Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

sandsl · 07:43 PM

'wvous'
I've just discovered a dock feature which I don't think has been mentioned before. Its called 'wvous' and basically its a blue aqua blob which you can move around to anywhere on your screen - it hovers above everything else.

One click on the blue aqua blob and, on Panther, expos� kicks in:

I can't see the use myself, seems to just be a replacement for hot corners.

Try it yourself by adding the following to your dock preferences (~/library/preferences/com.apple.dock.plist) and restart the dock.

Code:
<key>wvous-floater</key>
<true/>

Prehaps someone could shed some light on wvous and the purpose of the wvous floater?

drnkn_stylz · Oct 9, 2003, 07:19 PM

That's really cool, except having a big aqua blob on my screen all the time would annoy me in about 30 seconds.

sandsl · Oct 9, 2003, 07:36 PM

Its pretty cool...fades in when your mouse goes over it and fades out when your mouse leaves...

Its too big though and offers no usable advantage over hot corners.

Geobunny · Oct 9, 2003, 07:37 PM

Can you use various modifier keys when you click to toggle Application Windows, All Windows and Desktop?

sandsl · Oct 9, 2003, 07:42 PM

Originally posted by Geobunny:
Can you use various modifier keys when you click to toggle Application Windows, All Windows and Desktop?

Yes.
Hold option-and-click = expos� all windows
Hold shift-and-click = expos� slow motion.

(This is on Panther and with my hot corner settings so it may be different for you).

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Oct 9, 2003, 08:13 PM

perhaps it was just something they used for development.

clebin · Oct 9, 2003, 08:18 PM

Certainly looks like it - the lack of marking on the blob looks rather development-y.

Maybe someone will find this useful, but happily Expose is pretty much perfect already.

Chris

sandsl · Oct 9, 2003, 08:21 PM

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
perhaps it was just something they used for development.

Surely this isn't just for development - what possible developmental reason would there be for a fading, movable aqua blob which activates expos� (or a screensaver on 10.2)?

I'm guessing it was originally intended to be a 'feature' and then was pulled. Seems strange because you'd think they'd remove it from the code though. Its been around since 10.2 as far as I know.

The dock obviously hasn't had alot of attention recently.

barbarian · Oct 9, 2003, 08:59 PM

seems like a developmental thing to me...not much use for it... I'll bet it's only a matter of time before people start putting expose triggers all over the place...

On my big screen I like the corners... on my small crowded screens it might be better to have a menu bar item or something...

I hate keystrokes... too many in my head already. I also lik the idea of those extra mousebuttons on my intellemouse....

TheDisaster · Oct 9, 2003, 10:49 PM

You can slide it under the menu bar too... I thought that was sacred territory...

Earth Mk. II · Oct 9, 2003, 10:58 PM

Originally posted by sandsl:
Surely this isn't just for development - what possible developmental reason would there be for a fading, movable aqua blob which activates expos� (or a screensaver on 10.2)?

Developers + (Free Time or Exhaustion) + (Beer or Caffeine) - Social Life = Weird Features

Gul Banana · Oct 10, 2003, 12:09 AM

It doesn't appear for me:/

calepeeples · Oct 10, 2003, 12:12 AM

Maybe it's for some type of touch-screen application?

iDriveX · Oct 10, 2003, 12:15 AM

Originally posted by calepeeples:
Maybe it's for some type of touch-screen application?

Bingo!

sandsl · Oct 10, 2003, 02:44 AM

Originally posted by calepeeples:
Maybe it's for some type of touch-screen application?

Yeh that sounds about right!

lngtones · Oct 10, 2003, 03:37 AM

Can I ask how you discovered this?

sandsl · Oct 10, 2003, 08:55 AM

Originally posted by lngtones:
Can I ask how you discovered this?

I discovered this by digging around in the dock application, looking at the resources (and the unused resource) and looking at the mach-o app itself in BBEdit.

JLL · Oct 10, 2003, 09:53 AM

Why are there Expos� features in the Dock application?

Eug · Oct 10, 2003, 09:54 AM

It'd be nice to have an Expose icon in the dock actually. Not necessarily better or worse than hot corners, but different enough that some people might prefer it.

xi_hyperon · Oct 10, 2003, 10:15 AM

There is no dock.plist in any of my preferences folders. The only thing close to this is something called "apple.com.dockfixup.plist".

Thor · Oct 10, 2003, 10:28 AM

There is no dock.plist in any of my preferences folders. The only thing close to this is something called "apple.com.dockfixup.plist"

Sounds like you've had a theme, haxie, or dock modifier (TransparentDock) installed at some point.

Adam Betts · Oct 10, 2003, 12:13 PM

I've been using this feature for a full day and I can say that it's faster to toggle Expos� than using F9-F11 but if you set your 4th, 5th, etc mouse buttons to Expos� then it's quicker for sure.

Adam Betts · Oct 10, 2003, 12:14 PM

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
There is no dock.plist in any of my preferences folders. The only thing close to this is something called "apple.com.dockfixup.plist".

Have you tried deleting that file and restart? Dock.app should be able to create new plist.

JKT · Oct 10, 2003, 12:21 PM

Perhaps it was put in place for the lucky few that have huge monitors (where hot corners are not quite so convenient due to the time it takes to mouse to one

).

bonk · Oct 10, 2003, 12:26 PM

It would be nice if you could replace that with your own image, preferably something smaller. Then you could make it an icon of Homer or something, lol.

Adam Betts · Oct 10, 2003, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by bonk:
It would be nice if you could replace that with your own image, preferably something smaller. Then you could make it an icon of Homer or something, lol.

Hehe, you could do that. Go to folder:

System > Library > CoreServices > Dock.app

Open Package Contents then go to:

Contents > Resources

and look for:

wvousfloat.png and wvousfloatselected.png

Replace it with an images of your choice. Make sure it is in the same file name

Always make a backup of Dock.app before doing something like that

lngtones · Oct 10, 2003, 12:54 PM

Originally posted by sandsl:
Surely this isn't just for development - what possible developmental reason would there be for a fading, movable aqua blob which activates expos� (or a screensaver on 10.2)?

I'm guessing it was originally intended to be a 'feature' and then was pulled. Seems strange because you'd think they'd remove it from the code though. Its been around since 10.2 as far as I know.

The dock obviously hasn't had alot of attention recently.

Are you sure this is in 10.2? It's certainly not in mine.

Geobunny · Oct 11, 2003, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by lngtones:
Are you sure this is in 10.2? It's certainly not in mine.

Nor mine

BatmanPPC · Oct 11, 2003, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
There is no dock.plist in any of my preferences folders. The only thing close to this is something called "apple.com.dockfixup.plist".

you're looking in the wrong preferences folder. Look in the one under your home directory .. not /Library/Preferences

BZ · Oct 11, 2003, 11:15 AM

I think it is for tablet users...

They can have the "big floating blob" and hit it with their pen to activate expose.

BZ

Xeo · Oct 11, 2003, 11:28 AM

Originally posted by BZ:
I think it is for tablet users...

They can have the "big floating blob" and hit it with their pen to activate expose.

BZ

Would be nice if that means something cool is coming out from Apple.

Lecynique · Oct 25, 2003, 08:47 AM

Funny but really useless, already got hotcorners.

Phoenix1701 · Oct 26, 2003, 11:20 PM

Got hot-corners, eh? Then try this one instead:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-showcorners -bool true

Then log back in and see what happens.

Also, there's this:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-olddesktop -bool false

This causes F11/show desktop to stuff all the windows into a little draggable picture-in-picture box on your desktop instead of throwing them offscreen. But be warned - on my machine, although this looks really cool, it also freezes the system, hard. Don't say I didn't warn ya, though it seems to work for some people based on the hint at http://www.macosxhints.com.

Moonray · Nov 7, 2003, 05:53 PM

Hey, it's nothing else than some leftover debug code they didn't remove after they used it for testing of Dock and Expos� features.

-

Link · Nov 7, 2003, 06:54 PM

Phoenix: for me, that picture-in picture thing works, BUT...

It makes a nice amount of screen un-clickable. Sure I can drag a window into that area and everything is still fine, but you can't CLICK ANYTHING in that area!!

It sucks.. so going back to no PIP mode works better

lol

CIA · Nov 7, 2003, 07:14 PM

Useless for now, but touchscreen possibilities..... I wonder how many other touchscreen specific things are hidden away in the panther and jag code? Throw some fuel on the Apple Tablet rumor fires......

Macfreak7 · Nov 7, 2003, 09:29 PM

Originally posted by calepeeples:
Maybe it's for some type of touch-screen application?

AAAHH the implication of that thought makes my boxers wet!