Comments on: About Apps With No Windows http://www.symphonious.net/2004/10/12/about-apps-with-no-windows/ Living in a state of accord. Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Rob Gilbert http://www.symphonious.net/2004/10/12/about-apps-with-no-windows/#comment-258 Rob Gilbert Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/?p=243#comment-258 Don't ask me what I am doing back here, but i agree with most of what you have said. After just recently taking a liking to macs in general I agree that the menu at the top of the screen does make sense in most respects (you can only click on one applications menu at a time, so why clutter the screen with more). The other thing is that for apps in windows (ie, IE haha) it seems ridiculous to duplicate that menu functionality for multiple windows that are open. Tab functionality fixes this type of thing (in browsers) mostly, but can be limiting in the amount of sites you can have usable simultaneously (i like safari, but i dont like how it puts tabs you can't fit on the screen into a drop down - i tend to forget about them). I like the dock, but one thing (in my limited osx experience) that i have been yearning for is minimise/hide functionality that works for me. Is it just me, or is minimising a window in osx absolutely pointless, it puts the app down there in the dock 'tray' and just adds to the clutter more. Worse than that, when i minimise-maximise-minimise, with several apps in the 'tray', it will cycle them (ie first one becomes the last one when minimised again) forcing me to 'search' for the window i want in the tray, rather than 'just know' that the one i want was where it was originally in the same order. It would be better if I could press the 'minus' button and the window was 'hidden' instead (ala right clicking on the dock icon and selecting hide). Maybe this all seems better when running in some crazy resolution on a 20inch monitor, but on my 12inch ibook at 1024, it gets frustrating. Anyway, sorry if I got off-topic as far as the whole windowing thing is concerned, I originally came here to ask you what java ide you use, cause xcode seems to blow goats as far as java programming is concerned. It just seems that if i want to create a simple java app, it tries to 'appleise' it and import all this apple shit (i know it isn't that bad, but it just pisses me off). I would prefer something that allows me to treat the java app as a 'java app' ie running on a java operating system and using the java look and feel etc. i know this is all possible quite simply, but i don't want an ide that tries to force this stuff down my throat, if i want to streamline it to run pretty on osx, then that is my choice. I seem to recall you using eclipse, but is that pure eclipse, or some third party stuff built on top of eclipse by another company that you have paid for, and how good is it? i really like jcreator on windows, very visual studio, and yes ms are gay, but visual studio is still pretty handy. gilbs. ps - xcode seems pretty good for c++ development. i have started some cross platform opengl, sdl, c++ game project and it seems pretty handy. it has some limitations, but is pretty good all round. i enjoy my mac. it being my main computer and all now. Don’t ask me what I am doing back here, but i agree with most of what you have said. After just recently taking a liking to macs in general I agree that the menu at the top of the screen does make sense in most respects (you can only click on one applications menu at a time, so why clutter the screen with more). The other thing is that for apps in windows (ie, IE haha) it seems ridiculous to duplicate that menu functionality for multiple windows that are open. Tab functionality fixes this type of thing (in browsers) mostly, but can be limiting in the amount of sites you can have usable simultaneously (i like safari, but i dont like how it puts tabs you can’t fit on the screen into a drop down - i tend to forget about them).

I like the dock, but one thing (in my limited osx experience) that i have been yearning for is minimise/hide functionality that works for me. Is it just me, or is minimising a window in osx absolutely pointless, it puts the app down there in the dock ‘tray’ and just adds to the clutter more. Worse than that, when i minimise-maximise-minimise, with several apps in the ‘tray’, it will cycle them (ie first one becomes the last one when minimised again) forcing me to ’search’ for the window i want in the tray, rather than ‘just know’ that the one i want was where it was originally in the same order.

It would be better if I could press the ‘minus’ button and the window was ‘hidden’ instead (ala right clicking on the dock icon and selecting hide).

Maybe this all seems better when running in some crazy resolution on a 20inch monitor, but on my 12inch ibook at 1024, it gets frustrating.

Anyway, sorry if I got off-topic as far as the whole windowing thing is concerned, I originally came here to ask you what java ide you use, cause xcode seems to blow goats as far as java programming is concerned. It just seems that if i want to create a simple java app, it tries to ‘appleise’ it and import all this apple shit (i know it isn’t that bad, but it just pisses me off).

I would prefer something that allows me to treat the java app as a ‘java app’ ie running on a java operating system and using the java look and feel etc. i know this is all possible quite simply, but i don’t want an ide that tries to force this stuff down my throat, if i want to streamline it to run pretty on osx, then that is my choice.

I seem to recall you using eclipse, but is that pure eclipse, or some third party stuff built on top of eclipse by another company that you have paid for, and how good is it? i really like jcreator on windows, very visual studio, and yes ms are gay, but visual studio is still pretty handy.

gilbs.

ps - xcode seems pretty good for c++ development. i have started some cross platform opengl, sdl, c++ game project and it seems pretty handy. it has some limitations, but is pretty good all round.

i enjoy my mac. it being my main computer and all now.

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