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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/04/20/x-assist:.classic/

X-Assist: Classic Mac OS feel for OS X

updated 02:35 am EDT, Fri April 20, 2001

 
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X-Assist 0.2 brings several of elements of the Classic Mac OS to OS X, including a menu for application switching, the ability to list unlimited recent applications, a new optional heirarchical shortcuts submenu, an extensible plugin architecture for adding quick control strip-like modules, and OS 9-windowing.


by MacNN Staff

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  1. 0

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    04/20, 10:38am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Great but...

    ..why do we have to relate more and more on 3rd parties when the OS needs improvement?
    X-Assist is great and it has a version number of 0.2. Can we be a bit more realistic and put Mac OS X at 0.1 or 0.2 also ? On the other hand it just got as high as 0.0.1 as a matter of fact. So there is plenty of versions to come until we got something useful like a 1.0 version, no?

    BTW Which 3rd party will do us the favour and program a new Finder ?

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    04/20, 11:34am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Wrong way 'round

    I would rather have something that made Mac OS 9 more like Mac OS X; in essence, do the opposite of what this program does.

  1. 0

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    04/20, 11:40am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Not necessary...

    I've been using OS X full time for over six months now, and OS 9 feels quite alien. I have zero third-party enhancement utilities installed, other than DragThing, which I also used in OS 9.

    I agree with "Wrong way" -- OS 9 needs work to feel more like OS X. Get rid of all the excess windows, let me have a dock, lose the Apple menu (never used it anyway), etc.

    Apple didn't write OS X Assist because it's not necessary. OS X isn't 0.1; if it were, my machine would not have been up and running for the last seven days straight while doing a variety of things that used to bring OS 9 to its knees (or that weren't even possible in OS 9).

    If you don't like OS X the way it is, send your feedback to Apple, stay on OS 9 for as long as you can, then re-evaluate X down the road. If you still hate it, switch to Winblowz or stay with 9 and your now-aging hardware...that's about all there is to it, as Apple is not moving back to OS 9.

  1. 0

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    04/20, 12:18pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Let go...

    It's your machine, so do what you want, but to imply that the new way is absolutely wrong and that the old way is absolutely right is silly.

    Sure there are things that are far different in X. Sure, there are features from 9 that I'd like to see in X. That doesn't mean that we should throw away X or that Apple got it wrong. If you install a lot of "fixes" on your system, you run the risk of making things less stable, and just hold on to the past.

    I was one of those who said that I wouldn't really accept the Finder until it had pop-up windows, a control strip, and spring-loaded folders. I have been running with no third-party extensions for months now, and while I still long for some of those things, I have come to appreciate the steps forward that Apple has made.

    Embrace the future. If you want things, give Apple feedback. If enough people want the same things, they'll add it. Their track record shows that they will listen.

  1. 0

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    04/20, 12:41pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    ASM

    ASM is a much better solution to the application menu. From MacNN yesterday...

    Frank Vercruesse's ASM 1.0 provides an Application Switcher Menu to the top right side of the menu bar in Mac OS X, emulating the application menu familiar to users of OS 9.1 and earlier.

  1. 0

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    04/20, 05:31pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Re: ASM (a bit off topic)

    Yes, ASM v1.0 is terrific so far. I'm so used to throwing the cursor up to the right upper corner and switching to another app (plus I can tell very quickly what's up and running rather than looking across the Dock at a mixture of running and unlaunched apps bad...the only good feature is that dock icons can display dynamically like quicktime, cpu monitor, etc. Tog' would be (is) so disappointed...the Dock encompasses just about every UI mistake you can make (except at least the infinite height has been added since PB)...and it's a central element of the Finder.

    What the h*** was so wrong about a customizable Apple menu and a menubar application switcher, Steve Jobs?

  1. 0

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    04/20, 05:32pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Re: ASM (a bit off topic)

    Yes, ASM v1.0 is terrific so far. I'm so used to throwing the cursor up to the right upper corner and switching to another app (plus I can tell very quickly what's up and running rather than looking across the Dock at a mixture of running and unlaunched apps...a dumb way to do things, IMHO)

    For most things, the Dock is *very* lame...magnification (keep it off), indication of running apps (mixed randomly into dock elements), trash (which likes to slide to the side when you drag to it, like some cruel practical joke), etc, etc...almost everything about it is bad...the only good feature is that dock icons can display dynamically like quicktime, cpu monitor, etc. Tog' would be (is) so disappointed...the Dock encompasses just about every UI mistake you can make (except at least the infinite height has been added since PB)...and it's a central element of the Finder.

    What the h*** was so wrong about a customizable Apple menu and a menubar application switcher, Steve Jobs?

  1. 0

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    04/21, 12:46am | report spam | Reply | delete

    I like It

    I like it better than ASM. I will continue to use it.

  1. 0

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    04/21, 04:15am | report spam | Reply | delete

    ASM

    ... is great! I was one of those folks who never really cared for the app switcher in previous systems.... until it was gone. The Dock is ok if you don't have plenty of apps open but you reach a certain threshold where it takes longer to get to a particular app (even with magnification) than via a simple listing like the app switcher. Given that with OS X, it is even easier to keep many more apps going, the Dock gets even more congested. Having multiple options is a major plus for those of us who want to take advantage of both old/new behaviors.

  1. 0

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    04/21, 08:26pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    X-Assist is fabulous

    Peter Li has done it again. Release 0.2 runs in the background, reproduces the app menu, and provides a hierarchical launch menu. Also fixes that quirky mix of stacked menu's that OS X uses.

    Hey all, if you want OS to look like OS X, um, get OS X

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