Virtual Desktops...what do you want?

whitesaint

whitesaint

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If a developer were to make virtual desktops, what would you, as a consumer want in it? How much would you want the developer to charge for it? Does anyone know if anyone is working on a virtual desktop application? How many of you actually want virtual desktops for Mac OS X?

When saying what you want in it, please be specific. Thanks.

-whitesaint
 
rinse, what do you mean "virtual docks"...?

fiznutz, virtspace isn't for OS X, but it is for NexTStep so I imagine it'd be insanely easy to port it over.
 
Apple and Nyro had a press release ages ago that said that Apple has asked Nyro to port their "Award Winning" VirtSpace to Mac OS X.

However that was ages ago, and I haven't heard anything about it since?!??!

I would kill for Virtual desktops in Os X. What I would really want in a product though, are the following:

1: It shouldn't have a dock icon!! Instead it should have a MenuExtra (like clock). If it does have a dock icon, it should have some use, like showing current windows positions.

2: Support for different background images for each desktop.

3: It would be really nice if it was open source. but I would support and pay for a commercial product.

4: It's preferences should be in the System preferences

5: The paging tool (the window that shows a snapshot of all desktops) should be as compact as posible. I don't think it should have a full sized title bar. Instead it could have one of the those windows with a mini-title bar - or even have a non standard look and feel - like iTunes. I really like the way that iTunes can be miniterized to a compact information packed window.

Bascially I'm trying to say that I think it should feel like it's built into the OS. To do this it might have to use some of the OS only areas - like the menu bar. VirtSpace for Windows feels like a third party app, and that's one reason it can never compare to something like XWindows, where Virtual Desktops are built in.
 
By "virtual docks" i mean a separate dock for each virtual desktop...

that way you could have a desktop for Video Editing, one for Web Dev, one for Design and one for general computing.... all of the apps and folders I use for each of the tasks is vastly different and with separate docks for each task... I could minimize the amount of clutter in the dock.

at the same time, there should be an option to replicate one dock across all desktops.
 
I'm sure this could be programming by using an interface similar to space.dock, dockswap and changedesktop :)
Maybe I should try... :-p
 
virtual desktops would be great. I aggree that there would need to be the option of having different docks as well as the same dock. All you minimized windows in one of the docks would be gone in another, however.
 
For each virtual desktop, and graphical representation of it should be in the dock, with an icon that updates whenever that desktop is changed. Much like it's linux equivalent. I want to be able to see what's on each desktop graphically in my dock. thank you
 
adambyte, i dont mean to show disrespect or anything, but i am really against the idea that graphical representations of each desktop should be in the dock. Does anybody else think this is a good idea? IMO it's horrible...

Ksuther - Are you going to steal all those peoples' work and all that source code? Are you going to make Virtual Desktops for Mac OS X? Remember, if you're using those, you have to make it freeware :D

-whitesaint
 
Alright, well, other people may have their opinions... but if I simply wanted a plain ol' virtual desktop switcher, I'd be just fine with "Space Dock" (find it on versiontracker.com)... I know some people would consider it a waste of dock space, but thumbnails can help you visually identify stuff. Or is it just me?
 
I agree with adambyte... but not in the dock... Do a menuling that pops down into a little "boxy" menu that has graphical representations of the desktops... just like little borders to show windows and stuff.

In a perfect world, it would be like that, but when you rolled over the picture of the desstops, a little tooltip like thng would pop up saying what windows were active etc.

I think that all docks should be global, however, there should be an option for MULTIPLE Docks.

Also erm, the diff desktops should be able to have diff background piccies too.

Just my $0.02
 
virtual desktops must show a minimized representation of the window arrangements in the dock or a separate window, as it helps your mind graphically to choose the right one. i also like gnustep's implementation. the almost-non-functional finder icon in the dock could take the switch-desktops function of gnustep.
 
I played around with a program called Virtual under 8.x and 9.x, what it had was a floating, repositionable window with a two by two screen representation of the virtual space...
 
Okay, well what about the number of desktops. In my opinion 1 Extra Desktop is enough. What do you guys think? I'm sure ksuther can program up to 30 or 40 different desktops.:D

Hail Jesus,
-whitesaint
 
There was a program for OS 8/9 called, simply enough, Virtual Desktop. I really liked the model that that program used - there was only one virtual desktop, which was larger than the physical screen. So, like a small browser window showing a large web page, you scrolled around the desktop, moving your 'view' onto that part of the virtual space (there were scroll bars at the bottom and right of the actual screen; I think you could choose where they should be).

What I found especially good about that way of seeing virtual desktops was that you weren't limited to fixed desktop views - you could look at a spot halfway between desktops, and so on.

For the more 'classic' sort of operation, you could set clickable shortcuts to particular regions of the desktop space. To get the overview, there was a way to sort of zoom out and see the whole picture, and then you could drag windows around the space, move icons to different spots, and so on.
 
I guess I forgot the name, assuming we are talking about the same thing. Anyway, you beat me to it, cloudnine ;)
 
Virtual desktops would be great, mabye Apple should just include it in 10.2

I agree putting representations of the other desktops in the dock would be annoying and wasteful of dock space, perhaps a added menu on the right (like the airport, sound, etc. are) with a list of your desktops would be a viable solution for switching.

I already have virtual desktops in my XWindows environment with the Blackbox window manager, it's quite nice for running multiple XWindows progs as is and keeping them all seperated to avoid confusion of what window belongs to what. :)
 
whitesaint, if you can make one, you can make forty just as easily :)
That being said, how do you make one? :confused:
hehe. Maybe if I feel especially satanical and want to lose lots of brain cells, I'll undergo a project like this :)
 
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