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View Full Version : Minimize vs Hide (Potentially Dumb Question)


NovaScotian
02-12-2005, 05:53 PM
For an application with a single window open is there any practical difference between minimizing the window (clicking the yellow button) and hiding the application (Command-H) aside from putting a window icon in the dock?

acme.mail.order
02-12-2005, 07:42 PM
is there any practical difference?
f'o sure, b'y! When you minimize a window, the menu bar stays up. When you hide, it doesn't.

NovaScotian
02-12-2005, 08:01 PM
f'o sure, b'y! When you minimize a window, the menu bar stays up. When you hide, it doesn't.So a bunch of resource managers can forget the app, eh?

acme.mail.order
02-12-2005, 09:43 PM
No, it's still there and it's still running, it's just not occupying ANY desktop space when hidden. Command-Tab still shows it's there, but you don't have to visit the Dock to get the window back.

styrafome
02-12-2005, 10:34 PM
Ain't that the truth. If Apple had a keyboard shortcut for restoring a minimized window, I'd minimize windows more often. Hiding is much more practical for me because I can get the window back without reaching for the mouse. Or am I missing something?

derekhed
02-13-2005, 01:55 AM
yeah, I tend to do the same thing, I don't like cluttering up my dock. But come to think of it, it's hidden most of the time anyway. Guess I'm just anal. :-)

Is this a programming issue? Resource savings?

JayBee
02-13-2005, 05:58 AM
I could just be talking out of the proverbial, but I was under the impression that minimising kept the window still "drawn" on screen, albeit smaller - there was still a part of the GPU given over to keeping a track of the scaled window. Minimising allowed the GPU to flush the overhead of the window, hence freeing up more processing power.

Thanks to exposé, though, I hardly ever minimise or hide anything :)

chutem
02-13-2005, 07:53 AM
I do the same as JayBee. Since the introduction of Expose' I don't feel a need to minimize or hide. Pre-Expose I used Windowshade.

robot_guy
02-13-2005, 05:00 PM
If Apple had a keyboard shortcut for restoring a minimized window, I'd minimize windows more often.See, now I'm just the opposite—I wanted a mouse click that could hide apps; unhiding them wasn't an issue for this sometimes-mousecentric user.

So I mapped my right-click to Command-H, and made an interesting discovery: right-clicking in a window that's not part of the active app hides the active app, not the one whose window I clicked in. (This makes sense, I guess, since the right-click isn't a click at all; it's a key combo, so the window, and by extension the app, is never made active by being clicked in.)

RideMan
02-20-2005, 05:26 PM
How about a hack to make the yellow (or "-" for those of us using graphite) ball hide the app instead of minimizing the window? I never minimize, but I hide stuff all the time...

emileej
02-21-2005, 05:42 AM
It can't be a programming issue. That would simply be too stupid a design if you would release resources by hiding in stead of minimizing. The only difference I can see is the one that has already been pointed out: The application is forced to the background - giving focus to the next running application.

I myself only use hide, when I am using a multi-window application and need some space. Otherwise I hide all the time - I have mapped command+h to scrollclick on my Logitech mouse :)

cudaboy_71
02-21-2005, 12:27 PM
I have mapped command+h to scrollclick on my Logitech mou

i have done the same thing.

additionally, the first piece of software i ever bought for osx was windowshade x (http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/wsx).

with it running i NEVER minimize windows to the dock. if i need a window out of the way, i double-click the titlebar or double-tap the cmd key (that window-shades the window with focus). the titlebar remains, but i have reduced my screen clutter to almost the same point that minimize to dock would have without having to mouse back and forth to the dock to reclaim it.