OS X Lion's Resume Feature: A Cautionary Tale

[matthew12]

Possible Way To Fix

Within the first week of it coming out, someone will developer an application that allows you to disable resume for certain apps. I'd like to do that for Safari and Quicktime, especially if the latter is in full-screen mode when quitting.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I think it would work better if, instead of "Quit", there was a "Quit" option, and a "Quit and Save State" option, with command+q defaulting to "Quit and Save State"

 

[arahlen]

It really doesn't make sense to restore all previous windows when the user opens the program by double-clicking another document. This behaviour makes sense if the user opens the program by the program icon, nothing else. But I guess, it's the ios way... In ios there is no document paradigm, just applications.

 

[batchtaster]

Close file.

Then quit.

Browsers already resume, so this is not a new phenomenon. Replace "QuickTime Player" with "Firefox" or "Safari".

 

[bailorg]

So, would a browser in a "Private Browsing" mode still resume to its previous state during a relaunch?

 

[gnasher729]

This tells me that resume needs to become an optional feature. hopefully without the need for 3rd party software.

It's already there. It is called "closing the window".

 

[RichardBeer]

This is exactly the issue I saw the moment it was announced, although I assumed they'd have easily foresaw this and implemented some measure. I guess not...

 

[nagromme]

Close the embarassing window... don’t quit the embarrassing app! Either way it’s just one command.

(Hold Option and look in the File menu for a quick Close All. Key: Cmd-Opt-W.)

It really doesn't make sense to restore all previous windows when the user opens the program by double-clicking another document. This behaviour makes sense if the user opens the program by the program icon, nothing else. But I guess, it's the ios way... In ios there is no document paradigm, just applications.

Since manual Quitting is nearing irrelevancy (going the way of manual V-mem management!), the way you describe would be like opening one document and having all other documents auto-close. That would be bad.

This way, you don’t have to remember or think about whether the app is running or not. It behaves the same regardless.

 

[Insolence]

I think Apple's point in doing things this way is that you should only have to worry about opening/closing documents, not applications. Document-based applications should use little, if any, resources when there are no documents opened anyway.

I'm an Apple-Tab App Switch User for fast App Switching. More Apps open, more stuff to mouse over. This new method clashes with Apple-Tab App Switch Users.

Plus, Lion is all about Fullscreen. Imagine QuickTime, or possibly Safari even:

1. Quit Fullscreen
2. Close Window
3. Quit Application

Thought we were supposed to be going faster, not slowing down?

 

[MJNBGA]

Maybe there should be a dialog box asking if you want to resume or restart an app, if that wouldn't be too much of a nuisance.

That would get too annoying...

 

[arahlen]

Since manual Quitting is nearing irrelevancy (going the way of manual V-mem management!), the way you describe would be like opening one document and having all other documents auto-close. That would be bad.

I just fail to see the use of "Letter to mom.doc" opening when I doubble click "Spring Festival.doc", especially if the letter to mom was finalized and sent 2 weeks ago.

 

[arahlen]

This way, you don’t have to remember or think about whether the app is running or not. It behaves the same regardless.

Can't say I ever worry about whether the app is running or not. Todays Finder will actually start the application for me when I double click the document I want to edit.

 

[tkermit]

Can't say I ever worry about whether the app is running or not. Todays Finder will actually start the application for me when I double click the document I want to edit.

Yes, but the system won't close the application for you automatically, and isn't able to restore closed applications to the exact state they were in when you last used them. That is the important part. If
Lion does its job, you won't have to worry about quitting apps anymore

 

[satkin2]

I'm an Apple-Tab App Switch User for fast App Switching. More Apps open, more stuff to mouse over. This new method clashes with Apple-Tab App Switch Users.

Plus, Lion is all about Fullscreen. Imagine QuickTime, or possibly Safari even:

1. Quit Fullscreen
2. Close Window
3. Quit Application

Thought we were supposed to be going faster, not slowing down?

As I see it, they just want you to Cmd-W. Close the window and the programme is open in the background but using minimal resources.

I've not used Lion yet, but I assume you can Cmd-Q from full screen too?

This still takes two commands rather than one at the moment though, I'd expect some refinment as Lion has point increments.

 

[Hildron101010]

Discard Windows

There is another really easy way to do this. If you press Option CMD Q it will close your app and discard the windows. If you open the application menu and hold down Option, you will see that you get a "Quit and Discard Windows" option. That has been there for a while.

 

[arahlen]

Yes, but the system won't close the application for you automatically, and isn't able to restore closed applications to the exact state they were in when you last used them. That is the important part. You won't have to worry about quitting apps anymore

And I find this behaviour not optimal in a normal desktop computer. When I only close a window, focus will stay on the application that I no longer whish to use.

After closing the window, the user will see the finder beneath and might think this is the active application. But any keyboard shortcuts are still sent to the "closed" application, resulting in something the user did not intend to.


The restoring part is all good and well as long as the user is in the habit of often leave the work in progress midways, going to another application for a while, then returning to the first.
If the user process on the other hand is to finish work before switching applications then restoring (or issuing an extra "close all windows" command) is bothersome.
If the user is in the habit of shutting down the computer and going home by the end of the day, restoring might or might not be bothersome, depending on the situation.

Pushing the ios paradigm onto desktop users will have theses negative side effects, no matter how nice the feature is on an ipad.

 

[zin]

So let me get this straight before I get caught.

I can Cmd + W and then Cmd + Q, and this will restore the App's state but not the App's windows state? If that's the way to go then I've no problems.

 

[adcx64]

Perhaps there can be a separate button for resume. It could be a fourth button next to the close button.

 

[tkermit]

And I find this behaviour not optimal in a normal desktop computer. When I only close a window, focus will stay on the application that I no longer whish to use.

After closing the window, the user will see the finder beneath and might think this is the active application. But any keyboard shortcuts are still sent to the "closed" application, resulting in something the user did not intend to.

I guess. That's more of a problem with OS X's menu bar solution though. I can definitely see how this would be confusing for beginning users. I personally don't see a problem with that as I'm used to keeping track of the application name that is displayed in the upper left screen corner.

The restoring part is all good and well as long as the user is in the habit of often leave the work in progress midways, going to another application for a while, then returning to the first.
If the user process on the other hand is to finish work before switching applications then restoring (or issuing an extra "close all windows" command) is bothersome.

I still don't see how it would be bothersome, since there shouldn't be a need for issuing an extra command to close the windows, but instead you are supposed to issue a "close all windows" instead of a "close application" command.

So let me get this straight before I get caught.

I can Cmd + W and then Cmd + Q, and this will restore the App's state but not the App's windows state? If that's the way to go then I've no problems.

That's how it's supposed to work. Just close the windows and you should be fine.

 

[Tyrion]

Yeah, a lot more people are going to get caught watching porn inadvertently. I can't see that ending well.

Why? Maybe people should stop being so uptight, sheesh.

On another note, who on earth videotapes a BIRTH? And WATCHES it again later?

 

[gnasher729]

I just fail to see the use of "Letter to mom.doc" opening when I doubble click "Spring Festival.doc", especially if the letter to mom was finalized and sent 2 weeks ago.

The "Resume" feature is not isolated, there are other things that work together.

When you finalized "letter to mom" and sent it, all you needed to do is close the window. Then another Lion feature kicks in: Since the editor is now just sitting around, doing nothing (no windows open), and you think you might just quit it, that's exactly what the app itself will say to the operating system. The app can then go completely out of sight. Like on the iPhone; it can keep running so that it is there immediately when needed, but the OS can kill it at any time.

 

[gkpm]

I can feel a "Private mode" coming in the next version of Lion: no app state, no "Recent files".

 

[JReinn]

When I close an app with "CMD+Q" I do it for a reason. I do it because I want the app to start from it's default state, the next time I launch it. Why couldn't they just do, so the apps running "in the background" have those little dots under them, just like if you used "CMD+W". To me that makes most sense. So that you'd be able to see which apps will be resumed, and which won't.

And if you have an app that you can see will resume to it's previous state, but you don't want it to do that (I'll use Quicktime as an example) you'd just right click, and close the app and all windows (Like CMD+Q).

 

[ursbraem]

reboot w/o resume

Preferences won't work for this use case.

Only at the moment you shut down / reboot your computer you know what your actual needs are (maybe you want a fresh reboot just to unclutter your running system, close down all windows etc.).

So turning off resume could be available optionally each time you reboot / shut down.

 

[Insolence]

As I see it, they just want you to Cmd-W. Close the window and the programme is open in the background but using minimal resources.

I've not used Lion yet, but I assume you can Cmd-Q from full screen too?

This still takes two commands rather than one at the moment though, I'd expect some refinment as Lion has point increments.

Yes you can Q from Fullscreen as well.

Lion needs a lot of refining tbh imo.
- Fullscreen moves the App Window to a new Space, so now you can't CMD-<Insert Number> to get to a specific Space anymore.
- There's the issue here with Resume, and the issue where Resume automatically re-opens all Applications after an Emergency Shut Down (Options Box please? When using and Older Computer this can be deadly.....)
- Versions is a Time Machine on Wheels that saves everything. Every time you make even a tiny Spelling Correction, anything at all, it saves it. This is just pointless.

Apart from that, people still using the old Magic Mouse most likely have a clogged Scroll Wheel, with the new Window Re-Size from all Sides feature, those Users need to push the right side of the screen right to the edge of the Scroll Wheel.

And Finder (all Apps tbh...) still don't remember window position and sizing, need to re-size every-single-window, still.

With Resume and the Spaces change, they seem to be throwing in the new stuff, disregarding the old stuff that they've still left coded in, and simply expect us to adapt. The Spaces change, you can still CMD+Numbers to switch Spaces, but not if you use Fullscreen. If you don't want Resume to re-open everything, you need to Close + Quit if you're an Apple-Tab Fast-App Switching User.

I personally don't care how they want me to use the OS (never wanted iOS integration in the first place), if the Apple-Tab Function for Fast-App Switching continues to be a part of Lion, I'll keep using it. Not very nice of them to just trundle on and leave all these gaps in their thinking.