Comments on: Improving Mac OS X: #8 - Zoom http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/ Mac stuff, Tech stuff, Weird stuff Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:01:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: curmi http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/#comment-7609 curmi Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:47:17 +0000 http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/#comment-7609 For any developers wanting to make zoom work correctly in their OS X applications, here's an interesting article that might help. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2002/05/16/cocoa.html For any developers wanting to make zoom work correctly in their OS X applications, here’s an interesting article that might help.

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2002/05/16/cocoa.html

]]> By: curmi http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/#comment-5592 curmi Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:52:41 +0000 http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/#comment-5592 Hey Sebastian. Whether you disagree or not, the fact remains that the action is confusing. If the effect of clicking a button is inconsistent people will shy away from ever touching the button. Reading some of the forums, that is exactly what happens - people stop clicking the button because they never know what to expect. That suggests that the button is being overloaded with too many features. I'm not saying that the functionality of the calculator isn't good - just that overloading the button to use that functionality isn't good. Hey Sebastian.

Whether you disagree or not, the fact remains that the action is confusing. If the effect of clicking a button is inconsistent people will shy away from ever touching the button.

Reading some of the forums, that is exactly what happens - people stop clicking the button because they never know what to expect. That suggests that the button is being overloaded with too many features.

I’m not saying that the functionality of the calculator isn’t good - just that overloading the button to use that functionality isn’t good.

]]> By: Sebastian Lewis http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/#comment-5591 Sebastian Lewis Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:26:26 +0000 http://curmi.com/blog/2007/09/23/improving-mac-os-x-zoom/#comment-5591 I disagree with some of that actually, more specifically, the part about Apple or any developer following the guidelines to the letter without question. For one thing, they're guidelines, not law, and for another, sometimes the guidelines don't make sense for a specific application. iTunes for example, when you "Zoom" it, it becomes a mini player. I like this mini player because with the iLike sidebar installed, iTunes eats up almost all screen space on my Macbook. This may not be the case on a 30" display, but on a 13.3" display it makes a difference and the mini player can stay in the top left corner out of the way. Calculator is another example, hitting the Zoom button takes it between Standard, Scientific, and Programmer modes. Now expanding the Calculator to be larger then it is obviously makes no sense because it doesn't need to be any larger, but it can change states since it has 3 different modes and it's much faster than going to the menu and while it does have keyboard shortcuts, I don't use it often enough to remember what those are. The HIG are just that: Guidelines. guideline |ˈgīdˌlīn| noun a general rule, principle, or piece of advice. Sebastian I disagree with some of that actually, more specifically, the part about Apple or any developer following the guidelines to the letter without question. For one thing, they’re guidelines, not law, and for another, sometimes the guidelines don’t make sense for a specific application.

iTunes for example, when you “Zoom” it, it becomes a mini player. I like this mini player because with the iLike sidebar installed, iTunes eats up almost all screen space on my Macbook. This may not be the case on a 30″ display, but on a 13.3″ display it makes a difference and the mini player can stay in the top left corner out of the way.

Calculator is another example, hitting the Zoom button takes it between Standard, Scientific, and Programmer modes. Now expanding the Calculator to be larger then it is obviously makes no sense because it doesn’t need to be any larger, but it can change states since it has 3 different modes and it’s much faster than going to the menu and while it does have keyboard shortcuts, I don’t use it often enough to remember what those are.

The HIG are just that: Guidelines.

guideline |ˈgīdˌlīn|
noun
a general rule, principle, or piece of advice.

Sebastian

]]>