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From: zoara on 26 Jun 2010 19:12
Ian McCall <ian(a)eruvia.org> wrote:
> On 2010-06-23 23:00:12 +0100, zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> said:
>> It seems to me that the way this is referred to as the multitasking
>> thing by many people is quite a misnomer. It's just a "most recently
>> used" list.
>>> Given that, couldn't you just open the app to move it to the front,
> > > then
>> go back to what you were doing? .....
>
> You see, that's what I mean. Classic Windows'ism - I work around the
> interface, not the interface around me. Yes, I could do exactly as you
> suggest and it would work. But it's clumsy, it means I need to think
> about how the machine will work not the machine thinking about how I
> will work.

I agree it's clumsy, I'm just not sure Apple believe enough people would
want to do that for it to be worth the confusion Apple believes it may
cause.

>> It's not a proper rearrange, but I think
>> Apple are implementing their 80/20 rule; most people would understand
>> "most recently used first" and would have no desire to rearrange that
>> list.
>
> As I said, sensible default but no reason why not to pick it up and
> alter it afterwards.

Having thought about it, I think I agree now. Having the ability to do
it *shouldn't* have any effect on people who never use it.

>> It's annoying, but it seems more of an Apple-ism than a Windows-ism
> > to
>> me. Omitted by design rather than just not having been thought of.
>
> I honestly doubt it, but if you're right and it has been - well then,
> I completely disagree with their design and can back it up with many
> years of XP taskbar frustration.

Yeah, I think I'm assuming too much. I felt that since the code for
wiggling exists (along with "tap to remove", just with a minus sign
instead of a cross) then it would have been more work for them *not* to
have the rearrange ability, ie it is something they'd have to turn off
rather than write extra code for.

But the minus sign came in very late during the betas, and I (now)
reckon it's probably a fair bit of work (ie not just a couple of lines
of code) to enable rearrangement behaviour that functions in a sensible
way on that particular list.

I still think there's a chance it's disabled by design, though - people
might get confused trying (and failing) to rearrange stuff from that
dock onto the springboard. But that assumption may be down to me not
having used iOS 4 outside of an Apple Store.

-z-




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email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
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