Not a problem - Han_Solo

One can customize the key strokes necessary to pull up the pager. I find option-tab works fine for me: command-tab to switch applications, option-tab to switch virtual screens. Nothing is lacking.

To the developer: please don't clutter the screen with a pager -- it is unnecessary, and it is most un-Mac-like. If someone wants to use a less elegant and capable alternative program for that reason, let them. DIfferentiation and competition are great things. The current implementation of the pager is far preferable given the nature and structure of VirtueDesktops. It is hardly necessary to go through over-dramatized contortions to use the pager in its current implementation, so I personally don't find the rationale behind this request compelling.

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Friday, December 15 2006 @ 07:51 AM PST

don't be afraid of features that you don't use - Marty.Skinner

To Hans Solo: as just one example, the Dock, despite it's shortcomings for some users is decidedly not "un-Mac-like" yet it has as a preference the ability to always be shown. Some Mac users like it better that way and some don't. I wouldn't want Apple as a developer to force me to use a keystroke to show the Dock, although it does provide one. The use of preferences gives that middle ground.

I use several applications that have little bits of a "pager" hanging at the edge of the screen for quick mouse-over access -- without needing any keystrokes. As a personal preference that's fine for me because I use the applications so infrequently that it would be much harder to remember some keys to bring it forward, and good universal key assignments really do get in short supply if you run a large mix of applications at the same time.

To the VirtueDesktops developer: decide for yourself each time the topic comes up if your application can support some kind of visible pager (area) on-screen. If you never want one then that's an okay choice and users can decide to leave or stay with your application based upon what you have provided. But if you're just concerned that some users, like Hans Solo, will not want to continue to use this application if it did have a visible pager then simply make it a preference that can be enabled for those that love what you've done otherwise and want a pager all the time.

I recognize the power of application users to come up with some of the best ideas and that sometimes those same ideas just aren't in the best interest to the application's intents. But in this case the application already has a pager -- so it's a matter of how the full version of it becomes viewable: a keystroke, a "hanging" area of the screen or perhaps even just always there.

/Marty

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Friday, December 15 2006 @ 09:38 AM PST