This program creates an "Alternate Dock" at the left-hand side of the NeXT
screen. Just like the NeXT dock, the Alternate Dock maintains windows (which
float above all others except menus) that represent applications. Double-
clicking one of these windows runs or unhides the corresponding application.
The Alternate Dock always has at least one window (called the "Dock" window,
and similar to the "NeXT" cube window at the top of the "real" dock). Dragging
this window moves all of the Alternate Dock's windows. The Alternate Dock is
two-dimensional (instead of 1-D in the NeXT-supplied dock) so you can place
windows along both the X and Y axes and also move the dock along those axes. Double-clicking the "Dock" window will cause AltDock's menu to disappear or
reappear.
A file named .altdock in your home directory tells AltDock where to place
its windows. Each window requires two, \n-terminated lines of the form:
x y
/NextApps/SomeApplication
x and y above are coordinates in a "grid", with (0,0) located at the NeXT
screen's lower-left corner, and positive X extending to the right, positive
Y extending up. AltDock will create a window for this application based
on these coordinates (for example, specifying (0,0) will cause a window to
appear in the lower-left corner, (-1,1) will cause a window to appear to the
left one grid position (64 pixels) and up one grid position).
The next line specifies the application's absoulte path name. Note that
you must specify an application name, not something ending in .app (for
example, the path name for WriteNow must be /NextApps/WriteNow.app/WriteNow).
When AltDock runs, it will ask the WorkSpace for this application's icon and
create a window located at (x,y) within the AltDock grid.
The .altdock file must also specify the location of the "Dock" window.
Specify coordinates as usual, but "Dock" should be application name.
Here's a sample .altdock file:
0 0
/NextApps/Terminal
0 3
Dock
0 2
/Users/surak/Apps/LockScreen
-1 -1
/NextDeveloper/Demos/Scene
AltDock uses Speaker/Listener methods to run and unhide programs, and
therefore suffers from certain limitations:
1. When AltDock runs a program, a second miniwindow icon appears
on the screen. Double-clicking either this window or the window
in the AltDock will unhide the application, so you don't really
need to keep the application's true miniwindow around. You can
hide it somewhere (behind the AltDock, for instance) to avoid
cluttering the screen.
2. AltDock can't tell when you quit a program that it started.
3. While you can keep copies of the same app. icon in the NeXT dock
(so you can easily create multiple instances of the same program),
you won't gain anything by doing that with AltDock: when you
double-click an AltDock icon, it searches for an existing instance
of that application.
Despite AtlDock's imperfections, it should be useful. Please send any
