the point of Fitt's Law is that it's much faster and easier to get to the menu bar from wherever your mouse pointer might be.
Except it's *not* easier to go "to the top of the screen" if you're working in the bottom corner. It's much easier to get to the top of your workspace, which should only be "the top of the screen" if your WORKSPACE is at the top of the screen. It's a shorter distance to something closer to both your cursor and the focal point of your attention. The Mac way of doing things is *inefficient* and *counterintuitive*, as well as *slow*.
But if you don't have the metaphor of a parent window
Of course you do - the last window of the application, exactly like how *all* sane multi-window applications have worked, for decades.
you need another way of saying "OK, I'm done with this application now".
Closing all the instances of the application isn't enough?
(Hint: It's enough. Applications that don't close when you close all their windows *are wrong*. You closed all the windows! You have STOPPED USING THAT PROGRAM! It should damn well *exit* and free up the resources for programs that you ARE USING. There are a VERY few exceptions - things like an IM client where the window you closed is not the sole functionality of the application. The application is meant to sit in the background and provide a service, and the fact that you closed the "select people to chat with" window actually *doesn't* mean you're done with the app. But a web browser or a document editor? Those DO NOT provide services while closed and SHOULD NOT be doing a damn thing while you're not using them.)
And yeah, you can either use the dock or command-tab to switch between applications, even if they don't have windows open.
The dock is an extra-special level of bad - an extremely limited number of icons, combined with minor graphical effects to tell you "running/not running", combined with icons that move and dance when you're trying to get to them so they're NO LONGER WHERE THEY WERE WHEN YOU STARTED YOUR MOUSE MOVEMENT? Ugh.
I mean, the Start menu in 7 "scrolls open" by default, but it only changes when you click on it, it goes *fast* because they understand that chasing a moving icon is a pain in the ass, and the scrolling behaviour is a single checkbox to turn it into straight "snap open/closed without animation"
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-16 07:38 pm (UTC)Except it's *not* easier to go "to the top of the screen" if you're working in the bottom corner. It's much easier to get to the top of your workspace, which should only be "the top of the screen" if your WORKSPACE is at the top of the screen. It's a shorter distance to something closer to both your cursor and the focal point of your attention. The Mac way of doing things is *inefficient* and *counterintuitive*, as well as *slow*.
But if you don't have the metaphor of a parent window
Of course you do - the last window of the application, exactly like how *all* sane multi-window applications have worked, for decades.
you need another way of saying "OK, I'm done with this application now".
Closing all the instances of the application isn't enough?
(Hint: It's enough. Applications that don't close when you close all their windows *are wrong*. You closed all the windows! You have STOPPED USING THAT PROGRAM! It should damn well *exit* and free up the resources for programs that you ARE USING. There are a VERY few exceptions - things like an IM client where the window you closed is not the sole functionality of the application. The application is meant to sit in the background and provide a service, and the fact that you closed the "select people to chat with" window actually *doesn't* mean you're done with the app. But a web browser or a document editor? Those DO NOT provide services while closed and SHOULD NOT be doing a damn thing while you're not using them.)
And yeah, you can either use the dock or command-tab to switch between applications, even if they don't have windows open.
The dock is an extra-special level of bad - an extremely limited number of icons, combined with minor graphical effects to tell you "running/not running", combined with icons that move and dance when you're trying to get to them so they're NO LONGER WHERE THEY WERE WHEN YOU STARTED YOUR MOUSE MOVEMENT? Ugh.
I mean, the Start menu in 7 "scrolls open" by default, but it only changes when you click on it, it goes *fast* because they understand that chasing a moving icon is a pain in the ass, and the scrolling behaviour is a single checkbox to turn it into straight "snap open/closed without animation"