DP4 questions?

[fatblackcat]

Hi

Anybody used DP4 yet? How much does it differ from 3? I see, from Apples screen shots, that that daft Apple icon is there, although it doesn't seem to be in the ie5/Appleworks shots...

So how's the new dock work then? Is it: apps on the right, minimised stuff/aliases on the left? What about, in Apple's dock vid, when a file is dragged to the desktop it disappears? What does that mean?

I take it that now the application menu is text based the rest of the menus move around a bit depending on the length of the app name- is that good ui design?

I don't mean to nitpick (it is getting tiring especially seeing that we've 7-8 months until the final release) but it seems that this constant interest is having some effect; Apple seem to be listening. This is really encouraging. Lets hope that they carry on so that when OSX is finally released it'll be damn near perfect.

keep up the good work- lets leave those Wintel people in the dust!

Chris

[Orbit]

DP4 is a great improvement over DP3.

-The Apple icon is still there, although the menu items which used to go around it now overtake it completely so it just disappears when there's a menu competing for the same space. It's still dumb and useless, but now it's dumb, useless, and not in the way.

-The new dock is arranged with applications on the left side and documents/minimized windows on the right. An ellipsis appears beneath applications which are running. I thought this would be hard to see at first but it's actually surprisingly visible and works really well.

-Yeah, the application menu is text based, and Apple states in their UI guidelines that the name which appears in the menu must be below a certain length. This does make other menus move around a bit, but it's really a non-issue.. you can see where the file menu is and it doesn't change when you're inside an application. You're not accidentally going to click a menu because something else was there before it, just like you don't mix up menus now when switching between applications w/ different menu sets.

-Performance across the board is greatly improved- the genie effect is much more fluid and the aqua metrics aren't as lame as in DP3. Apple has redesigned the icons for all their apps which are included with this release, and whoever is doing these icons is doing a VERY NICE job. They simply look beautiful, and the way they animate when going into and out of the dock is really really nice looking. The whole thing looks polished, and we're still months away.

[Danoir]

Orbit, I realize you have been asked this by others, but could you post some DP4 shots? I do not have the ability to get DP4 and am extreemly interested in seeing some of what you get to enjoy. Thanks

[Orbit]

I'll provide shots if someone is willing to host them. I don't want to host them on any web space I have... I remember what happened to all the major sites last time that happened.

e-mail me at: [email protected] if anyone has the space!

[Hawkeye_a]

is the DP4 availabe at apple.com. im a registered developer, and would like to preview it.

[Orbit]

If you're registered developer, w/ the ADC Select or Premier package, then you should know how to get it. If not, it's not available at Apple.com and you'll have to be resourceful.

[buserror_uk]

Well, us ADC member with a seed key will receive it directly next week, or the week after that....
Most of the people posting here got it from Hotline. You can actualy detect easily wich one is wich by imagining some of those posting here going to WWDC.