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Steve Jobs Patents "The Dock"
theodp writes "If you're a PC, you may be unfamiliar with The Dock, the bar of icons that sits at the bottom or side of a Mac and provides easy access to Apple applications. But don't count on it becoming a standard on the PC. On Tuesday, the USPTO awarded Apple — and inventor Steve Jobs — a patent for their User Interface for Providing Consolidation and Access, aka 'The Dock,' after a rather lengthy nine-year wait."
I don't think this was covered on Slashdot and I wish I could find a better citation than this but it's been said that Apple has threatened makers of "docks" for PCs with lawsuits. I can't verify that but I do know that I downloaded and installed a beta program called Y'z Dock which was developed by a now defunct crew.
... but my default response to software patents is that they're broken. Those of you that use Windows will never know the dock because Steve Jobs doesn't want it that way. Also, I'm kind of pissed that "a PC" means Windows ... it means personal computer, does it not? Isn't my Linux machine a personal computer? I hate that. But that's a totally offtopic rant triggered by marketing from all camps.
The Y'z Dock software was really really slick and very comparable to Apple's. You can still find the beta distros on pages like Fileforum and other third party hosters (I won't link because you will have to use those at your own risk).
I don't think anyone in the community ever thought they could get away with mimicking the dock
My work here is dung.
Reading the patent, it specifices a magnification effect on the icon the mouse is over.
OS2 Had the Dock as well !
CDE came out in 1993. The MacOS dock has its origin in NeXT who was later purchased by Apple, leading to Steve Jobs coming back to Apple.
Nextstep was first released in 1989 with previews all the way back to 1986 (according to Wikipedia anyway).
Thus, Nextstep does seem to preceed CDE by quite a few years and with NeXT Apple purchased these IP rights.
What this means for other OSes and Dock implementations I don't know.
Another example of prior art is HP's Dashboard. (It was a 'Program Manager' replacement for Windows 3.1. It's main design hurdle was that it was in the middle of the screen and thus you had to either keep minimizing apps, or resize them around the center program launcher if you wanted to quickly swap around to different applications. Once you got around it's quirks if was a very fine piece of software for its time.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
The "Dock" allows quick access to both commonly-run applications (like the quick launch and/or start menu) and currently-running applications and windows (like the task buttons and system tray). Either way, Windows has had the same thing since Win95.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Can you even bother to read the abstract?
To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the graphical user interface, a userbar is established which includes a plurality of item representations.
Not the patentable part...
To permit a greater number of items to reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor associated with the graphical user interface.
Ah, yes, there we go. The patent is for rollover magnification of the items in the dock.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Patent application #5146556 from 1992 is clearly the precursor to the Dock. Filed by Steve Jobs et al, while at NeXT.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
More like a mix of the quicklaunch and taskbar. You can customise it to hold whatever applications you want, and it also keeps track of all open applications, as well as minimised windows and the trashcan.
I only have OS 10.4 and it doesn't have any option of showing regularly used applications that I can see. Perhaps that's a 10.5 thing - either that or the wording of the patent is just overly ambiguous (since you can indeed customise it manually to show regularly used apps).
which is totally what she said
Windows doesn't have any widget that gives you access to both running apps and common apps in the same place. A task bar combined with a quick launch bar is slightly different, as you'll end up with 2 icons for something launched from the quick launch bar, one representing the running app, and the other prepared to launch another instance. Mac's interface is different from windows.
No, congress passed a law last year exempting interpreted scripting languages from patent claims.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Well, yes, Steve Jobs (ever heard of him?) introduced the Dock at NeXT almost 20 years ago.
This patent is for the annoying magnification effect that was added in OS X only 10 years ago.
/. story here
1. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a bar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a size of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display and for repositioning others of said plurality of tiles along said bar to accommodate the varied size of said one tile.
Roughly, increasing the size of the icon which the mouse is over, and repositioning icons around it.
36. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display, in accordance with a predefined relationship between an effect width W, a default height h of said at least one of said plurality of tiles and a selected maximum height H of said at least one of said plurality of tiles wherein said predefined relationship includes a function S defined as: S=((H-h)/2)/sine(.pi..times.(h+2)/(W.times.2)).
Roughly, a bar in a gui where the position of icons nearby the mouse is modified according to the formula given.
65. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display, wherein said processor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles with a first predetermined fade-in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles, and with a second predetermined fade-in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from outside a region associated with said userbar.
Roughly, displaying the name of a program (by fading it in) when you run the mouse over the associated icon from outside the dock.
67. A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a position within said display; a userbar rendered on said display and having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for varying a position of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display, wherein said processor displays a label associated with said at least one of said plurality of tiles with a first predetermined fade-in rate when said cursor moves proximate said at least one of said plurality of tiles from another of said plurality of tiles, and wherein said processor fades out said label when said cursor moves away from said at least one of said plurality of tiles using a first fade out rate when said cursor moves into another of said at least one of said plurality of tiles, and using a second fade out rate when said cursor moves out of a region associated with said bar.
Roughly, displaying the name of a program (by fading it in) when you run the mouse over the associated icon from another icon.
69. A method for displaying items in a graphical user interface comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of said items in a region of said graphical user interface, each of said items having a default height associated therewith; moving a cursor along said region; and selectively magnifying at least one of said items closest to said cursor to a first level and magnifying items proximate to said one item to other levels less than said first level.
more like the quick launch bar...which granted appeared only in XP.
More like Windows 95...
Adding Applications to Internet Explorer 4.0's Quick Launch Toolbar
Inside Microsoft Windows 95
A publication of The Cobb Group
Published March 1998
If you've installed Internet Explorer 4.0, you've probably noticed the new Quick Launch toolbar sitting between the Start button and the taskbar, as shown in Figure A. The icons on this handy toolbar make it very easy to launch some of Internet Explorer's applications. Once you get in the habit of using the Quick Launch toolbar, you'll quickly appreciate its convenience and efficiency. [...]
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Not really. It was in NeXTSTEP yet in 1987 and earlier...
You've never actually seen OSX have you? The OSX dock has short cuts to apps, shows running apps and can also show/browse folders (by default Documents and Downloads). Running apps can even show information through their icon (eg iPulse).
All in one place.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
because it's freakin obvious as hell. imagine if every generic UI feature were patented when they first came out:
all of those UI features could have been patented in the same way the the dock is being patented. but such patents would not benefit society in any way, just the opposite. imagine if Xerox had panted their GUI research. most of those ideas would have been independently developed & implemented by other developers regardless of whether they were published as a patent. so all such patents do is hinder technological progress by forbidding others from using trivial/obvious ideas.
this isn't like discovering a process to vulcanize rubber or some other innovative and recondite invention. this is a simple general arrangement of pre-existing UI elements. Jobs hasn't contributed anything to the corpus of human knowledge with this patent.
Actually, in 3.1 you could have 'MOM' the Microsoft Office Manager, that was a bar that sat at the top of the screen with icons to launch Office apps. It was part of Office, not Windows, but it's been around for a while. In Office 95 they replace it with a bar that could dock with the side of the screen like another task bar.
Thanks for the flashbacks. I forget how long I've been doing this sometimes.
If you'd read the patent (I suspect most Slashdot readers won't), you'll see it specifically describes the Apple Dock. It even mentions running "Apple applications" as well as rollover magnification. People are overreacting.
I don't mean to pick on you in particular in this story, but you're the first post I ran across I could reply about this to.
Every single person on here talking about prior art, prior patents, the quick start bar or any of a dozen other things among the responses to this story clearly have never written, or had to read or evaluate a patent before.
If you don't know how to read a patent (and there are *very* specific ways that the description relates to both independent and dependent claims), then you really have no idea what you're talking about when you start talking about prior art.
And FYI, the quick start bar is not prior art for the independent claims being made in this patent.
Its one thing to criticize software patents in general, but you shouldn't get specific with criticisms unless you know what you're talking about... it weakens the arguments you may be making.
You've never actually seen Windows have you? The Windows task bar has short cuts to apps, shows running apps and can also show/browse folders (by default Documents). Running apps can even show information through their icon.
Your quest begins in the folder options dialog, where you'll need to expose a double hidden/system folder, buried in the depths of your Application Data.
Or you could just right click the quick launch area and select 'Open Folder'. You're choice really.
Bullshit - the dock on Mac didn't show up until 7.5, and it was stolen from a free (non-Apple) system extension then anyway (like almost every "upgrade" after System 7).
"The dock has been part of the Macintosh OS and user interface since its introduction in 1984."
Uh. No. The 1984 Mac (which I owned and for which I also wrote software) most certainly did NOT have a dock. It had menus and windows and desktop icons... but no dock.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
There's a triangle under a running app, and no triangle if the app isn't running. On NeXTStep, the same was provided by the presence/absence of ellipses (three dots), as in WindowMaker.
It's not that hard to spot.
I had "The Dock" on my AMIGA 500! It wasn't raster-based scaling icons but it was "The Dock" regardless. AmiDock anyone?? Anyone??
Sorry but the Dock comes from NeXTStep which was demoed in 1987 and shipped in 1989 by NeXT Inc which was started by Steve Jobs after he was forced out of Apple. Later, NeXT was bought out by Apple and Steve Jobs returned to Apple as acting CEO.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.