in dialogs will be pulsing blue. You have no control
over this. It is the only identifying characteristic of the default
button.

Dock icons have a tendency to animate by themselves: if a background
application is requesting your attention, its icon in the Dock will
bounce up and down. This can be turned off.

If you have minimised windows in the Dock which have active content, you
will see the miniaturised icon updating.

> - It MUST be possible to turn off (some) major animations (such as
> window morphing).

Why? It is just a visual effect that only applies when you minimise a
window. You can select a simpler "scale" effect if you don't like the
"genie" effect.

> * Other *
> - It SHOULD be possible to make any window 'always-on-top'.

Some applications let you do this for some windows, but it is a rare
feature, generally limited to special tool windows which are always on
top within that application and which disappear when you switch
applications. These have a different appearance (with a smaller title
bar).

> Allright, that's the list. Those are the things I can't live without.
> Windows supports all of the top-level MUSTs. The SHOULDs are what
> could draw me to another OS.
>
> Now, I've seen the Dock as it was in 10.0, and I didn't like anything
> about it. I pretty much agree with everything Tognazzini has to say in
> http://asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html
> Everything Steve Jobs called 'cool' I find rather mundane, annoying
> and useless.

It hasn't changed much since 10.0.

I don't particularly like it. I've continued to use DragThing since the
Mac OS 9 days (for launching applications), and normally have my Mac OS
X Dock hidden.

> Btw, I am a 'maximized windows' user. I almost never use the desktop.
> There is no use for me to make small miniturized versions of windows,
> unless they stay always on top, or to 'fold' a window into its
> title-bar, so that only the title bar is visible.

There used to be a "window shade" feature in Mac OS, and it is available
in third parties.

I almost never bother to minimise windows. I have lots of windows
occpuying my desktop and switch between applications with Command-Tab.
They aren't "maximised" - I can see bits of about ten windows at the
moment, for example.

In certain contexts such as word processing I might have a window which
occupies most of the screen.

I do use the Desktop, but it is easy to get to with Expose's F11 key.
(This is much better than Windows' "reveal desktop" feature, which
doesn't remember the context and usually ends up hiding everything.)

> There is no use for me to have application icons on the desktop that I can
> access, if I can access them through some other means.

I don't leave application icons on my desktop. I do have some frequently
used folders there (or aliases to them).

> I only use the desktop as a workspace, for (temporarily) storing
> (temporary) files, and to show me a picture when I need to relax. I want
> the 'dock' to be as unobtrusive as possible while still giving me all the
> functionality I want, while I'm having like 4 apps open in maximized
> window mode in addition to a couple of finders and a couple of shells.

No problem. That's roughly how I'm operating.

--
David Empson

Jolly Roger wrote:
> On 2007-10-06 00:03:04 -0500, xen <> said:
>> - There MUST be a distinction in this system between web-locations and
>> filesystem-locations; I don't need it to track my web behavior.
>
> That's Windows nonsense that simply doesn't exist on Mac OS X.

That doesn't sound right to me. I'm stuck with Windows 2000 at work,
and I _frequently_ get irritated at the asinine attempt to make a
directory window look/act like a web browser and vice versa.

>> - It SHOULD be possible to access the 'recent-location' and bookmark
>> lists as a hierarchical menu popping out of a single icon/button
>> located on the 'dock', and use it to open files and
>> folders/directories.
>
> You can add any folder to the Dock, including your Favorites folder.

And a folder in the dock will pop up a menu of its contents. Folders
within that will act like cascaded menus on Windows. As J.R. said:
> You can drag your entire hard drive to the Dock if you want to navigate
> it through a menu interface like that, sure.

>> * Accessibility *
>> - All system controls that rely on color information (such as window
>> close/min/max buttons) SHOULD be configurable to either also show
>> symbol information or to change the default colors used for these
>> controls (so that yellow may become blue, for example) (this because
>> I'm a little color blind, and the green and yellow buttons just look
>> identical to me)

The red/yellow/green are always in the same "traffic light" order
and always the same position. When the mouse pointer gets close enough
to them, the symbols appear on them: x - + There's also a "graphite
mode" in which most of the color turns to shades of gray. I believe the
symbols stay up in that mode.

> The default behavior of Mac OS X is to pulsate the default button. Other

Mine don't pulse (OS 10.3.9). The default is blue and the others are
"transparent."

>> - It MUST be possible to turn off (some) major animations (such as
>> window morphing).

If you refer to the "genie effect" of sucking the window
into the dock, it can be turned off. But how in the world
does that have even a one percent effect on productivity?
(And it's not that different from Windows' animation of
"moving" a minimized window to the task bar.

>> - It SHOULD be possible to make any window 'always-on-top'.

I think that's up to the application to call something.
Certainly I have seen little widgets that I can't cover
even by going to another application. And the dock, if
'hiding' is not set, is always on top. And it's possible
for a running app to change its dock icon. Examples:
Mail shows number of unread messages, iCal shows current
date, minimized windows give a vague idea of what you'll
see if you 'restore' them.


--
Wes Groleau
------
"The reason most women would rather have beauty than brains is
they know that most men can see better than they can think."
-- James Dobson

Michelle Steiner wrote:
> You minimize windows with controls on the windows themselves. You can
> restore them from the Dock by clicking on them. You cannot close a
> window from the Dock, but you can close (quit) applications from the
> Dock.

Although, the popup menu from any icon of a running application includes
a "Hide" which will hide that app's windows even if they are already
'hidden' by other windows. However, this is different from minimzing
because it also hides any of the apps window icons from the other side
of the dock. It does not hide the app's icon from the Dock or from the
app switcher.

>> * Quick launch *
>> - The 'dock' MUST also give access to often-used applications, much
>> like the Windows quicklaunch section of the taskbar does.
>
> You can put whatever applications you wish onto the Dock.

And if you size the dock as small as a Windows Task bar, it will fit
the same number of icons (actually more, because the Finder icon is
smaller than the "Start" menu and the Trash icon is smaller than a
system try.

>> * Folder access *
>> - The system SHOULD support a system of system-wide recent-location
>> tracking. If I have a directory open in the file explorer/finder then
>> that directory must be easily accessible to all file dialogs of any
>> application. This also goes for locations that are often used.
>
> The Open dialog is not tied to Finder views. But you can customize the
> sidebar of the dialog for often used folders.

And the apple menu has a "recent" list, divided into Apps and Docs.
User controls how many items in each section. This lacks one feature
of Windows--but it's a feature I detest: Windows has some sort of
"artificial intelligence"--it knows that I don't want _some_ items
on the recent menu, and so it "helps" me by guessing (WRONGLY) which
those are and leaving them off those menus.

Apps that open files in OS X, like those in Windows, usually have
an "open recent" menu--here again, windows has the "artificial
stupidity" problem.

>> - It SHOULD be possible to access the 'recent-location' and bookmark
>> lists as a hierarchical menu popping out of a single icon/button
>> located on the 'dock', and use it to open files and
>> folders/directories.
>
> That can be done through a system menu, but not easily (if at all) done
> on the Dock.

The Apple menu 'recent' is not hierarchical, but if you put your
"Favorites" folder in the dock, it will be as hierarchical as
any other dir tree. I do not know whether Favorites has a way
to manage simpler than just dragging things to it, as I have
never seen any value in "favorites." (In order to limit my list
of favorites to a size that's actually usable, I would have the
impossible task of deciding which things to leave out!)

>> * Accessibility *
>> - All system controls that rely on color information (such as window
>> close/min/max buttons) SHOULD be configurable to either also show
>> symbol information or to change the default colors used for these
>> controls (so that yellow may become blue, for example) (this because
>> I'm a little color blind, and the green and yellow buttons just look
>> identical to me)
>
> There may be a third-party utility that can do that, but it's not
> inherent in the OS itself.

Not in the O.S., but either Aqua or Finder (not sure which) has a
"graphite" mode. For anything else, it would have to be done by the
writer of the app.

>> * Appearance *
>> - System controls SHOULD not (must be configurable not to) have an
>> animated appearance when they are passive. For example, the MS Windows

I wonder whether he means "bouncing in the dock" when an app
wants your attention. That can be very irritating when the
reason is something trivial.

--
Wes Groleau

In any formula, constants (especially those obtained
from handbooks) are to be treated as variables.

David Empson wrote:
> If you absolutely must be able to toggle between two active windows in
> the same application with more than two windows open, using a single
> keystroke, then it can't be done with standard settings but there might

Most applications have a "Windows" menu to select any of its windows.
The app's Dock icon also pops up such a menu. There are keyboard
shortcuts for these, but I don't know them.

So, the Dock provides both: click on an app's Dock icon
to bring all of its windows to the front, or click and hold
(or right-click/control-click) of the appropriate app icon
to select _any_ specific window.

> The Dock does NOT have an icon for each window in each application, and
> you can't have multiple instances of the same application running. This
> is one area where Windows is noticeably different.

Noticeably, but not significantly, as I have just shown.

> If you are familar with "Multiple document interface" Windows
> applications, then almost all Mac applications behave like that, but
> without needing to have a background window which occupies most of the
> screen.

In fact, if a Windows app is configured for "Multiple document
interface" then you have to click the app icon before you can choose
which document. In that case, it's Windows that has the extra step.

>> - There MUST be a distinction between 'active' user applications (open
>> or minimized) and 'background' user applications, much like the
>> distinction between task-bar windows and systray icons.

The right side of the OS X menu bar is like the Windows system tray.
Mine currently has icons for:
- printer/fax/scanner
- iChat
- Classic (OS 9)
- display settings
- modem
- sound
- keyboard layout/input method
- clock
- current user
These all change appearance for state and have menus for settings

>> - There may or may not be a distinction between applications with open
>> windows and applications with minimized windows; it doesn't really
>> matter.
>
> Nothing visible to show this.

In OS X, a minimized window has a dock icon. Windows shows no
difference, hence "it doesn't really matter

>> - The icons used in this 'dock' MUST have visible labels attached to
>> them for all 'active' applications - background apps need not have
>> them (preferably not).

"background" apps (right side menu bar) don't have labels.
Dock labels only appear when you point to them, which to me
is no hardship, because what use is the label if you are not
trying to click on it?

>> * Folder access *
>> - The system SHOULD support a system of system-wide recent-location
>> tracking. If I have a directory open in the file explorer/finder then
>> that directory must be easily accessible to all file dialogs of any
>> application. This also goes for locations that are often used.
>
> The Mac doesn't do this. Each application has its own separate list of

Correction: Apple menu -> Recent items

>> - It SHOULD be possible to add bookmarks/favourites to these lists (or
>> have a separate bookmarks list, but most likely you would access them
>> through the same menu/button).
>
> Each web browser has its own list of bookmarks/favourites. There is no
> system-wide list.

But "You can find your Favorites folder in the Library folder of your
home folder." You can drag it to a Finder sidebar or to the doc, or
make an alias or symlink to it anywhere else.

Mine has three FTP locations in it. I'm not sure how they got there,
as I normally use command-line FTP. I don't know whether there are
other ways to put things there.

> It isn't possible to change the colours of standard system user
> interface elements, beyond selecting between some similar themes for the
> entire colour scheme.

Graphite mode, selected on System Preferences -> Appearance

> If you have minimised windows in the Dock which have active content, you
> will see the miniaturised icon updating.

But this is very unobtrusive, unless you set the dock size to 'huge'

>> Now, I've seen the Dock as it was in 10.0, and I didn't like anything
>> about it....

Even though it implements many of the reasons he "can't live without"
Windows, he didn't like _anything_ about it. Hmmmm....

> I do use the Desktop, but it is easy to get to with Expose's F11 key.
> (This is much better than Windows' "reveal desktop" feature, which
> doesn't remember the context and usually ends up hiding everything.)

I use the "reveal desktop" at work often, as our I.S. department has
decreed that certain applications will have desktop icons, put there
by Novell during log in. One irritation is that sometimes it DOES
remember context, and when I open what I was after, other things open
as well!

--
Wes Groleau

Change is inevitable.
Liberals need to learn that "inevitable" is not a synonym for "good."
Conservatives should learn that "inevitable" is not a synonym for "bad."
-- WWG

In article <BSNNi.123$C2.2@trnddc02>,
Wes Groleau <groleau+> wrote:

> >> * Accessibility * - All system controls that rely on color
> >> information (such as window close/min/max buttons) SHOULD be
> >> configurable to either also show symbol information or to change
> >> the default colors used for these controls (so that yellow may
> >> become blue, for example) (this because I'm a little color blind,
> >> and the green and yellow buttons just look identical to me)
> >
> > There may be a third-party utility that can do that, but it's not
> > inherent in the OS itself.
>
> Not in the O.S., but either Aqua or Finder (not sure which) has a
> "graphite" mode. For anything else, it would have to be done by the
> writer of the app.

The Graphite mode is system wide for each user, but I don't think that
would help him. The red, yellow, and green buttons would all become
grey.

--
Support the troops: Bring them home ASAP.

Jerry Kindall wrote:
> <> wrote:
>> * Folder access *
>> - The system SHOULD support a system of system-wide recent-location
>> tracking. If I have a directory open in the file explorer/finder then
>> that directory must be easily accessible to all file dialogs of any
>> application. This also goes for locations that are often used.
>
> Recent items appear in the Apple menu but are not available in Open
> dialogs (though there are third-party apps that add this feature).

Although an open dialog _does_ have a menu for recent directories
from which recent files came from.

>> - There MUST be a distinction in this system between web-locations and
>> filesystem-locations; I don't need it to track my web behavior.
>
> It doesn't.

I can't say it doesn't because it's not clear what he means.

> (The "maximize" button, or "zoom" as it's called on a Mac, makes a
> window as big as it needs to be to show all of its contents. Only if
> all its contents won't fit on the screen does the window fill the
> screen.) So there will be some adjustments you'll have to make.

Actually, this is apparently controlled by the application. Omniweb,
for example, responds to the zoom button by making the window stupidly
small. When I open a Terminal window, it is always full screen size
(because that's what I told it to do) but there is some setting I can't
find that makes ten percent of the right and five percent of the bottom
off-screen. The zoom button puts it all back on the screen without
changing the size.

--
Wes Groleau

Nobody believes a theoretical analysis -- except the guy who did it.
Everybody believes an experimental analysis -- except the guy who
did it.
-- Unknown

Michelle Steiner wrote:
> The Graphite mode is system wide for each user, but I don't think that
> would help him. The red, yellow, and green buttons would all become
> grey.

True, but it also makes their x + - symbols easier to see.

--
Wes Groleau

A pessimist says the glass is half empty.

An optimist says the glass is half full.

An engineer says somebody made the glass
twice as big as it needed to be.

THO wrote:
> It is easy to stuck in "analysis paralysis", spending too much time
> analyzing a problem without making a decision. Just buy a used Mini Mac
> from Ebay for a couple hundred dollars and you'll learn to appreciate OS
> X. You'll find that its security and reliability is more important than
> Windows' ability to change the color of window controls.

OR, since his "problem" is the need for more power,
buy a high-powered Mac and if you don't like OS X,
just run Windows on it with Boot Camp!

By the way, "snipping" is greatly appreciated.

--
Wes Groleau

Measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk, and cut with an axe.