

A (better?) variation of the Win 7 taskbar and OS X dock. - amichail

If an app is not running, show its icon in the dock.<p>If it is running with one window, show the window live in the dock with the app icon small at its corner and the document title below it.<p>If it is running with more than one window, do the same thing but
cycle between the open windows, display each window for a few
seconds.<p>===
UPDATE:  Another variation:<p>How about showing a full size icon with the live previews immediately to its right and without the cycling?<p>Example: [firefox icon] [firefox win1] [firefox win2] [eclipse icon] [itunes] [itunes win] etc.<p>Clicking on an app icon always opens a new window.<p>Applications with open windows could be shown first. If there isn't enough horizontal space for all the icons and previews, the user could use the mouse to scroll the dock horizontally and/or some icons/previews could be reduced in size.
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jacquesm
Stuff alternating on my display when I'm focused on something else is very
irritating.

I think a user interface / window manager should be as quiet as it could
possibly be so you don't get distracted.

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mcav
The main issue with that solution: Each application no longer looks the same.
In OS X, Mail would look a lot like iTunes, Word, TextMate -- because they're
all predominantly white-background with black text. The taskbar/dock would
soon look like a bunch of windows, but you'd expend more energy to determine
which one was which.

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amichail
Ok, how about including the full size icon among the cycling of open windows?

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mcav
Then you'd see something different every time you looked over to find your
application. Consistency seems like something worth keeping.

A large app icon with a tiny preview might work, but that's obviously not much
better/different than the standard OS X dock.

~~~
amichail
How about showing a full size icon with the live previews immediately to its
right and without the cycling?

Example: [firefox icon] [firefox win1] [firefox win2] [eclipse icon] [itunes]
[itunes win] etc.

Clicking on an app icon always opens a new window.

Applications with open windows could be shown first. If there isn't enough
horizontal space for all the icons and previews, the user could use the mouse
to scroll the dock horizontally and/or some icons/previews could be reduced in
size.

