Some changes for 10.3

Arden

Arden

Where mah "any" keys at?
I have here a list of changes I have thought of that would make Mac OS X even better. Some of them will probably happen, some of them may happen, and some probably won't happen. Some may even already have been implemented (don't tell me if they have, I don't want to go back and remove items from the list, just add to it). Feel free to suggest your own changes as well.

If you want further explanation of one of my suggestions, tell me and I'll go into proper details.


1. Auto start-up & shut down-simple & advanced schedules
2. Toggle between brushed metal & Aqua
3. Themes
4. More color schemes
5. Theme editor
6. Expanded sound sets
7. OS 9-like window stacking
8. Reordering of System Prefs
9. Customizable key combos
10. More overall customization
11. Controllable scroll speeds
12. Optional side-by-side panes of multiple get info windows
13. Applications/task menu
14. Dock on/off toggle (not just show/hide)
15. Better open/save navigation (default folders, favorites, recent items, etc.)
16. Better Dock information-current app, hidden apps, frozen apps, etc.
17. Better control of Classic for limited users
18. Way to change computer owner
19. More contextual menu options
20. Full manual on UNIX
21. Toggle between minimize & window shade effects
22. Better font choosing (simple menu or font inspector)
23. Show/hide Dock background
24. Changeable menu font, icons, cursors
25. More interesting pointer
26. Move Trash between Dock & Desktop option
27. More optimization for Carbon appliations
28. Wait to notify about needing attention
29. Screenshot format option
30. Can change Cmd-N function in Finder
31. Secure sleep
 
Just a thought, but you could break your list up into a few sections. I've had a go at this, and got it started. I've also rephrased or commented on a few.

Enhancements to Appearance/Themes
2. Toggle between brushed metal & Aqua
3. Themes
4. More color schemes
5. Theme editor Yes, 3,4 and 5 are the same!
6. Expanded sound sets
7. OS 9-like window stacking ???
10. More overall customization see 3,4 and 5.
24. Changeable menu font, icons, cursors Already there, already there ... except for cursors
25. More interesting pointer Rumors have it the new pointer will be a hot-ninja-chick who can read minds... I'll settle for an arrow for now!
21. Toggle between minimize & window shade effects Why would you want to "Shade" your window? I've seen this in lots of Unix GUIs but never seen the point.

Enhancements to power management and sleep
1. Auto start-up & shut down-simple & advanced schedules I'd call this Scheduled Start and Shut Down. Since I never shut down my Mac, I won't notice anyway.
31. Secure sleep YES!

Dock Enhancements
16. Better Dock information-current app, hidden apps, frozen apps, etc. Frozen apps?
23. Show/hide Dock background
14. Dock on/off toggle (not just show/hide) For the love of all things that make sense, why?
26. Move Trash between Dock & Desktop option Why not just have an option to put Trash on the desktop? Having it in the Dock is useful.

29. Screenshot format option Well, yes. This is a hidden option that shouldn't have been hidden.
8. Reordering of System Prefs It seems fine to me, since the 10.2 re-shuffle.
9. Customizable key combos

11. Controllable scroll speeds Already got it, in Appearance prefpane.
12. Optional side-by-side panes of multiple get info windows Err, you already have multiple Get Info windows. You can put them side by side, if that floats your boat. Where's the problem?
13. Applications/task menu We've got that. Right now mine is labelled "Safari". ;-)
15. Better open/save navigation (default folders, favorites, recent items, etc.) I'd like to be able to create folders in the save dialog, for one...
17. Better control of Classic for limited users
18. Way to change computer owner See the network prefpane! Its already there!
19. More contextual menu options Like what? What else could you want to do to a file?
20. Full manual on UNIX Already there! Full man pages are in place already.
22. Better font choosing (simple menu or font inspector) Hoo yes!
27. More optimization for Carbon appliations
28. Wait to notify about needing attention.
30. Can change Cmd-N function in Finder You already can do this. See Finder Preferences.
 
Window Shade is coming from Mac OS 7.5, 8 through 9 (and was a shareware before, and is again now...?).

It's incredibly more useful than minimizing in the Dock for example for Photoshop work. Open five files and you minimize them. Okay, you see what they look like - but not if the Dock's too small AND the mouse-way down to the Dock is too far.

Minimize in place, which was in early betas of Jaguar (6C48, I believe) would be a very good alternative.
 
Originally posted by arden
7. OS 9-like window stacking[/B]
Click to expand...

This will never happen, I hope, unless it's available as a preference setting. OS X's window layering is so much more flexible than OS 9's. And if you really want all of an applications windows to come to the front, you can do it with the Window menu or by clicking on the dock icon.

Chris
 
A lot of these you can do with third party apps...I'm sure you're meaning you want Apple to implement them, but they are available...

Reordering of System Prefs - you mean the actual placement of the pref panes when you open System Preferences? You can actually do this if you really want to - edit /Applications/System Preferences/Contents/Resources/NSPrefPaneGroups.plist to your heart's content. Just know that this file gets overwritten if System Preferences gets updated (so make a backup).

You can get the Dock to show hidden apps - it'll show them semi-transparent. Either type defaults write com.apple.dock "showhidden" -bool true in the terminal, or edit the com.apple.dock.plist file and add this in that way.

Full UNIX manual - umm...there are probably only a handful of people who actually 100% understand everything in UNIX. Stick to the man pages as symphonix said - they'll help you out with the commands you actually use.

...and like I said, there are third party apps to do most everything else on your list.
 
Must say: Both behaviours have advantages and disadvantages... This would usually lead me to a statement like: "Make it a user preference."

But in this case... Mac OS X has been around for two years, and I think that most users are okay with the layering. If you're not, there are some utilities that change it, afaik.

ASM 2.1b1 (Shareware)
X-Assist 0.5.1 (Freeware)
 
Is already there, you activate it through a menu in keychain access... But I think that you should be able to tell your computer when to wake up from sleep to do something important, like say I want to copy a file to a backup every night at 3am when Im asleep, I could just sleep the computer and it would wake up at three and then go back to sleep when it got finished, that would be very nice.
 
15. Better open/save navigation (default folders, favorites, recent items, etc.)

This to me is one of the more important ones. For instance I use the terminal a lot, and I usually have one black on white and one white on black version of it open. The default is black text on a white background but to open up the preference I've saved I have to wade through the filesystem.

This might be acceptable once, but once I've waded through it should remember where I last opened a file from.
 
Originally posted by mr. K
Is already there, you activate it through a menu in keychain access...
Click to expand...
That's not the same thing. Secure sleep would rather be that you need to enter a password when waking the machine up. However, you can achieve that with the screensaver. Just create a hotspot and activate the screensaver before closing the lid of your 'Book.
 
Indeed a lot of these feature can be enabled by editing the Defaults list or other config files, but they would make good "advanced" options for the next release. I'll see if I can post some here ... got to to check them out first ...

Something I would like a lot would be sloppy focus, i.e. switch active windows just by pointing.
 
Heh, wish they would do that too, but they won't, because it's not how people used to using Mac OS are used to the windows behaving.

I do have my X11 setup that way, though ;)
 
Originally posted by Cat
Something I would like a lot would be sloppy focus, i.e. switch active windows just by pointing.
Click to expand...
I think that would be too distracting for the most part.

In general, yes, I know many of these functions can be done via third-party means (my iMac has Tinkertool), but I would like to see them implemented natively, without the need for extra stuff that could potentially cause problems (not that it will, but it could).

A breakdown of my original list, this time organized with Symphonix's structure:

Enhancements to Appearance/Themes
2. Toggle between brushed metal & Aqua: The metal look is nice for some things (iTunes, Quicktime maybe), but it should be an option.
3. Themes: How do you implement these? I honestly don't know. In 9 it's so easy.
4. More color schemes: Aqua and Graphite only feels rather limited.
5. Theme editor: This should be built into the OS, to go along with #10.
6. Expanded sound sets: Sure, the trash makes a sound on emptying, but the Finder doesn't do anything else.
7. OS 9-like window stacking: I prefer all of an application's windows to come to the front, at least in front of the application I just left. This would mean when I click on the desktop in, say, Textedit, my hard drive window appears, even if inactive.
10. More overall customization: 9 is so easy to customize, X should be like that, but built in. Maybe an Aqua Edit application?
24. Changeable menu font, icons, cursors: Yes, I know there are workarounds, but I think the system should have options to change this built in, rather than use something like Tinkertool or muck around in text files and Resedit.
25. More interesting pointer: Everything else got an Aqua look, even the watch (which I changed to an actual watch), why not the cursor? And I mean a simple solution.
21. Toggle between minimize & window shade effects: The window shade effect is incredibly useful for quickly glancing behind the active window and going back to work. That's how I put in all my comments on the Macosx.com chat program icon poll: in IE 5.1, I flipped the front window to study the icon, then flipped it back to write without losing my place.

Enhancements to power management and sleep
1. Auto start-up & shut down-simple & advanced schedules: 9 has it, why doesn't X? Does it have to do with UNIX security and whatever, like you have to sign in and whatnot? This could still be applied to sleeping.
31. Secure sleep: This means that when my computer falls asleep, it won't wake up unless I put in my admin password. If this happens through the keychain, I sure as hell don't know about it. It really shouldn't have to.

Dock Enhancements
16. Better Dock information-current app, hidden apps, frozen apps, etc.: Ok, here's the way it is now: when an application is in your Dock, you can click on it to launch it. Fine. When an application is active, it is in the Dock with a small black arrow underneath it. That's fine and dandy, except it doesn't say anything except that the app is running. I think the arrow should tell you something about the app: If it's the current app, it should have a green arrow beneath it; if the app is hidden, it should have a white silhouette arrow; if it's frozen and not responding, it should have a red arrow. I like Tinkertool's method of turning the icon transparent, but again I think the OS should include most if not all of Tinkertool's functionality inherently.
23. Show/hide Dock background: Wouldn't you like floating icons at the bottom of your screen? (And how do you do that grass thing? That was interesting.)
14. Dock on/off toggle (not just show/hide): This comes in particurly usefully in Classic. For example, in Fear (the tag editor for Myth II-arguably one of the best games ever), much of the normal operation involves long lists. When I scroll to the bottom of a list, the Dock often appears because the list is at the bottom of the window. Further, the Dock could have an option to not pop up in certain applications, but be always visible in others and pop up when necessary in still others. Hiding shouldn't be universal; I like the Dock visible all the time in the Finder, but not in Explorer as it limits the amount of screen space I have for my windows.
26. Move Trash between Dock & Desktop option: This should be an option, where you can option-drag the Trash to the Desktop and vice versa, or some such solution.

29. Screenshot format option: So how do you change this? It should be obvious.
8. Reordering of System Prefs: By this, I mean you should be able to Command-drag Preference Panes and sort them as you do favorites in the toolbar. I may, for example, not want all my custom panes to go under "Other".
9. Customizable key combos: This, I think, is fairly obvious as to its usefulness.

11. Controllable scroll speeds: I have not found this option anywhere; there isn't even any Appearance pane in System Preferences. There should be an option in General Preferences to say that when I click the scroll arrow, it scrolls at 1 line every second, or every half-second, or so on.
12. Optional side-by-side panes of multiple get info windows: In 9, when one gets info on multiple files/folders, each pops up its own info window. In X, one window pops up telling the sum size, number of files, etc. of all the items selected. Sometimes, I want to know what size each of a number of files are, and I think each should pop up its own info window plus the summary window (and the same in the Inspector, which is very cool).
13. Applications/task menu: Yeah, the application menu in X is nowhere near the same as in 9. I want a menu that shows me what applications I have running and lets me switch between them as in 9; I know there are shareware alternatives, but I think this should be native.
15. Better open/save navigation (default folders, favorites, recent items, etc.): I think we all agree that these need to be improved. Besides what I listed, it should have a default size, view options (icon, column, list-although I think column view works very well for navigation dialog sheets), new folder, and the ability to manipulate files and folders.
17. Better control of Classic for limited users: I still can't figure out how to get Classic to run for limited users.
18. Way to change computer owner: You may think you can change this in Network Preferences, but you can't change the owner's short name (that I know) without reinstalling the system. Believe me, I tried every way I could think of (my iMac is second-hand).
19. More contextual menu options: In 9, when I control-click on the desktop, a number of items pop up, including View Options. I think X should have more options in its contextual menus, especially when not clicking on a file or folder.
20. Full manual on UNIX: This is probably not necessary; there are plenty of books out there. I just thought Apple should include a UNIX tutorial, but again it's probably not necessary.
22. Better font choosing (simple menu or font inspector): A menu in something like Textedit for choosing a font, size, etc. would be much appreciated. I think the inspector, while not without its uses, is too cumbersome for general use.
27. More optimization for Carbon appliations: This is an ongoing process, I s'pose.
28. Wait to notify about needing attention: I like the fact that the system will tell me that an application needs my attention, but I don't want it to tell me immediately; it should wait like it does when an alert pops up.
30. Can change Cmd-N function in Finder: This should have the option of making a new window or a new folder.

I know many of these options are available through third parties, but my point in this list is that the next major version of X should include most if not all of these features natively. I want these features to be available to everyone, not just those who know how to hack their system files or have an Internet connection (my dad won't let me route our DSL room into my room, so my iMac is mostly alone). I'm lazy enough that downloading something on one computer and transferring it to another is a hassle, I'd like these functions and features without having to transfer them between computers or hunt through Mac Addict Discs.

Again, these are my opinions and suggestions, and many of theme are suggested to be options rather than forced. I don't think anyone should be forced to do something they don't want to do, and the same goes for using a computer. If you don't like it, you should be able to change it. If you disagree with anything, fine, don't set it that way. That's simply my opinion.

EDIT: I decided to make my comments a different color so they're easier to distinguish from the suggestions. If not for Word, this would've taken a while :)
 
I completely agree with you that Apple would do well to make some of the natively built in features more accessible, i.e. without the terminal. Probably though, some of these already built in features were thought unneccesary or even harmful to the common user, like the "show hidden files" in the Finder. Tinkering with them should be done with care: experts only. Others are quite harmless, like the Dock options you mentioned. Well, they are built in, you only need to turn them on. If you don't always trust third-party utilities, turn them on yourself, via the Terminal.

If you run [man defaults] (without brackets obviously) you will get info on what these default settings are and mean. If you run [defaults read com.apple.finder] you'll get a long list of all kinds of finder settings. E.g. the setting "AppleShowAllFiles" normally is set to "NO". By entering [defaults write com.apple.finder "AppleShowAllFiles" 'YES'], you will be able to view all the hidden system files in the Finder. Entering [defaults write com.apple.finder "AppleShowAllFiles" 'NO'] will toggle this setting back. Likewise for many other settings.

My point is, some of your sugggestions are already available, but maybe intentionally only to more expert users. You're not hacking the OS, just changing settings, that can quite safely been toggled. A lot of settings can be already changed, they just don't have a nice GUI to do so. ;)

Oh, BTW. sloppy focus should always only be an option ... but it should be an available option!
 
- possibility to minimize it all - make it clean and fast! (no bouncing fancy icons or animations)
- themes change with a few clicks (maybe some new metal shades? aqua, gold, silver, metal freen?) for all cocoa apps
- make sendmail configuration guide (for mutt etc. users) etc. similar guides for the unix freaks
- the 'defaults write screenshot format' was allowed to change in 10.1; it would be nice to have back (i don't mind using it from terminal)
- better guides online!! meaning especially the things that can be done with terminal. all that is needed to make a classic or a pc user to become a *x user and not be scared of the terminal.
- possibility to make it faster than 10.2 (with minimal settings)
 
Originally posted by Giaguara
- possibility to minimize it all - make it clean and fast! (no bouncing fancy icons or animations)
- themes change with a few clicks (maybe some new metal shades? aqua, gold, silver, metal freen?) for all cocoa apps
- make sendmail configuration guide (for mutt etc. users) etc. similar guides for the unix freaks
- the 'defaults write screenshot format' was allowed to change in 10.1; it would be nice to have back (i don't mind using it from terminal)
- better guides online!! meaning especially the things that can be done with terminal. all that is needed to make a classic or a pc user to become a *x user and not be scared of the terminal.
- possibility to make it faster than 10.2 (with minimal settings)
Click to expand...
Faster with less fiddling... you can use the Terminal for window buffering and packet settings, but these should be features, not hidden from sight.

Thank you for submitting suggestions of your own! I've been waiting for someone to do this, but everyone's been content to criticize my own suggestions. Someone who can actually think for him/herself!
 
Thanks. :)

It's not actually easy to invent what to want more because in so many things it feels already so good. I notice I'm a unix lover so ... If I can do most of the things I can do also frome terminal i'll be just happy :D .. but it should be optional.
Anything that a normal user needs should be stil accessible with gui, so ... something that a non - english speaking grandmother who is over 70 and non tech, can still use. :)

Oh;

- Improved terminal (mouse!!)

- Transparency to console (even to switch it on from terminal)

- Transparencies optionally to other apple cocoa apps as well. (Without hacking the core by user then) .. some friends would like transparent backgrounds on iTunes and iChat.

- iChat supporting ICQ and optionally msn and yim. (they are supported, i had a look on package contents). Also the microphone and webcam features enabled finally.. ;) Adium users are not seen if you are using .mac account in ichat - i would like to see them so i dont have to be logged in adium

- Mail.app : the possibility to add manually X-headers. X-Message-Flags, X-Cuse-Me, X-Plain, X-Presso. This is asked by the little anti-M$ and anti-Outlook daemon in me. (Or just tell me how to add some of those headers in mail.app, even from terminal)

- Installation: ALL languages NOT default. Now it is, and for most users it is unnecessary waste of space. (I would leave 2 languages to install, and not install all and remove all but 2 after)

- Finder and trash icosn changeable without external software. Trash faster to empty - now I empty in practically from terminal.

- Safari -I assume the 10.3 will contain a new release of it- : tabs, functionality with Woltlab pages, speed (tabs, and faster than Camino or I don't use it).

- Text editor: ability to save also in other formats, such as .html, .php, .js, .plist

... more one other day
 
1)Remember the size of the windows.
2) WindowShade and more custom options are always welcome.
Those are my additions to those mentioned.
 
My 10.2 Finder installation does remember the size and position of windows. All you have to do is close the toolbar and use icon view. Voila! The Finder will be just like 9!
 
Originally posted by Giaguara
- Transparencies optionally to other apple cocoa apps as well. (Without hacking the core by user then) .. some friends would like transparent backgrounds on iTunes and iChat.
Click to expand...
Imagine... iTunes blasting, 50% transparent, playing a funky tune with the visuals on full screen, over a DVD playing full screen... fuel for the ultimate drug trip. ;)

Powermac: what kind of trouble do you have with the Finder not remembering your window positions?

That's another thing: When I double click on a folder icon that's already open, I'd like it to switch to that open window rather than open a new window.
 
The finder remembers the position of the window from last time. The size of the window is my concern. Here is mine explaination. The application folder-> When I go to the folder, it is often a quarter the size. I can either scroll down to get apps toward the bottom or resize (maximize). If I maximize the window enlarges and I don't have to scroll down. I close the window and return to the Application folder, it has returned to it smaller size, I have to repeat it over (either scroll or maximize). If I use the go menu, and type Applications, the window appears maximized all ready.
Just a small knit-pick, one I would like to see fixed.
 
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