What Happened to Single Window Mode?

[jaw04005]

Just recently downloaded the MacWorld Keynote from 2000 that first introduced Mac OS X.

Steve talked in length about "single window mode" where when opening a new application or document the current active application/document automatically minimizes to the dock.

Does this feature still exsists? I've used Mac OS X since 10.1 and have never seen it in use. Does it require a specific keyboard shortcut?

 

[nomore]

I saw that recently too and I wondered the same thing.

It goes against the OS X UI philosophy... hence why OS X doesn't use MDIs either. Expose makes it redundant anyway.

 

[mad jew]

What's an MDI?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

What's an MDI?

Multiple Document Interface. Essentially, there's a parent window for the whole application that uses child windows inside it for the documents.

 

[mad jew]

Thanks wrldwzrd89.

 

[slb]

Is there a place to find online videos of past keynotes for download?

 

[me_94501]

Is there a place to find online videos of past keynotes for download?

There used to be one at http://www.umeedu.maine.edu/apple/. If you go back to http://www.umeedu.maine.edu/, it brings up a Tiger Server placeholder page. I'd assume that they probably recently upgraded but didn't restore pages yet.

 

[Steve Ballmer]

From what I've read, it was removed before even the Public Beta of Mac OS X, sometime during one of the DPR releases. (I think it was DPR3?) As stated, it went against the philosophy of Mac OS X, but I also recall reading that most users just found it confusing, with windows constantly minimizing and the Dock constantly changing in size, so it was ultimately removed.

The pill button replaced it, and now the upcoming Lion seems to be replacing that with the fullscreen icon.

 

[MisterMe]

Stevie, you are responding to a six-year-old thread

 

[Steve Ballmer]

Stevie, you are responding to a six-year-old thread

So? What's the big deal? The man asked a question and I answered him.

I was curious myself as to what happened to it. I found this site that talks briefly about it. It seems it was removed due to people simply not liking it.

And thus it's somewhat ironic that Lion, in a way, will be bringing back a single window mentality with fullscreen applications.

 

[savourylie]

So? What's the big deal? The man asked a question and I answered him.

I was curious myself as to what happened to it. I found this site that talks briefly about it. It seems it was removed due to people simply not liking it.

And thus it's somewhat ironic that Lion, in a way, will be bringing back a single window mentality with fullscreen applications.

Thanks for answering Steve. I was just watching the Macworld 2000 a few minutes ago and saw Steve Jobs demonstrating this. Cuz I've been using OSX since it's first release and never seemed to have noticed this feature so was really curious about it. Just when I thought isn't this just like the full screen mode in Lion I saw you saying the same thing. LOL

This thread is the second on the list of results returned from Google when searching for "single window mode mac os x".

 

[Mic'sBook]

Craig Federighi brought me here (when talking about the Stage Manager in macOS Ventura):

The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2022 (@47:16)

See Steve Jobs' demo in action:
Macworld San Francisco 2000-The Mac OS X Introduction (Pt.3) (@6:55)