Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: icon dock Message-ID: <11313@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 5 May 90 23:56:38 GMT References: <1990Apr30.161035.24652@ucselx.sdsu.edu> <11287@hoptoad.uucp> <12508@wpi.wpi.edu> <1990May2.220210.7333@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 52 >>TM> Now, if they would put the Finder icons in windows, *that* would be >>TM> a good feature! I'm so sick of using "Set Aside" just to do basic >>TM> Finder operations! And most people don't even have that! In article <12508@wpi.wpi.edu> macman@wpi.wpi.edu (Chris Silverberg) writes: >>What would that accomplish? The finder is always active under multifinder, >>so it doesn't have to be launched... and you can easily go to the finder by >>selecting the finder icon in the Apple Menu. In article <1990May2.220210.7333@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) writes: >What would accomplishes, gentlepersons, is that you could get to the &%$#*@! >disk icons and the trash, which are on the desktop and obscured by the open >windows of other applications. You currently must either resize the windows or >use "set aside" to get at them. > >Tim would like to see the disk icons and trash in a window of their own, so >they could be accessed without resizing or Set Aside. Precisely -- thanks, Steve. I thought this would be so obvious to any MultiFinder user that I didn't spell it out in detail. What's especially frustrating is that Apple's own application rules require that applications *not* do what the Finder does, putting graphics and user interface elements into the desktop. The reason is perfectly obvious to anyone who has ever needed to trash a file or open a disk with another application open on a normal-sized screen. There are three good solutions, both of which involve Apple obeying its own rules by putting the icons into windows. One involves the obvious -- opening a normal document-type window from the Finder which contains the icons, but has no close box. You will be able to do this for yourself using aliases in System 7.0, but most people won't realize that -- it should be the default behavior. Solution 2 is to have a new window definition procedure which makes windows out of icons. This way, the visual appearance of the Finder will not change at all, but the icons will come to the top of the screen whenever the Finder becomes the frontmost application, again obviating the need to "Set Aside" or similar awful and inefficient workarounds. This is arguably the best solution. Solution 3 is to make the Finder a HyperCard/MacPaint style application which takes the whole screen for itself, keeping everything in a single layer that is invisible when any other application is frontmost. This is a tolerable solution, but it makes switching to and from the Finder more difficult than it should be. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained..." - Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"