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Encyclopedia > Dock (computing)
Comparison of docks in Avant Window Navigator on Ubuntu, Mac OS X Leopard, and Sun's Project Looking Glass
The Dock in Mac OS X is an application; this is its icon.

The Dock is a graphical user interface feature used to launch applications and switch between running applications. It was first introduced in the NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP operating systems and modified for Mac OS X where it behaves more like the Apple Newton's Newton OS Dock. There are now many dock applications for many different operating systems. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Ubuntu (IPA: ) is a South African ethic or ideology focusing on peoples allegiances and relations with each other. ... Mac OS X v10. ... Sol redirects here. ... Project Looking Glass is a free software project under the GPL to create an innovative 3D desktop environment for Linux, Solaris, and Windows. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 500 pixelsFull resolution (980 × 613 pixel, file size: 812 KB, MIME type: image/png) The icon from the Apple Mac OS X dock. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 500 pixelsFull resolution (980 × 613 pixel, file size: 812 KB, MIME type: image/png) The icon from the Apple Mac OS X dock. ... “GUI” redirects here. ... NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ... The OPENSTEP desktop. ... // An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ... Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... It has been suggested that Apple Newton Software be merged into this article or section. ... Newton OS is the operating system of the Apple Newton. ...

Contents

History

OPENSTEP Dock

In NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, the Dock is an application launcher that holds icons for frequently used programs. The icon for the Workspace Manager and the Recycler are always visible. The Dock indicates the program's current state (running or not running) by showing an ellipsis below its icon if the program is not running and nothing if it is currently running. (Contrast this behavior with the Dock in OS X which uses a triangle to indicate that the program is running and nothing if it has not yet been launched.) Image File history File links Download high resolution version (64x724, 70 KB)Mac OS X Dock File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (64x724, 70 KB)Mac OS X Dock File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (69x768, 21 KB) A rather spare OPENSTEP Dock screenshot (but at least a genuine one), taken by myself. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (69x768, 21 KB) A rather spare OPENSTEP Dock screenshot (but at least a genuine one), taken by myself. ... Nuvola icons for KDE are available as PNG images, which come in six sizes, and SVG images, which are scalable On computer displays, a computer icon is a small pictogram. ... A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ... This article is about the punctuation symbol. ...


Apple and OS X

In OS X however the Dock is used as a repository for any program or file in the operating system. It can hold any number of items and resizes them dynamically to fit while using magnification to clarify smaller resized items. It can be placed (as in the picture to the left) on the left, on the right right, or default on the bottom edge of the screen. This setting may be changed using the Apple menu, System Preferences, or the Dock itself by shift-dragging the divider between applications and files. Applications that do not normally keep icons in the Dock will still appear there when running and remain until they are exited. These features are unlike those of the dock in the NeXT operating systems where the capacity of the Dock is dependent on display resolution. This may be an attempt to recover some Shelf functionality since OS X inherits no other such technology from NeXTSTEP. (Some Shelf functionality was previously implemented in Finder. Display standards comparison The display resolution of a digital television or computer display typically refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. ... The Shelf is an interface feature in NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, and is used as a repository to store links to commonly used files, directories and programs, and as a temporary holding place to move/copy files and directories around in the filesystem hierarchy. ... Finder may be: A device attached to a telescope which gives a much larger field of view than the main telescope and so allows an astronomer to centre the telescope on an object using crosshairs. ...


The changes to the Dock bring its functionality also close to that of Apple's Newton OS Button Bar, as found in the MessagePad 2x00 series and the likes. Applications could be dragged in and out of the Extras Drawer, a Finder-like app, onto the bar. Also, when the screen was put into landscape mode, the user could choose to position the Button Bar at the right or left side of the screen, just like the Dock in Mac OS X. Apple Inc. ... Newton OS is the operating system of the Apple Newton. ... The Finder is the default application program used on the Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems that is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications. ...


The OS X Dock also has extended menus that control applications without making them visible on screen. On most applications it has simple options such as Quit, Keep In Dock, Remove From Dock, and other options, though some applications use these menus for other purposes, such as iTunes, which uses this menu as a way for a user to control certain playback options. Other Applications include changing the status of an online alias (MSN, AIM/iChat etc.) or automatically saving the changes that have been made in a document (There is no current application with this feature made available for Mac OS X). Docklings can also be opened by using the right-mouse button, if the mouse has one, but most of the time either clicking and holding or control-click will bring the menu up.


Other operating systems

A similar feature, called the Icon Bar, has been a fundamental part of the RISC OS operating system and its predecessor Arthur since its inception, beginning in 1987, which pre-dated the NeXTSTEP dock (released in 1989). However, upon further examination the differences are quite noticeable. The Icon Bar holds icons which represent mounted their own context-sensitive menus and support drag and drop behaviour. Also, the Mac OS X Dock will scale down accordingly to accommodate expansion, whereas the Icon Bar will simply scroll. Lastly, the Icon Bar itself has a fixed size and position, which is across the bottom of the screen. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A screenshot of Arthurs GUI desktop and its bundled accessory applications Arthur is an early GUI operating System (OS) that was used on Acorn ARM-cpu-based computers from about 1987 until the much-superior RISC OS 2 was completed and made available in April 1989. ... NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ...


Many programs which emulate the OS X dock on Windows, such as ObjectDock and RocketDock, have sprung up due to the popularity of Mac OS X. Earlier versions of Mac OS (before 10.0) did not have a dock, but an add-on such as A-dock adds a dock for users of earlier versions. ObjectDock is a computer program providing a dock similar to that in the Mac OS X Aqua GUI. It is distributed under the Object Desktop brand by Stardock for Windows 2000, XP and later operating systems, and comes in Free and Plus versions. ... RocketDock is a computer program providing a dock similar to that in the Mac OS X Aqua GUI. It is Free under a Creative Commons License and is distributed by Punk Software. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...


Various docks are also used in Linux and BSD. Some examples are Gnome Dock for GNOME, Kiba-Dock and Avant Window Navigator, which need a composite manager running and integrate best with Gnome, KXDocker (amongst others) for KDE and various other gdesklet/adesklets docks, AfterStep's Wharf (a direct derivation from the NeXTSTEP UI), and Blackbox's Slit.
This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ... This article is about the mythical creature. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... KXDocker is a program for the Linux operating system. ... KDE (K Desktop Environment) (IPA: ) is a free software project which aims to be a powerful system for an easy-to-use desktop environment. ... Desktop with running gDesklets gDesklets is a GNOME program which provides the architecture for small applets or widgets to be placed on top of the users desktop. ... The correct title of this article is . ... In Unix computing, AfterStep is a window manager for the X Window System. ... In Unix computing, Blackbox is a window manager for the X Window System. ...


Images

See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Dock (computing) harry potter games Dock (computing) (348 words)
The Dock is a user interface feature in the NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, and Mac OS X computer operating systems, but the Dock's functionality was radically changed in Mac OS X. In NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, the Dock is a repository to store frequently used programs.
In Mac OS X, however, the Dock is used as a repository for any program or file in the operating system.
It can hold any number of items, but resizes them dynamically and uses magnification to clarify smaller resized items, unlike the dock in the NeXT operating systems, where the capacity of the Dock is fixed and dependent on the resolution the screen is set at.
Dock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (359 words)
Docking, the process of removing part of an animal's tail or ears.
Computational molecular docking is a technique used to predict whether a small molecule will bind to a protein.
Protein-protein docking is a field of theoretical biochemistry aimed at predicting the associations of two or more proteins.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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