The Need for "Single Window Mode" 3241

It is not entirely clear to me why it IS useful, however.

Still, what maximize gives you is not spatial task organization but tidyness. Users do value this, though one may argue that they should not.

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Well, I said 'even' iTunes has a very condensed UI, and a rather cryptic one because of it.

Many other apps use more space than it does.

Web pages- beyond the very simple ones- usually do not scale to larger layouts effectively. They are therefore very hard to use if your window or screen is too small, and you gain nothing by expanding beyond their design size.

Other apps do scale; even iTunes does to a limited degree.

VS 2005 scales more: if you have more space you can turn off autohide on various panels so they are always visible. With even more space, you can re-arrange the panels so more of them are visible at once.

These are extremes, of course. I feel sure I could make VS 2005 use those crazy 40" displays you mentioned, but it's exceptionally configurable. iTunes is exceptionally rigid and I doubt I could do much with space beyond 20" at most.

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Fascinating. I wonder if they were maximizing their apps. :D

Think of it as preserving the metaphor. They need to be as big as *real* windows, right? :D

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He's a Threat to the Natural Order of our Society. :D

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The keyboard shortcuts are not enough to acheive the coveted goal of tidyness with OS X.

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Yes. This obviates the dock's weakness to some extent, but even so some apps do benefit from multiple windows- like the Finder for one.

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No, that's not what I meant.

I am refering to the visual effect; it *looks messy*.

It does not look any the less messy if the content is relevant.