[The Godfather]

Why must Windows and X86 users have all the fun? Ever since I switched to Mac, I have been longing this very useful feature: resizing windows by the borders, and resenting a lot that I have to bring my cursor all the way to the bottom of the window to resize it.

Window resizing is a very common task for me, since I have to have PDFs and DOCs showing next to Terminal windows.

I appreciate window juggling abilities like greater movable areas in brushed metal apps, Expos� and Alt-Tab, but why didn't Apple go the whole way with resizing borders?

[Millennium]

Apple has never made windows resizable by their borders. Windows in Aqua are borderless, but back in the days of Platinum, window borders could be used to drag the whole window.

Why do they do it this way? They don't see a need. There are already two clear ways to resize windows: the resize widget and the Zoom box. Window resizing is a common operation, but not that common; borders invite accidental clicks that would all too often result in unwanted window resizing.

[The Godfather]

Whoever makes window border resizing for OSX is going to roll in money. Apple might not see a need, but there is no need for Expose either if you have Command-Tab, the Dock, Command-~ and the Window Menu. Border resizing is a very nice thing to have.

[Judge_Fire]

If it's possible, then perhaps it would fit the profile of this (in progress) application:

http://homepage.mac.com/tconkling/windowdragon/

J

[sushiism]

probably because positioning your mouse exactly on a 2/3 pixel border and dragging it takes about 3 times as long and twice the effort as flicking it to the corner and dragging it with a much bigger target.

[Dog Like Nature]

Originally posted by sushiism:
probably because positioning your mouse exactly on a 2/3 pixel border and dragging it takes about 3 times as long and twice the effort as flicking it to the corner and dragging it with a much bigger target.

Soooo true! Let's be honest, how many Windows users have struggled to grab the window border in order to resize? I curse this all the time.

[MartiNZ]

And the opposite, resizing the window from the title bar when you just wanted to click it.

[The Godfather]

Originally posted by sushiism:
probably because positioning your mouse exactly on a 2/3 pixel border and dragging it takes about 3 times as long and twice the effort as flicking it to the corner and dragging it with a much bigger target.

In Windows 95,etc, the border thickness is 4 pixels, and in Windows 3.1, you could set it to any thickness. Back in the day, I used to have it at 3 pixels and it was a little hard to aim for it, mainly because the mouse ball was dirty most of the time.

Resizing the window instead of moving it is not exactly the end of the world.

Border resizing is a benign thing, like Expose and iPods.

[lookmark]

Originally posted by The Godfather:
In Windows 95,etc, the border thickness is 4 pixels, and in Windows 3.1, you could set it to any thickness. Back in the day, I used to have it at 3 pixels and it was a little hard to aim for it, mainly because the mouse ball was dirty most of the time.

Resizing the window instead of moving it is not exactly the end of the world.

Border resizing is a benign thing, like Expose and iPods.

It's a trade-off. Personally, I find the resizing by thin borders fiddly, and windows with thick borders very clunky-looking.

Don't try convince us, though, tell Apple. If they get enough requests, they'll consider it, or at least consider it an issue.

[bborofka]

Originally posted by lookmark:
If they get enough requests, they'll consider it, or at least consider it an issue.

Yeah right! How long have Mac users (at least Pros) been clamoring for a mouse with a 2nd button and/or a scroll wheel?!

[lookmark]

Originally posted by bborofka:
Yeah right! How long have Mac users (at least Pros) been clamoring for a mouse with a 2nd button and/or a scroll wheel?!

Right, which is why OS X simply doesn't work right out of the box with just about every third-party 2+ button mouse out there.

Let's not rehash the one-button mouse thing, everyone knows the arguments pro and con. Point is: if feedback is received in numbers, it's noted.

[MaxPower]

http://www.ocs.cz/OCSmartHacks/

It does a ton of cool stuff, including tear off menus and resizing from any window side. Shareware at $29 last time I checked.

I used it for quite some time and had no conflicts or crashes. While I'm posting, I have to give a shout out to another few of my favorite freeware apps:

DejaMenu and XShelf
http://homepage.mac.com/khsu/Projects/Projects.html


EDIT: Be aware that OCSmartHacks contains the functionality of DejaMenu. If you dont want all the junk but like just the pop-up menu, go with DejaMenu. (not really applicable to FP since it was referring to border resizing

Also, in OCSmartHacks, theres this 'default window' setting. Please read that very carefully when deciding to muck with it. I accidentally told it to supress default window on SystemPreferences and the prefs wouldnt appear until I went under the menu to select 'show all'

[lookmark]

Originally posted by MaxPower:
http://www.ocs.cz/OCSmartHacks/

It does a ton of cool stuff, including tear off menus and resizing from any window side. Shareware at $29 last time I checked.

I used it for quite some time and had no conflicts or crashes.

Very cool link!

[lookmark]

[dp]