"David W. Fenton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> My understanding of the OS X Dock was that it is both a program
> launcher, but primarily a representation of running programs, with
> icons for all the windows/documents/applications (like the Windows
> Taskbar).
More or less. All running applications have a place in the dock; if
the application icon is already there for the program launcher, its
icon is re-used for that purpose. Note that windows and documents
don't appear in the OS X dock unless they are specifically minimized;
if they are still active onscreen, a representation for them doesn't
appear in the dock.
> From what I can tell of the description of the NextStep Dock, it was
> only a program launcher, no? That would mean that the primary
> functionality of the Taskbar (to provide a graphical representation
> of running tasks, hence the NAME) was absent in the pre-OS X
> incarnations of the Dock.
The NeXTstep dock was primarily a program launcher, yes, but it shared
the OS X icon re-use I mention above. So, if an application from the
dock is running, its dock tile is modified slightly (note that some of
the tiles in the dock have three dots in the lower left corner; that
indicates that the application is not yet running).
For applications that were started but not previously docked, a tile
was added at the bottom of the screen to indicate its current state.
Similarly, windows and documents which were minimized had tiles added
to the bottom of the screen.
To my mind, the only major differences between the OS X and the
NextStep docks are that the program launcher and running application
tiles were combined into one dock, and the dock was made resizable to
adjust to as many icons as the user liked.
--
Stephen L. Peters [EMAIL PROTECTED]
GPG fingerprint: A1BF 5A81 03E7 47CE 71E0 3BD4 8DA6 9268 5BB6 4BBE
"There's a heart in the sky; there just is, don't ask why;
It's the sky!" -- Urinetown: The Musical
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