Window Management

sfleming · 09-26-2002, 03:20 PM

Now that we have Quartz Extreme, I wish Apple would put it to use in window management.

It would be really nice if the front window remained sharp and in focus, as it is today, but windows further and further "deeper" in the stack got progressively translucent and out-of-focus. Think of sliding sheets of tracing paper in between each document window.

That would give you an instant visual cue as to which windows were relevant to your current application task, and which ones are in the background, needing to be activated. The more recently you used a particular window, the more "focused" it would appear. Tasks you hadn't touched since bootup would probably be blurred to the point of unrecognizability... which is okay, since you probably need to close that window anyhow! :-)

Don't know if this would be possible for a third-party hack, but I wish Apple would roll it into the next OS release...

10-03-2002, 12:18 PM

Some developers on the MacNN forums had the same idea and made FocusLayer. Get it here: http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=16088&db=mac

sfleming · 10-03-2002, 04:01 PM

Hey, cool! Only a single layer, but it's a neat implementation. Thanks for the link...

09-26-2002, 03:20 PM	#1
sfleming Triple-A Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 93	Window Management Now that we have Quartz Extreme, I wish Apple would put it to use in window management. It would be really nice if the front window remained sharp and in focus, as it is today, but windows further and further "deeper" in the stack got progressively translucent and out-of-focus. Think of sliding sheets of tracing paper in between each document window. That would give you an instant visual cue as to which windows were relevant to your current application task, and which ones are in the background, needing to be activated. The more recently you used a particular window, the more "focused" it would appear. Tasks you hadn't touched since bootup would probably be blurred to the point of unrecognizability... which is okay, since you probably need to close that window anyhow! :-) Don't know if this would be possible for a third-party hack, but I wish Apple would roll it into the next OS release...

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10-03-2002, 12:18 PM	#2
Hous68 Guest Posts: n/a	Some developers on the MacNN forums had the same idea and made FocusLayer. Get it here: http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=16088&db=mac

10-03-2002, 04:01 PM	#3
sfleming Triple-A Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 93	Hey, cool! Only a single layer, but it's a neat implementation. Thanks for the link...