From The Dock, at developer.apple.com:
An application should always present a window when its Dock icon is clicked. This behavior compensates for the all-too-familiar case where a user closes a document window and thinks she has quit the application. The next time the user wants to use the application, indicated by a click on its Dock icon, a new window opens so that the user is absolutely sure that the application is active.
Does anyone else find this feature slightly annoying? Maybe I’m just used to Mac OS 9, but I don’t appreciate applications opening a window without my say so. Maybe I don’t want a huge browser window to pop up every time I switch to Safari. Maybe I switched to TextEdit for the open dialog, not a new blank document. This behavior is somehow intuitive? “All-too-familiar case,” indeed.
Actually, it’s not any different from how mac os 8 and 9 did things. In System 6 and 7, it was so common to have people close all the windows of an application thinking it had been quit. Then they would double click on the icon and nothing would happen. They would then get frustrated, complain that macs suck, and then buy a windows machine. Because of this, in Mac OS 8 Apple put it in their Interface Guidelines that whenever an application is launched, it has to show a new window (as the application would if it were launched).
What to remember about the dock is that it’s an applicaiton switcher AND a launcher, so it has to follow the same procedure as a launcher. Now, I think that there are problems with the dock, but I don’t think this issue is one of them. It’s easy for us power users to click on the dock icon, close the new window that is spawned, and then press cmd-o. It’s harder for novice users to click the icon, and then sit and wonder why nothing is happening.
and in most cases, opening a window is just what the power user would want to do. Why would you *not* want a window to open when you click the safari icon if there are no windows open? possibly to open a file from the hard drive, but how often does that happen? The same goes for mail, iCal, iTunes.
plus, most power users switch applications using cmd-tab, which is a pure switcher. This will not spawn a new window because there is no question wether the user knows the application is open.
It’s a matter of trying to please both crowds, and I think it works well for the most part.
Yeah, they just couldn’t satisfy me.
For me, clicking on an icon in the Dock means “Switch to this application,” not “Open a new window in the application.” Yes, I concede that most of the time I do want a new Safari window, but I would rather do it myself. For better or for worse, that’s how I feel about it. Getting a new window feels unnatural.
As for Cmd-Tab, I use it very infrequently (if ever). I find it hard to follow unless all the applications in the Dock are open. (ie. every “tab” goes to the next icon, not an icon two or three spaces down in the Dock.) In fairness, I really haven’t use it much. I’ll give it a shot today.
I’ve used cmd-tab for switching, but usually I’ll just click on the icon and deal with the new window(if I have to). Also, most of the time that I’m opening something off the harddrive I just use an (already open) finder window to get at the file.
The actual problem stems from us living in a *windows* world. In Windows, when you close all the windows (confusing phrase), the app has quit. So when you launch a new application, a window opens. People expect this from mac applications because they don’t want it to work too differently than windows.
As for cmd-tab, in Panther there will be a windows-like switcher that pops up (at 128 sized icons, nonetheless), so it’s easier to follow your app switching. Personally, I can’t live without cmd-tab (and alt-tab at work).
I admit it’s a little weird to have a window open up in TextEdit when it already has an Open/Save dialog and you switch to it. I just tried it, because I was incredulous that it actually worked that way.
I have to say that most of the time, I think that switching to new apps from the Dock works the way I expect it to.
In general, I like the Dock. I think it could be better thought-out in some cases (and perhaps this is one of them, although I rarely see people switching away from an open app with a dialog displayed). It’s locked in my muscle memory, down there at the bottom of the screen. I have a problem whenever someone has set the Dock to stick to the right or left border of the screen. (I suppose a lot of that preference may be due to people who have widescreen displays or not. It very rarely gets in my way at the bottom of a 1024×768 display, but I also have it set to hide.)
This is a pretty good safari solution… And no I didnt think it up. I grabbed it from another forum. Go into Script Editor and put in the following lines:
tell application “Safari”
make new document with properties {URL:”http://www.macosxhints.com”}
end tell
Save it as an application and then put it in your dock. A new window in Safari will be opened every time you click it!! yay!!
-Pete
I have safari on my dock. I click on safari but it does not open.I then go to Safari bar at top, click on file and click on open to get to Safari home page…this occurred out of nowhere…before that, I clicked on Safari on dock and home page opened. What happened??