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OS X Odyssey 409 - New Features in WindowShade X 3.0.1, and RAM Disks On OS X
Friday, September 19, 2003
By Applelinks Contributing Editor Charles W. Moore
Unsanity LLC has released WindowShade X 3.0.1, adding new keyboard shortcuts to minimize windows and enhancing the minimize-in-place functionality.
As before, WindowShade X brings the much-missed (by some of us, anyway) window-collapsing to the titlebar effect from Classic Mac OS into Mac OS X, and allows you to control window shadow settings. When you double-click a window title or try to minimize a window, the resulting action can be customized to perform the default minimization to Dock or one of 5 alternative minimize styles:
• Minimize the window to the Dock, like always;
• “Windowshade” the window into a tiny strip to quickly peek below or get it out of the way;
• Minimize-In-Place the window so it becomes really small so you can move it out of the way yet still see what is going on;
• Make the window transparent so you can continue working in it while seeing things under it;
• Hide the application quickly;
• Or... do nothing and ignore the action (sometimes it is quite useful as well).
These actions can be set on per-application basis.
As regular OS X Odysssey readers know, I LOVE WindowShade X. Windowshading is probably the feature I miss most in OS X, and WSX replaces it with something even more powerful. I still depend on the classic windowshading to the titlebar mode for most open windows, but I’m also using the minimize in place mode with the thumbnails anchoerd to the bottom left of my screen for certain application windows that I access a lot like Eudora Mailboxes and the DEVONThink main window.
Why do I like WindowShade X’s minimize in place better than collapsing windows to the Dock? Because I can park the thumbnails where I please, and make them bigger than the Dock icons without magnifying the whole Dock array. Having then separate from the Dock also makes the windows easier to distinguish from one another on the fly. The new keyboard shortcuts are icing on the cake.
New in Version 3.0.1:
- New actions to assign minimizations for: Command Key Pressed Twice and Control Key Pressed Twice allowing you to shade windows with your keyboard! - Window titles for Minimized-In-Place windows are now displayed below the MIP window if they would obscure the menu bar or go off the top screen edge.
- Much better handling of smaller windows for minimizations (DragThing docks, for example). - Minimize-In-Place auto-alignment function now respects the Dock position and bounds.
- Minimize-In-Place windows are being auto re-arranged when you expand one of the minimized windows.
- Fixed a bug with Canvas 9 not being properly shading windows with WindowShade X.
- Fixed an issue with QuarkXPress 6 disabling its menus if you Minimize-In-Place one of its document windows.
- Fixed a bug with iChat still showing tooltips if the Buddy List window is minimized-in-place.
- Fixed a bug with MYOB AccountEdge rendering tab controls inoperational when Control Center window is minimized-in-place.
- Fixed a bug with iCab crashing if you click it’s Dock icon when its window is MIPped. - Fixed a bug with drawer window reappearing on minimized windows if you have hidden and shown back the app with the minimized windows (Cocoa only).
- Fixed an issue causing Classic Window Management by Robb Timlin not work in the Carbon applications.
- Fixed a bug causing some Java applications to crash when expanding a minimized window (IntelliJ IDEA).
- Fixed an issue with the Help button not working in the Preference Pane.
System requirements:
OS X 10.2. WindowShade X v3.0 is NOT compatible with Mac OS X 10.1. Download version 2.1.2 if you are running Mac OS X 10.1. Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” support is coming in the future, and will be released as a separate free update.
WindowShade X is priced at $10. This update is free for all registered users.
WindowShade X 3.0.1 is available for download at:
http://www.unsanity.net/windowshade-x-301.dmg
More information on WindowShade X can be found here:
http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/wsx/
RAM disks on OS X White Paper
ClarkWood Software, developers of the ramBunctious RAM disk utility (see Shareware Beat today), hove posted an interesting white paper on the challenges of using RAM disks with OS X
The paper notes:
“We’ve seen some discussion, some debate, some information, and some confusion and misinformation about using RAM disks on OS X.
“Taking a brief step back and looking at RAM disks in general, anyone using a RAM disk is implying that they know better than their OS how to allocate or prioritize resources -- memory, in the case of RAM disks. This is a delicate balancing act no matter what OS is being used, and as different OSes are being compared, the balancing point can change.
“In Mac OS 9.x and below, it’s usually pretty easy to figure out whether using a RAM disk is worth it. If there are commonly-accessed files, and if there is lots of memory, then it’s fair to assume that a RAM disk will be worthwhile....
“When we begin to consider OS X and the tradeoffs between the (always-on) virtual memory and typical RAM disk usage, it’s helpful to remember that the same tradeoffs existed in OS 9.x and below as well. RAM disk usage is always a calculated balancing act between available memory and achievable performance....
“Will You See Enhanced Performance On An OS X RAM Disk?
Find out here:
http://www.clarkwoodsoftware.com/rambunctious/RDOSXcontent.html
Charles W. Moore
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