things not announced at MW

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iRock

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I was looking around on apples mac os x section and noticed some new additions that steve didn't mention in his keynote address

first off there is a button in the upper right hand corner of each window, check it out at http://www.apple.com/macosx/usingosx/communication.html

I'm thinking the window shade function has returned!

Also on that page you can see that the mail.app has changed quite a bit as far as the preferences go. I'd be willing to bet the support for multiple mail accounts is much better than in the public beta (namely sending mail from different accounts).

Instead of allowing an admin to enable telnet access to the computer it has been replaced by ssh in the sharing preferences as seen at
http://www.apple.com/macosx/usingosx/preferences.html

crazy stuff, i'm dieing to see what else they have done to applications, like the address book...i guess we'll have to wait and see :)
 
though not related to os x (i figure this is the general discussion) 9.1 was also released just thought i'd throw that in there too since it wasn't addressed by steve either
 
I think the right button is actually only for windows that have a toolbar along the top, for opening or closing the toolbar. If you look around, some of the windows have the the button, some don't. I hear, though I don't know, not having recent developers' builds, that that is what the button does.

Personally, I hope you're right though, window-shade would be much more useful, and is a great feature of the Mac OS over Windoze and many Unix window managers.
 
I don't think it's windowshade (at least it's not in the Finder). It's the button that shows/hides the "shelf" and navigation features for finder windows. Once the features are hidden, opening a folder opens a new window ala OS 9.

Not sure how it will function inside an app, though. Maybe it hides that mail toolbar just below the window title?

I'm glad they put SSH in there instead of telnet. The thought of thousands of instantly-enabled non-secure telnet clients was a bit scary!

Also notice on the overall preferences shot that there's NO "Click here to allow changes" (or whatever it reads) button at the bottom of the screen. Looks like once you login, you can change what you like.

-rob.
 
As far as the pill-shaped button at the top right of the windows:

this movie (about 700k) demonstrates its dual functions.
1) It toggles the toolbar.
2) It toggles "new window on double click" vs. "browse in single window."

Err what? One button for two functions? Might as well chuck the UI guideline out the window! Apparently "toolbar exposed" means "single-window browsing" and "no toolbar" means "open new window each time."

I can see some small amount of logic behind this, but still, it seems entirely preposterous and terribly confusing to forcably link these two separate user choices. Hopefully they'll fix this.

Also, from Apple's screenshots, the pill only appears to be implemented in the title bars of apps that have specific toolbars to hide. Having a variable element in something that is supposed to be static (the title bar) just spells trouble for me. And it also seems that this might make problems for presenting a consistent interface oover the OS, including 3rd party apps -- will only toolbars generated with cocca get the widget automatically? Will carbon programmers be able to force a window to have that widget? If so, can they link it to whatever else they please, just like Apple did in having it also toggle the "browser mode"? This spells confusion.

But that's just my two bits. I'm tremendously excited about everything else.

Zach
 
my bad about the oblong button on the right, i just saw it and jumped to the conclusion it was a window shade. I looked at all the stuff you guys put up and you're right.

hmm, yeah, that button is quite strange, the more i think about it the less i like it. I'd really like to have more flexibility. I guess on a positive note we have a little while before it released...if it shows up in their feedback significantly maybe things will be good
 
The way I see it the lozenge-thingie toggles finder windows between "Browser-mode" and "Container-mode." The toolbar mainly has navigation buttons that make no sense if 1 window == 1 folder, so I don't see the linking of the 2 functions as a big problem. The only thing missing would be the path menu, and that could presumably be brought back to cmd-click on the titlebar.

The main issue I have is whether it should be there at all.. Like single-window mode, most people would probably just choose 1 way and stick with it, so a finder preference would be a more appropriate place for the setting.

As for what apps will do with it, there are a ton of these issues with X... only time and guidelines by apple will tell.

[Edited by endian on 01-09-2001 at 07:38 PM]
 
To endian:

I see the logic behind the losenge button's two functions, but I don't agree.

1) Not only the "path" button but also the "view" buttons are useful regardless of windowing mode.

2) A shortcut to open a folder in a new window is just as useful as a shortcut to open it in the same one.

3) Using "option-double-click" to toggle the windowing mode is far more elegant than having to click a doofus little button, watch a doofus little animation, do whateveryou wanted to do, and then click the doofus button again. I certainly hope Apple hasn't removed the option trick in favor of the oval button. (The only flaw I saw with the option method was the fact that option-clicking the "back" button, or any other toolbar button, or an icon in column view, does not open it in a new window.)

I'm preimptively asking Apple to decouple the functions of that button. I have plenty of uses for a full toolbar in a multiple-windows mode.

Zach
 
i think apple intended the button to be used by users familiar with the old mac os and who don't care to change their ways. In that realm i see it as a good thing.

However, i do not like that the button serves two purposes. Unless apple throwns in some odd preferences somewhere it will impose limitations on more advanced users. It also pushes developers to conform to their style in which windows with tool bars should not open new windows, or windows with no tool bar should open in a new window.
 
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