unity-design team mailing list archive

[Remco <remco47@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 20:58, gnomeuser@xxxxxxxxx <gnomeuser@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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

That seems like a very specific patent. Claim 1 is the following:

"A computer system comprising: a display; a cursor for pointing to a
position within said display; a bar rendered on said display and
having a plurality of tiles associated therewith; and a processor for
varying a size of at least one of said plurality of tiles on said
display when said cursor is proximate said bar on said display and for
repositioning others of said plurality of tiles along said bar to
accommodate the varied size of said one tile."

So this patent is referring to the size of these tiles. The patent can
be avoided by using the folding technique instead of magnifying. So
instead of magnification following the cursor, the unfolding follows
the cursor.

-- 
Remco