Minimize

April 2nd, 2003 10:09 PM

I’d just like to make perfectly clear my intense hatred of the default MacOS X behaviour of un-minimizing a window upon application focus when all windows are minimized. The amount of my day that is wasted due to focusing Safari and immediately re-minimizing a window is fucking incredible. I minimized those windows for a reason! Die Safari!

Update: Ok, I’ve got more to say on this. This is just stupid. The Apple Aqua Human Interface Guidelines say:

Clicking an application icon in the Dock should always result in a window—a document or another appropriate window—becoming active. … If there are no unminimized windows when the user clicks the Dock icon, the last minimized window should be expanded and made active.

Because of this it seems unlikely that Apple will ever provide functionality, even if it was optional, to stop this behaviour. The situation could easily be made better (though still not ideal) with an “Open new window” option on the contextual menu produced by right-clicking (or control-clicking) on the application’s dock icon.

Update: Fuck! The Safari Downloads window is a WINDOW! Why the fuck does ANOTHER window un-minimize on app focus if the downloads window is visible? This either violates the HIG, or is a clear misnaming of the downloads window as a window. Damn you Apple!

Comments

Of note, if memory serves correctly, this was a delta between 10.0 and 10.1. It worked the way we would prefer it in 10.0, and it pissed me off when they changed it. I wrote them about it, but never got a response. I guess now that change is permanant, with the exception of apps which allow that to be tuned (e.g., OmniWeb.)

Posted by: David Pisoni on April 4th, 2003 3:56 PM

The problem, though, is that although Omni may do what seems like the right thing, they are going against the HIG. No good can come of a situation where developers must go against the HIG to make a product which satisfies expectations. Apple has completely dropped the ball on this one.

Posted by: kasei on April 4th, 2003 11:50 PM