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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: OS X style dock
From:       "Jamethiel Knorth" <jamethknorth () hotmail ! com>
Date:       2004-05-05 17:44:06
Message-ID: BAY7-F109mzpEI0Z2Ex00002ec1 () hotmail ! com
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>From: Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri <gustavo@gsbarbieri.sytes.net>
>Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 02:49:32 -0300
>
>I like the OS-X idea, i mean the idea, not the OS-X implementation.
>
>That idea is present on NextStep and WindowMaker have something similar. I 
>was
>a WM user before changing to KDE and miss some things from it. Namely:
>
>- Possibility to add a running program to dock. This could easily exist in
>KDE, you could drag a taskbar element to de kpanel and an icon should be
>added there to launch that command.
>
>- Drag & Drop everywhere. Right now you can't remove icons from 
>kpanel/kmenu
>droping them on the trash can.
>
>- Possibility to hide an app inside its icon in kpanel.
>
>This last one may be what you guys were talking. I know it's problematic to
>change that in KDE, it will need a lot of changes to the UI and the way 
>users
>use their computer.
>
>If you consider the WM approach, merging KDE and Dock behaviour is not that
>problematic, you just have to (as someone already said) have another applet
>to replace taskbar. Imagine this new applet handles everything as icons. 
>When
>you start an app it show an icon, if you *minimize* the app, it behaves 
>like
>Mac dock, it's hidden under the icon. You can drag & drop the icon to the
>"static" area, so when the app is closed it can be started (like kpanel 
>does
>now).  You shouldn't mess with systray... Mac have something similar (show
>volume, battery, ...), but due it's dock func, it's not over used.
>	Maybe some changes to have Close and Quit act different is cool, but this
>requires more resources to implement.
>
>Just one comment more: people said about the notion of you close the app 
>and
>it free the resources. Come on, it's a MS-Windows behaviour. And having 
>that
>much things in the systray undermine that understanding. As I said, I'm not
>against system tray, but using that to play cds, korganizer, kopete and
>amarok is too much. If something like the dock exists and it works, people
>will get used to the idea of closing windows != quiting the program and 
>will
>start to use the menu to do so. If one doesn't use the menu, there's still
>the shortcuts. Maybe we can put another possible (non used by default) 
>window
>button or just a modifier key to quit the app instead of closing it.
>	As a side effect, you also vanish with those stupid popups about closing 
>the
>window will not quit the app (amarok, juk, kopete, ...)

What will those apps then do about knowing where they are? If they have a 
permanent residence in the dock-style thing, that should be all they need. 
However, they currently maintain residence in the Systray. They need to 
support the systray for those users who don't use the dock-style thing, but 
what do they do if that dock-style thing is there, to keep from being in two 
places?

Seems like it might be nice, although it will likely need a little work to 
make it work cleanly.

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