Cocoa mail archive
Re: Adding an icon to the dock
FROM : Colin Cornaby
DATE : Sat Nov 03 21:17:05 2007
I thought about this for a bit on the train last night, so I've got my
thoughts all assembled on this matter. :)
I work in IT in a very large %99 Macintosh organization, so I usually
get to see firsthand all the issues that users run into. By far, the
biggest issue I run into is that users use the Dock as a crutch. Back
when we ran OS 9, users were forced to understand that the
applications folder is where applications live. But with OS X, users
seem to have no idea that the applications folder is even there. Quite
simply, if the application isn't on the dock, it doesn't exist to the
user. I'll often install a new application on a large number of
machines, and if I forget to put it onto the dock, I'll immediately
get feedback that the application was never installed at all, simply
because the user can't find it on the dock.
(It would be great though if Apple included a little gnome with every
Mac that would pop out when the user first started up the machine and
explained the concept of the applications folder. Given how large of
an organization we have, it's not realistic for us to sit every user
down and teach them how to use the applications folder, and then teach
them again a week later when they forget.)
I myself hate when things add themselves to the dock. If anything adds
itself to the dock without asking me, it gets immediately removed from
my machine. I've actually run into this once before. The HP Deskjet
drivers add a little docklet to the dock automatically, and when I
removed it, they actually had a script that on login would put it back
in. Needless to say the Deskjet drivers never got installed on my
machine ever again.
But given the mentality of novice users that I've mentioned above, I
can perfectly understand an installer asking if it should add items to
the Dock, as long as by default it is set to not add itself to the
Dock, and obviously it has to ask first.
With regards to Apple officially supporting the behavior... The system
administration guides that Apple has published describe how to
programatically add items to the Dock, and they basically consist of
what I wrote before. Just edit the com.apple.dock.plist file, and
restart the Dock. Given that this technique is not given by Apple in a
developer context, it's probably not guaranteed to work in all
versions of OS X.
On Nov 2, 2007, at 10:17 PM, Mark Munz wrote:
> More importantly though is that even *if* iWork does it, that does not
> make it right for you, nor does it make it user friendly. Apple can
> get away with this, but most other folks can't.
>
> While placing the icons on the dock may seem acceptable from a Windows
> perspective, it is very non-Mac and as a user, it ticks me off that a
> program would do something like that.
>
> It's easy enough for users to put the app in their dock if they feel
> it is important enough. But IMHO, it is arrogant for a company to
> think it deserves to insert its icons into my dock automatically. It
> also would make me suspect that the given program is likely to break
> other guidelines. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth hearing about
> it.
>
>
> On 11/2/07, Colin Cornaby <colin.<email_removed>> wrote:
>> I see what you mean. For some reason I thought you somehow meant you
>> wanted to spawn another app icon or something.
>>
>> As the other poster mentioned, messing with the plist is the easiest
>> way to do this. If you just generate a uuid, set the URL of the new
>> item, and set the tile type you should be fine. Then restart the
>> Dock.
>>
>> As the other poster said, the docks plist format is not guaranteed to
>> stay the same, so writing the least information possible is the best
>> way to reduce the possibility of breakage.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Nov 2, 2007, at 6:31 PM, Steve Israelson <<email_removed>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I am inclined to tell my client "No", in fact that is my current
>>> answer.
>>> If you just install iWork, you will know how it, well, works.
>>>
>>> On 2-Nov-07, at 6:27 PM, Colin Cornaby wrote:
>>>
>>>> Could you be a little more specific? I've never seen either
>>>> application do this.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 2, 2007, at 6:00 PM, Steve Israelson <<email_removed>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> iWork does it, and so does Microsoft.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2-Nov-07, at 5:27 PM, John Stiles wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Basically, you don't. The dock is the user's domain. If you could
>>>>>> programatically add icons to the dock, everyone would do it, and
>>>>>> your average user's dock would be a huge mess.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Steve Israelson wrote:
>>>>>>> How do I add my application's icon to the doc programatically?
>>>>>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> Cocoa-dev mailing list (<email_removed>)
>>
>> Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list.
>> Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com
>>
>> Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
>> http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/<email_removed>
>>
>> This email sent to <email_removed>
>>
>
>
> --
> Mark Munz
> unmarked software
> http://www.unmarked.com/
DATE : Sat Nov 03 21:17:05 2007
I thought about this for a bit on the train last night, so I've got my
thoughts all assembled on this matter. :)
I work in IT in a very large %99 Macintosh organization, so I usually
get to see firsthand all the issues that users run into. By far, the
biggest issue I run into is that users use the Dock as a crutch. Back
when we ran OS 9, users were forced to understand that the
applications folder is where applications live. But with OS X, users
seem to have no idea that the applications folder is even there. Quite
simply, if the application isn't on the dock, it doesn't exist to the
user. I'll often install a new application on a large number of
machines, and if I forget to put it onto the dock, I'll immediately
get feedback that the application was never installed at all, simply
because the user can't find it on the dock.
(It would be great though if Apple included a little gnome with every
Mac that would pop out when the user first started up the machine and
explained the concept of the applications folder. Given how large of
an organization we have, it's not realistic for us to sit every user
down and teach them how to use the applications folder, and then teach
them again a week later when they forget.)
I myself hate when things add themselves to the dock. If anything adds
itself to the dock without asking me, it gets immediately removed from
my machine. I've actually run into this once before. The HP Deskjet
drivers add a little docklet to the dock automatically, and when I
removed it, they actually had a script that on login would put it back
in. Needless to say the Deskjet drivers never got installed on my
machine ever again.
But given the mentality of novice users that I've mentioned above, I
can perfectly understand an installer asking if it should add items to
the Dock, as long as by default it is set to not add itself to the
Dock, and obviously it has to ask first.
With regards to Apple officially supporting the behavior... The system
administration guides that Apple has published describe how to
programatically add items to the Dock, and they basically consist of
what I wrote before. Just edit the com.apple.dock.plist file, and
restart the Dock. Given that this technique is not given by Apple in a
developer context, it's probably not guaranteed to work in all
versions of OS X.
On Nov 2, 2007, at 10:17 PM, Mark Munz wrote:
> More importantly though is that even *if* iWork does it, that does not
> make it right for you, nor does it make it user friendly. Apple can
> get away with this, but most other folks can't.
>
> While placing the icons on the dock may seem acceptable from a Windows
> perspective, it is very non-Mac and as a user, it ticks me off that a
> program would do something like that.
>
> It's easy enough for users to put the app in their dock if they feel
> it is important enough. But IMHO, it is arrogant for a company to
> think it deserves to insert its icons into my dock automatically. It
> also would make me suspect that the given program is likely to break
> other guidelines. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth hearing about
> it.
>
>
> On 11/2/07, Colin Cornaby <colin.<email_removed>> wrote:
>> I see what you mean. For some reason I thought you somehow meant you
>> wanted to spawn another app icon or something.
>>
>> As the other poster mentioned, messing with the plist is the easiest
>> way to do this. If you just generate a uuid, set the URL of the new
>> item, and set the tile type you should be fine. Then restart the
>> Dock.
>>
>> As the other poster said, the docks plist format is not guaranteed to
>> stay the same, so writing the least information possible is the best
>> way to reduce the possibility of breakage.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Nov 2, 2007, at 6:31 PM, Steve Israelson <<email_removed>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I am inclined to tell my client "No", in fact that is my current
>>> answer.
>>> If you just install iWork, you will know how it, well, works.
>>>
>>> On 2-Nov-07, at 6:27 PM, Colin Cornaby wrote:
>>>
>>>> Could you be a little more specific? I've never seen either
>>>> application do this.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 2, 2007, at 6:00 PM, Steve Israelson <<email_removed>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> iWork does it, and so does Microsoft.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2-Nov-07, at 5:27 PM, John Stiles wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Basically, you don't. The dock is the user's domain. If you could
>>>>>> programatically add icons to the dock, everyone would do it, and
>>>>>> your average user's dock would be a huge mess.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Steve Israelson wrote:
>>>>>>> How do I add my application's icon to the doc programatically?
>>>>>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> Cocoa-dev mailing list (<email_removed>)
>>
>> Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list.
>> Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com
>>
>> Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
>> http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/<email_removed>
>>
>> This email sent to <email_removed>
>>
>
>
> --
> Mark Munz
> unmarked software
> http://www.unmarked.com/
