I've had this issue for ages, and it's really annoying. When pasting icons in Jaguar, the icons sometimes don't get pasted (most of the times actually) So I posted about this in Macaddict and a guy pointed out this link: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107343

Even Apple admits this crap and they don't fix it@$#@$% and it's been almost a year. Unbelievable.

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I've had this issue for ages, and it's really annoying. When pasting icons in Jaguar, the icons sometimes don't get pasted (most of the times actually)

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“Doc, it hurts when I do this.”

“So don’t do that.”

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Survey: This document...

- fully dodged my question

- partially dodged my question and could have been more evasive

- did not acknowledge my question at all

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“Doc, it hurts when I do this.”
“So don’t do that.”

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Those of us who've been in the X-Critic game a long time, will remember this as something that's ALWAYS bugged me about this software and its advocates. Find a workaround or stop doing something instead of asking for a fix.

Icons have been a problem for a long time, not just since Jag. The one that kills me, and I mean KILLS me, is icon previews (which actually come in handy to me). I have had the photoshop mini-icon problem forever. I get icon previews of graphic files that show up rotated 90°, or which get partially erased in vertical strips. After working in X, then booting to 9, the icons in 9 sometimes get pooched.

Oh... I friggin' can't STAND it when you change a document icon, i.e. "open with" in Get Info... and then do "CHANGE ALL" and the icons don't update. I hate when an icon looks perfectly OK, for example, it's a Quicktime MPEG icon... and when you double click it, it doesn't know to open Quicktime. Attention: This is all mixed up with how terribly slow to update and easy-to-confuse the operating system is. I also hate it when you drag and drop a graphic to the desktop (something I do a lot), and the icon cycles between the icon preview and the generic. What's up with that? Either give me the preview or the generic. Watch how it works... something seems screwy how it goes through a little dance, like it can't decide.

You know, at one point I said to myself, self, you know you hate the friggin' distracting multicolor bullshit of the Dock. Why not just take ten minutes and monochrome all the icons? Make everything a custom icon. Even if it's just copying the icon and greyscaling it in photoshop. Ga head'n try it. I got weirdness, prefnesia, redraw and compositing errors. This system doesn't make it easy for YOU to customize your icons... not and have them gel properly with the Quartz routines.

And here's something: Doesn't it make sense, if you have an icon for an app or document in the dock or Finder toolbar, and then you change that app's icon to one of your custom jobs, that the Dock and toolbar versions of that icon should automatically update? Seems so simple. And remember, there's eggheads like brother mithradites, who actually LIKE communicating with big sexy custom icons. God forbid he wants to update one globally.

I'll tell you though, even just horsing around, putting a few simple, graphical, monochrome custom icons in the dock convinces me that this whole show could be instantly improved by letting a real Mac Pro designer have a crack at the interface.

And I still think, for a pro interface (assuming all graphic pros have large Cinema Displays), that the dock could be in the menubar. That would make a HUGE difference in usability as far as I'm concerned. Coalesce the idea of System Menu Icons, with the Dock.

Does anyone else out there use FileBuddy? See the size of the toolbar icons? That size, minus the surrounds, monochrome or limited color (maybe active and foremost gets full color) right up in the menubar. I don't know about you guys, but I've got acres of wasted menubar space.

Anyway, the icon thing is really annoying, because screw the Dock, I tend to use desktop aliases anyway, because they work better. No moving target for drag n' drop and so forth. The Desktop is still my space, and it irritates the bejeezus out of me when the icons are pooched. Or when the ugly labels wrap funny. Or when you have to burn a click to show something.

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And I still think, for a pro interface (assuming all graphic pros have large Cinema Displays), that the dock could be in the menubar. That would make a HUGE difference in usability as far as I'm concerned. Coalesce the idea of System Menu Icons, with the Dock.

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I've been thinking this too. One of the things I hate the most about the Dock is how it forces me to move the mouse downwards all the time, an anti-natural motion.

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"Dock, it hurts...."

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I've been thinking this too. One of the things I hate the most about the Dock is how it forces me to move the mouse downwards all the time, an anti-natural motion.

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I do the oddest thing to my Windows machines: I put the taskbar at the top. At least other Windows users seem to think it’s odd, but you’re absolutely 100% correct, Max. Whether it’s the Dock or the taskbar, having it at the bottom is just more work, more mousing distance. When changing Apps or windows your next target is likely to be near the top of the screen. And having the Start menu (or Dock folders) pop UP is just ludicrous and counter-intuitive. It should work like most menus and when it does it is easier to use and visualize. But I don’t think mousing down is an unnatural or more difficult motion. (Do a thorough search on Raskin’s site and you might prove me wrong because I do believe there is a slight difference in the ease of mousing up or down – I just can’t remember which it is.)

And brother thalo mentioned one time about the whole semiotic sense of the hierarchy of the interface. You work your way from the top to the bottom. What could make better sense than to have the program and window switching at the top and the menus and content following further down until at last you come to the trash at the very bottom. It makes you think that if we weren’t all so wedded to the unmovable Mac menubar that we might learn a thing or two from Windows. Fitt’s Law would certainly suffer but might the trade-off be worth it? I’ve always thought that a little “snap to” behavior of the cursor could overcome some of the objections. I’m not sure if it would work in practice but I’d love to try it.

If we had something like this on the Mac then I might recommend that any open App would appear on the Macbar (as we’ll call it) in icon form (just like in the Dock, and with mouseover labels). But this icon would be inside a tile, which would not look too dissimilar to what you get with the Windows taskbar. The difference would be that the app icon would be left justified in the tile and the right half would have a pop-up list of the open windows. Click the left half and you switch to the App and whatever windows is frontmost in that app; or you can choose the window you want directly from the pop-up on the right (which, of course, will also facilitate drag and drop).

Apps would be placed from left to right in the MacBar in launch order or alphabetically (which would be a pref – you could also drag them in any order you wanted later). Pop-up folders could be added to the right side of the MacBar, flush right in relation to the system menus (the end of the confusion of intermixed running and non-running apps and folders). Folders could also be drag-and-dropped to the pop-up part of the MacBar App icon tile so that those folders would appear below the app’s open windows (with a separator between them). One might, for instance, drop a folder of Quark or Illustrator templates in this menu – stuff that you would only need when that App is running. I’m sure the “Show All” and “Hide Others” might make sense in this menu as well.

If you’re still following me, the pop-up right half of the App tiles in the MacBar (which is a list of the app’s open windows) could also show a preview of the window when that window's name is moused over. I’m afraid this system would mean the end somewhat of navigating by minimized windows although you could still minimize them. It’s just that they wouldn't be one click away in the Dock. The would still be one click and a small drag away in the MacBar though. I think this is a more organized and extensible way of doing things anyway.

To top it all off, and to take care of all those launcher-type items that are now stuck willy nilly in the Dock, we bring back a truly efficient, customizable and well-organized Apple menu.

By the way, I might mention that the MacBar would be fixed at the top and would run the length of the primary monitor - just as the current Mac menubar does – and it could also run the length of multiple monitors if desired. The regular Mac menubar would be just underneath and would run the length of the primary monitor only, just as it does now. It wouldn’t be a case of having Windows-like menus in each and every open application window. I might recommend that the MacBar be reversed out or at least colored so that there is a strong visual contrast with the regular menubar (which would be Platinum colored).

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By the way, I might mention that the MacBar would be fixed at the top and would run the length of the primary monitor - just as the current Mac menubar does

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Funny you should mention that. I have of late been pinning my Dock to the Top using TinkerTool. What is nice about having it at the top is that menus ARE top to bottom; if hidden, it is WAY less sensitive to motions that move the mouse up top (you have to touch the bottom of the menubar to get the Dock to pop down, anything else it won't release) unlike pinning at the bottom or side; And having appropriately placed folders on the right and left can simulate an Apple menu or ASM. I used to use DragThing up top, but now I am experimenting with it at the bottom since you can set a pop-up delay.

I've been pinning my dock up top too. The hiding hotzone is considerably reduced, you really have to position your cursor right at the leading edge of the menubar dropshadow to fire the dock, which is both good and bad... but I tend to invoke it with a key command now. I like it WAY better up there than anywhere else... but you can lose windows under it, so I'd like it even better right in the menubar, as part of the menubar.

But if you lose a window under it, you can usually get it by targeting the first row of window pixels (same as the dock hotzone).