unity-design team mailing list archive

["gnomeuser@xxxxxxxxx" <gnomeuser@xxxxxxxxx>]

2011/3/11 Cyrille Ngassam Nkwenga <cyrildz@xxxxxxxxx>

> Hi all
>
> Would it be not a good idea to make the launcher more living by adding a
> zoom when we are moving the mouse over an icon on the launcher as Docky does
> ?
> Unity has made a good step forward and it would good to make it more living
> by adding this annimation, this should be the reponse of the launcher to the
> user when moving over him
>

I think that specific feature might be patented by Apple. At least as I
recall this was why Docky was removed from Fedora.

>From www.rpmfusion.org/Wishlist
Why not in Fedora: Docky (part of package gnome-do) was removed from fedora
due to patent violations (US Patent 7434177)

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,434,177.PN.&OS=PN/7,434,177&RS=PN/7,434,177

User interface for providing consolidation and access

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing graphical user interfaces are described.
To provide greater access and consolidation to frequently used items in the
graphical user interface, a userbar is established which includes a
plurality of item representations. To permit a greater number of items to
reside in the userbar, a magnification function can be provided which
magnifies items within the userbar when they are proximate the cursor
associated with the graphical user interface.

Yeah software patents suck.

- David