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TheSpaz · Jan 15, 2005, 05:54 PM

Is it possible to create a system wide control panel that will show the Application Version number (or other information) in a badge on the Application icon?

Lets say you want to know how long iTunes has been playing a song (show a red badge in the iTunes Dock icon)... or How about how long you've been idle in iChat (red badge).

I dunno... I just thought it would be cool.

MacDog · Jan 16, 2005, 11:37 AM

Originally posted by TheSpaz:
I just thought it would be cool.

I can't think of a single reason why to do this, and I think it would be a horrible waste of resources to have someone even working on it.

I bought the apps, I payed a lot of money for them, I know damn-well what version they are. There are dozens of remotes for iTunes, they ALL show you how much time is left in a song that's playing. And why in God's name would you care how long you've been idle in iChat???

A much cooler use of time & resources would be figuring out a way to make icons animated in the finder/dock.

RevEvs · Jan 16, 2005, 11:56 AM

also, when tiger arrives, hopefully this will be unnecessary, as every developer (well, probs not but i can dream!) will use the OS's Software Update mechanism to update their apps, and keep us informed of updates.

revs

ArcticBear · Jan 16, 2005, 06:51 PM

If you run DragThing, there's an option to append the version number to the name of an app in any of its docks. And what is the (Apple) Dock but a insipid imitation of DragThing?**

Before it had this feature I would just drag a copy of my apps into DragThing and manually rename it appending the version number to remember what version I had. Now it's automatic, at least for those developers who use the version field (most everyone, but there are a few rebels...).

DragThing also shows how many messages are in your inbox for a variety of mail programs. I'm not sure, but I think the mail trick is done by AppleScript. I figure any info retrievable by AppleScript should be able to be incorporated into an app in a similar way.

**full disclosure: I am a licensed user of DragThing, and I find it is the best!

aristotles · Jan 16, 2005, 11:25 PM

Badges? I don't need no stinking badges.

Fusion · Jan 17, 2005, 02:08 AM

Originally posted by RevEvs:
also, when tiger arrives, hopefully this will be unnecessary, as every developer (well, probs not but i can dream!) will use the OS's Software Update mechanism to update their apps, and keep us informed of updates.

revs

Is Tiger going to allow devs to do this?!?!?!?

@TheSpaz - I thought it was a good idea, and I can picture what your saying. However, I think that is something that each individual developer has to implement. I doubt there is any sort of system API that can be used to just patch it on to any application.

Dave Watanabe, the developer of Acquisition and NewsFire makes really good use of badges in his apps.

themarvelous3 · Jan 17, 2005, 02:12 AM

Originally posted by MacDog:
I can't think of a single reason why to do this, and I think it would be a horrible waste of resources to have someone even working on it.

I bought the apps, I payed a lot of money for them, I know damn-well what version they are. There are dozens of remotes for iTunes, they ALL show you how much time is left in a song that's playing. And why in God's name would you care how long you've been idle in iChat???

A much cooler use of time & resources would be figuring out a way to make icons animated in the finder/dock.

why are some people (above) such assholes wen they reply? why cant they just state they dont agree with idea without tearing someone down and making them feel stupid for coming up with it? do you really have that little self esteem, no life or friends that you have to make others feel as dumb as you on a message board?

personally, i think its not a bad idea. i never know what version i have of things. i randomly go to websites to see what updates there are and have to go find the app on my computer and "get info" to find out what version it is. it'd be nice to just have it there.

(sorry that we're not as cool as you to have taken..sorry, WASTED our time and life to memorize what version number all our apps are.)

Makki · Jan 17, 2005, 07:16 AM

Originally posted by themarvelous3:
(sorry that we're not as cool as you to have taken..sorry, WASTED our time and life to memorize what version number all our apps are.)

ROFLMFAO i agree i also think this is a good idea although i must apologize i have no idea how to make it work but i think its a great idea with a wide spectrum of uses.

Makki

mac15 · Jan 17, 2005, 07:24 AM

I think having the idle/away time in the iChat badge would be a cool idea but for app version numbers I don't think so

MacDog · Jan 17, 2005, 04:14 PM

Originally posted by themarvelous3:
why are some people (above) such assholes wen they reply? why cant they just state they dont agree with idea without tearing someone down and making them feel stupid for coming up with it? do you really have that little self esteem, no life or friends that you have to make others feel as dumb as you on a message board?

personally, i think its not a bad idea. i never know what version i have of things. i randomly go to websites to see what updates there are and have to go find the app on my computer and "get info" to find out what version it is. it'd be nice to just have it there.

(sorry that we're not as cool as you to have taken..sorry, WASTED our time and life to memorize what version number all our apps are.)

How was I an asshole in my reply? I DID just state that I don't agree, and I did NOT tear him down in any way. If he feels stupid, that's his own doing, because I never called him stupid. Furthermore, I have plenty of self esteem, I have a great life with plenty of friends and the only one looking dumb here is you because you chose to create a negative situation when there wasn't one to begin with.

eyevaan · Jan 18, 2005, 10:12 AM

dragthing
It's in there . . . worth every penny - all three thousand of em.

Zimphire · Jan 18, 2005, 10:21 AM

All your apps and it's version is listed in the system profiler.

Fusion · Jan 18, 2005, 10:52 AM

I think everyone is so focused on the idea about the version number they have missed the point of the discussion.

I don't think TheSpaz's goal was to have version numbers plastered all over the screen. I think his idea was for their to be a public API that any user could define an action or property of any existing app into a badge on the dock icon.

This would work in a similar fasion as growl, although hopefully the developer wouldn't even have to implement it.

Version numbers were just one of the ideas it could be used for. If you hate that idea, don't use it. Other ideas could be:

The number of tabs open in Safari
The number of Finder windows open
iCal alarms and iCal timers
Time information in iTunes, VLC, DVD Player, etc...
Number of open documents in apps like BBedit, Textedit, Photoshop, etc...
Number of open connections in Transmit
Number of files being downloaded by BT
And so on...

I think it has already been understood that the version number option would probably be the least used, but obviously at least one person would use it. Lets talk more about badges as an idea in general and less about version numbers.

TheSpaz · Jan 18, 2005, 11:16 PM

Originally posted by Fusion:
I think everyone is so focused on the idea about the version number they have missed the point of the discussion.

I don't think TheSpaz's goal was to have version numbers plastered all over the screen. I think his idea was for their to be a public API that any user could define an action or property of any existing app into a badge on the dock icon.

This would work in a similar fasion as growl, although hopefully the developer wouldn't even have to implement it.

Version numbers were just one of the ideas it could be used for. If you hate that idea, don't use it. Other ideas could be:

The number of tabs open in Safari
The number of Finder windows open
iCal alarms and iCal timers
Time information in iTunes, VLC, DVD Player, etc...
Number of open documents in apps like BBedit, Textedit, Photoshop, etc...
Number of open connections in Transmit
Number of files being downloaded by BT
And so on...

I think it has already been understood that the version number option would probably be the least used, but obviously at least one person would use it. Lets talk more about badges as an idea in general and less about version numbers.

BRAVO! Well said! The reason I thought of the Badge idea is becaues I like how mail tells you how many messages you have un-read... and also, Audion has a timer (not a badge, but an animated icon). Maybe you guys are right though... It's probably a lost cause, because the Apps that do usually need it... already have it, ie: Mail and... other stuff...

Now that I think about it... I probably wouldn't wanna see all my icons have little red badges on them anyways... How did I ever come up with such a stupid idea?

Fat7at · Jan 18, 2005, 11:43 PM

isn't Toast doing this , showing a progess bar under the icon in the dock when you burn?

ender2002 · Jan 19, 2005, 01:41 AM

fix your fat sig!

goMac · Jan 19, 2005, 02:44 PM

Originally posted by RevEvs:
also, when tiger arrives, hopefully this will be unnecessary, as every developer (well, probs not but i can dream!) will use the OS's Software Update mechanism to update their apps, and keep us informed of updates.

revs

Tiger does not allow devs to do this. It does allow system administrators to control which Apple software updates are available, but nothing past that.

At least thats the last I've been told since wwdc.

ArcticBear · Jan 21, 2005, 01:30 PM

Just an update:

I was playing with DragThing settings yesterday and noticed that not only can I append version numbers they can also appear as a badge on the icon. So as for possibility of putting this and other information in badges: yes, it is quite possible.