Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!gatech!prism!loligo!pepke
From: pepke@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: New paradigm needed from Apple
Message-ID: <578@loligo.cc.fsu.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 89 19:07:29 GMT
References: <1203@internal.Apple.COM> <2756@pegasus.ATT.COM> <28590@apple.Apple.COM> <1962@oakhill.UUCP>
Reply-To: pepke@loligo.UUCP (Eric Pepke)
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Organization: Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Lines: 35

In article <1962@oakhill.UUCP> davet@oakhill.UUCP (David Trissel) writes:
>Other windowing systems do have such a built-in capability. I guess I'd call
>it window iconing. (I first noticed this on NeXT and I've since found out
>that SunTools and some X-window managers provide this as well.) This allows 
>the user to shrink the window to an ICON and place the ICON wherever she 
>wishes on the desktop. (One neat X-window system actually keeps the ICON
>updated to reflect the real-time appearance of the window-pretty neat!)
 [more stuff about iconing windows]

You can do this well and easily using the existing Mac system.  You can
make windows any size you want.  By writing a window definition, which is
very easy, you can make windows look any way you want.  You can put anything
you want into a window and make it act any way you want.  The only thing that
might prevent you from making a window that looks just like a little NeXT icon 
box is NeXT's legal department.  :-)

The major difference between a window and an icon in this case would be the 
name.  The only real difference would be that an icon would reside in a special 
MultiFinder-hostile desktop layer, as the Finder icons do now, while a window 
would be up there with the window manager where you could more easily deal 
with it.

Clearly there are a lot of user interface decisions to be made, but such
a mechanism could certainly be made far more consistent with the UIG's than
the grow box mechanism, for example.  In any event, it is not Apple's fault
that most Mac programs don't do this, as the tools have been there since
1984.

Eric Pepke                                     ARPA:   pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute  MFENET: pepke@fsu
Florida State University                       SPAN:   pepke@scri
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052                     BITNET: pepke@fsu

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