IDEA: zoom windows instead of maximize (from MacOSX)

[mkristof]

Mac OS X has coloured buttons on windows: Close, Minimize, Zoom.
Zoom is actually Maximize in most applications but in some basic software like Safari it works as expected: a windowresizer button which resizes the actual window according to its content.
There's a big debate about maximize vs zoom but i think both are important. There are some situation where maximize is much better but elsewhere zoom is more useful.
I was talking about this feature with the creator of the software called DM2 (former DialogMate). With this software you can assign many actions to the Min/Max/Close buttons on Windows (middle/right mouseclick). Unfortunately he abandoned his project.

I think this feature would be very useful on Windows too, do a right click on the Maximize button of a window and have the window resized according to its content. It's like the scrollbars. Their length is determined by the content of the window.

Please somebody tell me if it's a good idea.

Thanks

[jgpaiva]

I think i'm not following what you mean (note that i have never used mac osx on my life).
But it looks like the kind of stuff that is mac-only, since it must be the app itself that informs the operating system of what would be the ideal size for it to be resized. If it's that, probably it won't be possible in windows.

Anyways, could you direct me to the talk you had with the author of DM2 (if it's a plublic conversation), anr/or please explain your idea a bit better?

[Darwin]

Sounds a bit like a "Fit to Page" function?

[mkristof]

Sorry if my description wasn't good enough.

Actually i'm not a fan of Mac OS but there are some useful features like this. I tried to find a video demonstrating it but couldn't find any so i try to describe.

If the content is larger than the size of the window -> scrollbars appear.
The zoom button resizes the window to a bigger size where the scrollbars disappear - if the content is larger then the screen area then the size of the window will be the maximum available according to the screen size. Anyway i work on a Mac at my workplace and i know a lot of situations where this features show a lot of bugs.

It seems a non-killer (rather useless) feature when i try to describe it In Windows or any linux DE you just grab the window edge anywhere and resize it while on Mac OS you have only the bottom right corner to resize a window.

[jgpaiva]

I see what you mean, mkristof!
From what i understand, this could be done with calls to the windows api (which informs about the state of the scrollbars).
Unfortunatelly, currently i am not at that skill level, of someone could step in...