Re: Early History of Mac OS X Dock

On 2025-01-16 13:08:54 +0000, Liz Tuddenham said:

scole <vintageapplemac@gmail.com> wrote:

In article <1r5zwor.15ub1rpf2vodeN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>,
liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
 <snip>

 I hate the Dock with a vengeance, it has spoilt the Mac platform for me.

 I first used a Mac in 2007, a MacBook running OSX Tiger, so I have only
ever known the Dock really and, in honesty, I've never had a problem with
it. Seems like a fine way to keep useful apps close at hand for quick
launching.
 I usually make the Dock as small as possible, or close enough to it, and
have a couple of dozen or so app icons on it. Works well for me!

 That's what the Launcher used to do - except that the icons could be
arranged logically according to your needs and they had names so you
could see instantly what they were.
 The Windowshade was activated by double-clicking on the titlke bar of a
window, the window just rolled up to reveal what was underneath but the
title bar stayed exactly where it was.  Double-clicking the title bar a
second time rolled the window back down.  Thus, if you wanted to see
what was under a window you did a double-click and another double-click
in exactly the same place; there was no need to open the dock and go
searching through the icons to find out where your window had gone.
 If that system were re-introduced and the Dock abolished, it would be
hailed as a great step forward in useability.

There are of course numerous features that keep being added to MacOS and have been since about System 7, many of the useless gimmicks. Some stay around and some disappear as quickly as they arrived.  (Not just software either - the ridiculous Touch Bar on laptops quickly got removed again.)
Personally I didn't like the Launcher, Launchpad, Spaces, Time Machine, Versions, and have never used any of them. I also very rarely used Windowshade or minimising windows (mostly accidentally). I also always turned off the silly things like squeeze-me button on the mouse whenever setting up a Mac for *anyone* since it was nothing but a source of confusion for the users.
Everyone is different. Nobody says you have to use a feature. There are often different ways of achieving something and working on the computer.
Realistically the MacOS Dock isn't going anywhere any time soon. Windowshade can be added by third-party apps (although some reviews say they don't work very well, but I've never used them).