(no subject)

[lostcarpark]

This from Apple's email newsletter:

Want a fast way to switch from one open application to another?
Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther" makes it as easy as typing Command-Tab.

Now, I can't remember if the Alt-Tab shortcut was in Windows 1.0 in 1986, but it was certainly in Windows 2.0 in 1988 and every version since, so it's only taken Apple fifteen years to figure out that this is a good thing. But then it took them to System 7 to catch on to running multiple applications, and OSX to figure out preemptive multitasking.

Yes, Apple have come up with some great ideas, but let's not forget that they steal ideas too.

Comments

[lproven.livejournal.com]

I've read up on this now and I overreacted badly. Sorry, James; you didn't deserve that.

For the reference and to keep it straight: the modern Mac keyboard has Control, Alt (Option) and Command (Apple) keys. Command is for hotkeys to tell it to do something, Option modifies another key's action, and Ctrl is for PC compatibility. (Though since Opt=Alt, they could have just used Cmd=Ctrl).

Right. Cmd-Tab does task switching in 10.2 and I think it did in MacOS 9 as well. It didn't work in 10.1 and before, I believe, and so there was a little free addin called LiteSwitch. This makes Cmd-Tab pop up a box in the middle of the screen with the icons of all running apps, and repeated presses cycles through them. Just like Windows since about NT4.

In 10.3, Apple has copied this and built it in. In 10.2, the keystroke works, but the only visual clue is the icons in the Dock highlighting.

It's not much of a feature, but it's helpful. In general, though, Exposé is much more useful, and Windows so far has nothing remotely equivalent to that.

But yes, it's copied from Windows. It's trivial, so why not? Fast User Switching is also copied from XP, and for some users, is VERY handy. It's not triggered by Cmd-Tab, though, but by a new menu on the right-hand end of the menubar.