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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > What I wrote to Apple OSX Feedback

What I wrote to Apple OSX Feedback
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Amorya
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Join Date: Mar 2001
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Mar 25, 2001, 07:20 PM
 
dock movement should be implimented by default (to have it on teh side of the screen, and pinned to the bottom, for example). perhaps as an option in System Prefs. there are various hacks going round places like macnn, so it shouldn't be hard to do. it must be remembered between logins, as well.

next, cocoa apps (and carbon if poss) should learn to avoid the dock itself, not just avoid the bottom of the screen.

the dock should be able to be hid (autohide) and brought back with a click on the bottom pixel of the screen, then going away when you either click outside it or click on an item. add this AS WELL as the current autohide.

there should be shelf functionality (a temporary holding place for files you're moving/batch converting). while you could do this on the toolbar, it'd be too confusing... so I suggest you use the desktop for this. the principle of the desktop (and the Put Away command) from previous OS versions has been like this.

you should have the disks at the TOP of the desktop, in a row horizontally. (or wherever, that;s just cosmetic. the point is to separate from files.) then files dropped onto the desk will be stored in a temporary area. they CANNOT stay on the desk, and there is a ghosted file image where they came from. the put away command sends them back where you got them, and to all applications (eg open/save) they show up where they are in teh file heirarchy, not on the desk. when you log out, it says "you still have files out to work on. continue logout and put them away where they came from?" with "cancel" or "ok". the point of all this is so users don't use the desktop as a place to save things permanently.

you could go even further, and extend this. have the save command put the file on the desktop (no dialogue box/sheet to choose where, only name) and you then move it somewhere yourself. this is kind of like what RISC OS had, but theirs popeed the icon in a little window.

moving on (*g*), I beseech you to get rid of antialiasing on small fonts, at least as an option. I use a Pismo, and text is much clearer without. PLEASE add a way to specify the minimum size for the antialiasing, and also to turn it off completely if desired.

one more big concern of mine is for icons and windows to stay where you put htem. this is one of the main usability features that sets Mac OS apart from windows, etc.

also, the dock is not and should not be a control strip. it's trying to do too much. I know OSX is very dock-centric, but enough is enough (: Perhaps have the apple menu totally devoted to settings, with System Prefs at the top, then all the little control strip things as text submenus. eg location, volume, brightness of screen, CD player, etc. As it is, the apple menu is not doing much. I like having logout in it, but things like Buy Mac OS software do not belong here.

thanks once again for a great OS! I trust you'll work on the speed (and remember percieved speed is as important as real speed.)
I also hope we'll have an option to totally turn off Virtual Memory. it is REALLY bad to ahve a laptop hard disk always spinning to use this, and the slowness of my disk (because it's a laptop) means performance is compromised.
did I miss any major concerns? anything wrong with what I put?

Amorya
What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
     
3.1416
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Mar 26, 2001, 01:42 AM
 
Agree with the dock issues and the "Buy Software" advertising, but:

you could go even further, and extend this. have the save command put the file on the desktop (no dialogue box/sheet to choose where, only name) and you then move it somewhere yourself.
If you organize your home directory, there are usually only a few places where you're saving documents, and then the pulldown menu in the simple save dialog works well.

I also hope we'll have an option to totally turn off Virtual Memory.
Even if it were possible to disable VM (which is actually hard on a Unix-based OS), you wouldn't want to. Unix VM is _much_ better than that of Mac OS 7/8/9. If your disk is spinning, that means the programs that you have running have exceeded your physical memory. Without VM you wouldn't even be able to launch them. Apple's resources would be better spent reducing memory requirements so disk swapping is not needed as much, and optimizing the VM implementation.
     
bitfly
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Mar 26, 2001, 01:59 AM
 
Dear Apple,

Your Power PC native, Unix underpinnings, Modern OS has successfully downgraded my G4 Cube into a 75 MHz Performa.

No I didn't really write that, but that is what I am thinking.
     
Gorilla in the Shell
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Mar 26, 2001, 02:04 AM
 
i dunno man, but i can hide my dock.,
     
bitfly
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Mar 26, 2001, 02:08 AM
 
Originally posted by Gorilla in the Shell:
i dunno man, but i can hide my dock.,
Read his post more carefully. I don't think that was his complaint.
     
Master Apegot
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Mar 26, 2001, 02:15 AM
 
apple,

- remember the band BUSH?

- you can eat gourmet spam now.

- i had to wait four hours at a vietamese restaurant for food friday.

- nice to see that i havent lost my basic paranoia

- can you not change anything, i mean, pssh, because hey, if you could solve everything on my list above, than you wouldn't exactly be asoftware company anymore. you'd be a let's let users cry over our new operating system because their STUPID.

damn, i dunno. that was a dumb e-mail.
i hate complainers.

     
Gorilla in the Shell
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Mar 26, 2001, 02:22 AM
 
complaints are like bee's in a hive, all the workers work like one
conciousness and than spread throughout the land.

my wife, ann......where is she?!

it's not that i didnt read it all *i did* i just didnt feel like
agreeing with a stranger, thats all. "LOL"
     
bleen
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Mar 26, 2001, 04:30 AM
 
Two things I keep sending to Apple Feedback is:

1) Dock needs a Hide/Show Keyboard Command like the Control Strip. That's what I think will make the dock not so "in the way." becasue I can move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and it pops up when I don't want it too.

2) The Desktop Pictures needs to accept folders of Pictures, like OS 9 did, so it can randomly choose different desktop pictures. (mabe sorta in the way the one screensaver does)
     
sadie
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Mar 26, 2001, 05:56 AM
 
I sent them this:



All words are lies. Including these ones.
     
macmicke
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Mar 26, 2001, 07:32 AM
 
"alt-command-D" Is the keybord command to hide/show the dock...

MacMicke
The real MacMicke�
     
SkullMacPN
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Mar 26, 2001, 08:05 AM
 
Originally posted by Amorya:
did I miss any major concerns? anything wrong with what I put?

Amorya
That link in the apple menu doesn't say "Buy Mac OS X Software".
It's a Get Mac OS X software, and it takes you to a page with links to nearly EVERY piece of OS X software, be it freeware, shareware, demos, or commercial.

I don't like the idea of the desktop being a temp storage location only. After all, each user has his/her own desktop. If you think the dock is used for too many things, why shouldn't users be able to keep app aliases there? Or current peojects? You're asking them to keep with Mac OS tradition in many cases, but you seem to ask them to break some of the more useful features. I don't want the desktop to turn into a Windows 3.1 look-a-like.

Having all saved docks go to the desktop? Maybe as an option for newbies, but it would kill pro users. Try batching a few dozen (or hundred) images in Photoshop. Now carefuly pick them off (be sure not to grab anything that was already there!) the desktop where Photoshop just threw them by default.

I don't think the drives need to be across the top (not Windows nor the Lunix GUIs I've seen do this) of the desktop. What needs to be done is the return of a selectable grid size. Right now the default grid size is just over 128. This should have at least two tiers (64 and 128 perhaps) with an auto-scale feature for when icon size exceds the selected grid size.

Windows do stay where you put them if you turn off the toolbar. The toolbar gives you a "semi one window mode" and hiding it returns the behavior of OS 9.

I agree that the Apple menu could do a bit more. However, some control strip modules were created to be viable all the time. Hmm... that menu bar can get awfuly empty sometimes, and it's thicker than it used to be...

If I could find the feedback note I sent to Apple about "Perma-Docked" folders (a dock replacement for OS 9 tabs for those who dislike the popup menus) I'd post it.
     
Gee4orce
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Mar 26, 2001, 09:07 AM
 
Sadie - that wouldn't work if the dock was very small and you didn't have magnify on...
     
mlknowle
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Mar 26, 2001, 09:18 AM
 
the dock should, as A-DOCK already does, stay out for about 3 seconds after you mouse off it under autohide mode
     
sadie
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Mar 26, 2001, 09:47 AM
 
Gee4orce said:
Sadie - that wouldn't work if the dock was very small and you didn't have magnify on...
Of course, it would have to be optional, and would turn off when you scaled down - perhaps let you specify a minimum size for them. But on ordinary dock sizes, i think it's a good solution.

Of course, Apple aren't very good at making things optional right now.

All words are lies. Including these ones.
     
   
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