Can someone explain the Mac interface to me?

Post #207,017 by broomberg 5/11/05 9:44:12 PM Reply	Can someone explain the Mac interface to me? I seem to "lose" apps. They get hidden. Apple-Tab shows them on the list of programs, but they do not show up when I pick them via the Apple-Tab. It seems with enough mousing around I can get to them, but I'm not sure how! Does the Mac have multiple virtual desktops? Is there an alternative xterm like konsole that I can use?
Post #207,019 by boxley 5/11/05 9:48:43 PM Reply	prolly the wrong person to ask but this is what I do drill down from desktop into the hd icon till I find what I want. It is organized in a unixlike manner thanx, bill All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true" Terry Pratchett [link\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/] Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 48 years. meep questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #207,022 by broomberg 5/11/05 10:18:04 PM Reply	You're right, you're not. I meant the actively RUNNING apps. Note: Installed fink, now watching gvim come down, compile, etc. Lot of dependancies - seems to be working fine. Remember my boss had problems - nothing worked. I assume - #1 - He did not install the Gnu Tools that are found on the Tiger DVD. That means no compiler. #2 - He did not install X11 #3 - He DID install the binary version of fink - which is for OS-X 10.4 - not .4. After that, NOTHING worked for him! I'm unable to mount Samba 3 shares - log tells me kerberos auth error. I am able to mount Samba 2 shares. Greg??? Also, what the hell does the little black triangle under some of the icon on the docker mean? Does it reflect the fact there is an active running instance of the program - or something else? And how fast does the battery suck down when compiling? I went from 2 hours to 44 minutes - in 10 minutes.
Post #207,024 by Another Scott 5/11/05 11:03:18 PM Reply	Some more hints. Yes, the triangles on the icons on the Dock (that bar thingy) indicate that instances are running. Windows that have applications running that are minimized are put in a part of the Dock that is separated from the others by a thin line (that you can drag to resize). Click on the desktop. You'll have the menu bar show "(Apple) Finder File Edit ...". Click on "Help", then "Mac Help", then "New to Mac OS X" then "For Windows switchers" to get some answers to common questions from a Windows perspective. Type "unix" in the question/search bar in help to get pointers on how to do unixy things under Mac OS X. The Help is actually pretty good. I didn't have any luck with Fink either, in my limited playing with it, but it didn't break anything for me. Luck! HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #207,025 by boxley 5/11/05 11:10:24 PM Reply	actively running apps? ps -ax works for me All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true" Terry Pratchett [link\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/] Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 48 years. meep questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #207,027 by broomberg 5/11/05 11:30:00 PM Reply	Wheee - multidesktop candy! [link\|http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/\|http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/]
Post #207,038 by tuberculosis 5/12/05 12:28:42 AM Reply	Sure Apple puts things into application layers rather than "every windows is equal" like windows does. This is a holdover from Switcher/MultiFinder which was the hack that allowed multitasking on the old OS. So Mac users think of "which application is active". The key to telling which application is active is to watch the menubar. Right next to the apple on the left is the name of the current app. With the advent of Cocoa, they changed it a little bit, there is still an application layer, but windows can intermix somewhat. IOW, its possible to have one Safari window be in front, then the Mail window behind it, then more Safari windows. However, if you close the current Safari window and the others are behind the windows of other applications, then the next frontmost Safari window will pop into the current Safari app layer (comes to the front). I know it sounds complicated but you get used to it pretty fast. Window mixing only occurs when you switch apps by clicking on windows. If you click on an icon on the doc or use the alt-tab to switch apps, then all app windows are pulled into the app's layer. Also, most apps continue to run even after the last window for that app is closed. To quit an app you have to select Quit from the app's menu (or cmd-Q). This is likely what happened when you switched to an app using alt-tab but found there were no windows. You might start getting acquainted with expose (F9) - that'll help you see what all you have open. I hope this helps. "Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" --Mark Twain "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
Post #207,041 by pwhysall 5/12/05 12:32:54 AM Reply	F9: aka the "omfg" key. Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #207,043 by broomberg 5/12/05 12:36:56 AM Reply	Thanks And I assume you meant "fn"-"F9", right?
Post #207,046 by pwhysall 5/12/05 12:47:47 AM Reply	Shouldn't be. Just plain ol' F9 Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #207,053 by broomberg 5/12/05 1:09:42 AM Reply	Plain f9 turns down the keyboard light.
Post #207,055 by pwhysall 5/12/05 1:19:08 AM Reply	Ah, must be a powerbookism. No kb light on ibook. And obviously no light on the Apple Pro keyboard I'm typing this on. Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #207,079 by SpiceWare 5/12/05 10:03:24 AM Reply	there's a setting to change that I did that on my mom's iBook so she wouldn't have to hit FN all the time. More info [link\|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25521\|here] Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass\|Artistic Overpass]\n[link\|http://www.spiceware.org/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #207,078 by SpiceWare 5/12/05 10:01:12 AM Reply	Probably the App has no open windows When you close the last open window of a program, it's up to the program if it's going to quit or not. If it doesn't quit, then it'll show up in the list of running programs but nothing will "come to the front" when you select it because there's no window to come to the front. You can tell the program became active by looking at the program name to the right of the Apple in the menu bar. This took me a bit to get used to, but it's second nature now. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass\|Artistic Overpass]\n[link\|http://www.spiceware.org/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

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