[Big Mac]

Okay, here's a minor gripe I have about substantive UI inconsistency with the Window menu. In most applications there is no visual indication in the Window menu that a window is docked. In a few applications, however, such as the Finder, GraphicConverter and Mariner Write, there is a diamond indicator to the left of the window's title. It's one of the things that the Finder actually gets correct. I think this visual information is quite important because Expose does not help with docked windows, and if you have a lot of windows docked it's difficult to tell at a glance which window is which.

[monkeybrain]

I guess it must be something that developers have to add. I'm sure a kind email to many shareware and email developers would fix the problem - it can't be that hard to implement.

But I think Exposé should give some indication on docked windows - how about a some small text at the bottom of the screen when showing all windows that says something like "and also 3 minimised windows".

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by monkeybrain:
I guess it must be something that developers have to add. I'm sure a kind email to many shareware and email developers would fix the problem - it can't be that hard to implement.

For Carbon apps, this is probably true, but since Cocoa automatically handles the Window menu for you, Apple probably could add this feature to the Cocoa framework, and all Cocoa apps would inherit it.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
For Carbon apps, this is probably true, but since Cocoa automatically handles the Window menu for you, Apple probably could add this feature to the Cocoa framework, and all Cocoa apps would inherit it.

I am not responding directly to your point, but do you know of any Cocoa app that has the feature?

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I am not responding directly to your point, but do you know of any Cocoa app that has the feature?

No. I didn't even know that any app did this until you pointed it out.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
No. I didn't even know that any app did this until you pointed it out.

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...section_3.html

Using Symbols in Menus

There are a few standard symbols you can use to indicate additional information in menus. These are listed in Table 6-1 and discussed in the following text. Don’t use other, arbitrary symbols in menus, because they add visual clutter and may confuse people.


Table 6-1 :__Acceptable characters for use in menus

Character Meaning

√ The active document in the Window menu; in other menus, a setting that applies to the entire selection

- A setting that applies to only part of the selection

• A window with unsaved changes

◆ In the Window menu, a document that is currently minimized in the Dock

[monkeybrain]

iTunes uses the diamond. But I can't find a single cocoa app (including Textedit, Preview etc) that uses it.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
http://developer.apple.com/documenta...section_3.html

Heh, touché. But that page also says:

Cocoa: These symbols are managed by the Cocoa framework.

Which is apparently not the case, so feedback should probably be sent to Apple.

Ironically, it seems like Carbon does handle this properly, since even the SimpleText developer example seems to put the diamond in the menu, and I highly doubt that app was tweaked too much for OS X...

[Chuckit]

Somebody really needs to spend a little time bringing Cocoa into compliance with the AHIG.

[TETENAL]

Or vice versa.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Ironically, it seems like Carbon does handle this properly, since even the SimpleText developer example seems to put the diamond in the menu, and I highly doubt that app was tweaked too much for OS X...

Yeah, now that I have tested it more thoroughly it seems that most every Carbon app I have to try does it properly. Who would have guessed that? Since Cocoa does properly handle the unsaved changes bullet and the active document diamond, there is some hope that a simple update can remedy this issue.

Tetanal, thank you for posting that guideline. I submitted my feedback to Apple. I probably wasted my time (do you think those messages go anywhere other than dev/null?), but maybe we'll see Apple get around to it sometime.