December 3, 2003

The Big Tree

(Scroll down. It's a Big Tree)

bigbigtreeH2.jpg

Posted by Vanderleun at December 3, 2003 11:31 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Damn! Now they're gonna want to destroy this magnificent creation by chopping it down and prostituting it into an ornamental celebration of Christmas commercialization.

I don't remotely sympathize with anything related to the environmental-Green-wacko philosophy by any stretch of the imagination but it has always more than just annoyed me that the more magnificent the tree is, the more likely it's going to be destroyed for a fleeting moment of crass symbolism.

What a shame!

Posted by: Michael Savoy at December 5, 2003 8:55 PM

Other examples of these animations might be to show the status of an FTP transfer, the progress of media being digitized, or an updated time signature. And don't forget that users may want to have some control over this, so give them plenty of options, including the ability to turn these functions off.

Posted by: Arnold at January 12, 2004 8:48 PM

This topic is one we will tackle later in this article, but it refers to making sure that your application and the dock aren't fighting it out for supremacy of the screen.

Posted by: Goughe at January 12, 2004 8:48 PM

Okay, I just told you what Apple wants you to look out for with window positions, but in the real world, not everyone uses the hiding feature of the Dock, and it is unrealistic to be able to predict where each user will place their Dock at any given day or how large they will have it. However, you can build a feature into your application that allows spacing for the Finder. You can give users the option of where to position their windows and what area of the screen not to cross. I know that BBEdit provides me with this feature, and I wish more developers gave me more control over my windows.

Posted by: Matilda at January 12, 2004 8:49 PM

Dock Animation. Sometimes animating icons in the dock can be useful in communicating the status of the system or application.

Posted by: Basil at January 12, 2004 8:49 PM

Adopt Sheets. I really like the use of Sheets in OS X. The use of Sheets lets me know which window my dialogue belongs to without hijacking my system.

Posted by: Ebulus at January 12, 2004 8:49 PM

The simple fact is that, when all other factors are equal, where will consumers spend their money? I believe that in the long run, the best looking, easiest-to-use applications will also be the most successful. I think that's why Apple encourages developers to write programs that are 100 percent Aqua-compliant.

Posted by: Jasper at January 12, 2004 8:49 PM

Dock Animation. Sometimes animating icons in the dock can be useful in communicating the status of the system or application.

Posted by: Charles at January 12, 2004 8:49 PM

Clicking an application in the dock should always bring forward an active window. If the user clicks on an open app's icon in the Dock, the application is active and all unminimized windows come along with it. I have found a few problems with windows behaving independently of their application.

Posted by: Griffith at January 12, 2004 8:49 PM

In building your amazing Aqua application, one of the most important things to consider is the Dock. There are three things your app needs to be "Dock Compliant." Now, I write this knowing that the Dock will be going through some major changes soon, but for the most part, these should still hold true.

Posted by: Ebotte at January 12, 2004 8:50 PM

Adhere to File Locations. Make sure that when your users save documents, your application knows where to put them and also gives users flexibility.

Posted by: Emmett at January 12, 2004 8:50 PM