That looks like a normal Dock to me, just positioned on the right side of the screen. It's a feature of the Dock, but not accessible through the GUI.

Is it a secret, or can you point to how it's done? ;)

Anyway, i have over 30 items in my Dock at any given time (not running mind you, but apps ready to launch, 5 Stacks, etc). That photo shows only 7 running apps and a trash can!!! :D So the Dock is just a process monitor??? No way José.

I know Onyx can do it. You can do it with Terminal (don't know the command). TinkerTool probably does it, and other system utilities.

You could rewrite the Dock.app in your /System/Library/CoreSystems folder to allow it to sit behind windows. There is no way to "trick" it since that is an intrical part of the program.

That is very useful. Thanks for the explanation--and you're right, it's starting to sound like it's not possible to tell an already compiled program to ignore the dock barrier.

This doesn't really capture it, though. I don't want the reserved area to be restricted to just that area--i want it to be gone. I think that trying to specify "only a certain portion of the reserved area is actually reserved" is much more complicated (from a coding standpoint) than "ignore all the dock's reserved area." Hence my earlier question.

@LasVegas--do you know how to do this? or are you throwing it out there. I'm no coder; reprogramming more than a simple boolean value or copy-paste-modify terminal command is outside my abilities.

@Hal--yeah, i don't use stacks--i'm more of a keyboard navigator, so i use Quicksilver (with a deeper-than-default nesting) to move files to where i want them, or recall them from where i put them. So, yeah, unless i'm really working up a storm with different multimedia apps, I mostly use the dock as a process monitor (especially when working while using Transmission). As you might have noticed from the 4 different system monitoring widgets in my menu bar, i'm a bit of a control freak.

And, as far as me photoshopping those pics just to prove a point? I waste enough time worrying about silly things like saving 1/2 an inch of my screen area, so I suppose that isn't necessarily far fetched. :) Dock position managed through Superdocker, transparency from Mirage.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but if the Dock is just being used to monitor active processes, why not just hide it and rely on the application list shown with the Command-Tab switcher?

Using Command-Tab followed by Command-Escape will show active processes without leaving whatever is currently frontmost. This also seems like it would be an easy transition for someone who is self-described as "more of a keyboard navigator."

@Sodium hydroxide--that's a fair question. That's actually exactly what I did when I used to hide the dock. But now I just prefer to have it there at a glance--so, even if i'm typing or reading something on screen, it's just a flick of my eyes to see what's going on on my machine (same logic for my menu-bar monitors).

Also, no one asked, but the menubar system monitor i have going there is atMonitor. It's one of the most specific and customizable system monitors out there--there aren't a lot of menubar based monitors that have GPU temperature! but atMonitor does (and more). And the developers are top notch--I've emailed them twice with bugs i've found in the 6 months i've been using it, and both times they've fixed it and released an update within the week (once it was less than a full day later!). Again, I know no one asked, but I thought i'd throw a little love their way--it's the best system monitoring app i've found.

Sounds good.

Have you tried working with the Dock on the right side much? It's the only place i like it, and I think that would be a really simple solution for you. If you think about it: by scrunching those icons all the way on the right, you're already half way there. So take the next logical step and just put the whole goshdarn Dock on the right. The height problem gets totally solved, and replaced by a (much less troublesome) tiny loss of width.

My Dock is on the left side.

@hal--i tried that, too. My thought process was similar. However, the dock then moves anything subsequently loaded to my desktop a half-inch to the left--new items can't break the dock barrier, either.

Current desktop icons: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3478/...f0b27ee3_b.jpg

With dock on right: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3481/...e19ab630_b.jpg

Again, we're only talking a 1/2 an inch here, but for someone with more than mild OCD, it's frustrating.

(PS--i know the icon's don't immediately/automatically shift over that 1/2 inch--but anytime i mount a .dmg/external drive or download something to the desktop, it does shift that icon over--so instead of a nice grid of icons, it's a zig-zag of different placement.)

Here's a workaround for these recent workarounds. Position the Dock on the right. Also, install Camouflage, which will visually hide all Desktop items, thus making the system shifting of these items inconsequential. Then you can simply access Desktop items by opening the Desktop folder (Command-Shift-D).

:rolleyes: Seriously? :eek: [This is getting ridonkulous.]

Just move Zooey (and the other preexisting icons) to the left a tad, so they snap to the new grid.

@NaOH--Hmm, that would totally work if having things on the desktop is a large part of my workflow. Never seen that program before, though--thanks for the hint.

@hal--Sigh. I know it's ridiculous. I've tried the icon thing, and it just sets off my OCD. I appreciate the thought, though.

I've posted a link to the Secrets google group. Maybe someone more familiar with some of the underlying code/.plist stuff might have a suggestion. I'll be sure to post back here if I hear of any way to disable the dock barrier.

I may suggest then, followung the preceding post and the first picture, giving a look at Greasemonkey just in case you'd be able to workaround for firefox...

If this is true, then perhaps there is a way to get the Dock to "lie" whenever an app asks what space is available? If the Dock told Firefox that it is currently only taking up 1px or that it is hidden, then perhaps Firefox and any other apps would then freely take up the entire screen.

Although "Layer" wise, they would still be "under" the Dock, just as newly opened apps who remembered their last position can somtimes find themselves under the Dock. That won't be an issue though with your current Dock placement though.