Docks (was: Re: How to remove things from task bar

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, 4 May 2022 at 13:50, <ubuntu at howorth.org.uk> wrote:

> A dock to me is a hardware device where I plug in something like a
> laptop to access other devices.

The term "dock" is from Apple macOS, and is inherited from NeXT and
the NeXTstep UI.

It is some of the only prior art of any kind for the Win95 UI, along
with the RISC OS "icon bar".

Dock was ™ to Apple at one point, I think.

GNOME 3 & 40+ calls this a Dash.

Unity called it the Launcher.


>  A toolbar is a feature of some
> application programs.

Fair.

> I've no idea what a 'bryce' is.

Me neither. I think it's an addon.

> Personally I tend to use panel, but I could live with taskbar or tray.

Panel: control placed along a screen edge which contains mainly
notification icons and system-wide controls. It to me is a generic
term.

The main thing distinguishing a launcher type panel from a dock is
that a dock floats and does not extend from one screen corner to the
other.

If it's part of the length of the edge, it's a dock. It it's the whole
length, it's a panel.

To me, a taskbar is a Win9x thing, copied by most Linux desktops now.

The distinguishing features of the Windows taskbar are:

* an app launching menu, which may be hierarchical
* some system settings and preferences controls, maybe embedded in the
app launcher menu, maybe separate
* at the opposite end, a clock
* usually next to the clock, some status icons
* in Win9x these were contained in a special dedicated area that was
visually recessed. MS called this the System Notification Area but
users called it the System Tray.

A distinguishing feature between early taskbars and docks was that the
taskbar contained a _menu_ for launching apps but _not_ icons for
launching them. The taskbar contained only the menu, the tray with the
clock and status icons, and between them, buttons for switching
between open windows.

The dock is _both_ a launcher _and_ a switcher and contains icons for
both inactive, not-yet-running apps _and_ icons for open apps allowing
you to both launch and switch with the same action.

Apple added an activity LED  to this to distinguish open apps.

But in Win98 MS blurred the lines by adding the "quick launch toolbar"
which  survived for about 25y into Windows 10. I still use it. It is a
dedicated zone, originally next to the start button, with launcher
icons.

These are only launchers and not switchers, and when launched, an app
will _also_ have a bigger switcher button _as well_.

Docks have a launcher icon that  _becomes_ the switcher button if the
app is already running.

It's an important functional distinction that GNOME 3 preserves.

After Windows Vista, MS deprecated the quick launch bar and allowed
apps to be "pinned" to replicate the Dock functionality.


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