Is anyone able to use Unsanity haxies with Lion?

oxcart wrote:

You can of course, use parallels to emulate Snow Leopard seamlessly on Lion. That way you keep the haxie.

That is what he was talking about...

I found this on the Mac Store concerning WindowMizer.

Restores a much beloved functionality

If you have never used windowshading, you should try this. Of all the features that were lost in the move from System 9 to System X, this has been the most missed (hundreds of thousands of Google hits, most all in search of it), and for excellent reason. Try it for two weeks, and you’ll never want to be without it.

Windowshade was invented at the time of System 7 & incorporated into System 8. I know the history quite well because I was one of the people at Apple instrumental in getting it into System 8 having fallen in love with it myself. The boys from NeXT, having never used it, ripped it out in the move to OS X and replaced it with something provably inferior. WindowMizer puts windowshading back and does so in a way that avoids hacking into the operating system in the process. It's clean and will keep working with minimal upkeep. As others have pointed out, the functionality properly belongs in the OS itself, but Apple has always been and continues to be too stubborn to ever admit mistakes. In the meantime, this is the best that can be done without hacking the system. Other reviewers have pointed out problems, but the ones I’ve read can all be traced to poor documentation. I’m hoping what follows will straighten that out.

The first problem, having to have an application running all the time, is not really a problem. This is a tiny app, and we all have dozens, perhaps hundreds of processes running on our machines all the time. A problem only arises if the app doesn’t start up when the machine starts up. Normally, the WindowMizer preferences will set themselves to ensure that the app will launch automatically. If it doesn’t or your not sure, launch WindowMizer, open its Preferences, and ensure both options on the General tab are checked.

The rest of the problems arise when you try to minimize the window. First, you must ensure that the OS itself is not interpreting a double-click on the title bar to mean minimize-to-dock. The app will detect at start-up if that option is set to on, but, at the time of this writing, if you are using Mountain Lion, it will direct you to the wrong place to fix it: In Mountain Lion, you turn off that option in the Dock panel within System Preferences, not the General panel where it has historically been located.

Also when using Mountain Lion, at the time of this writing, you may discover the screen goes black when you double-click the title bar. Right now, the developer is instructing people in the FAQ to “Uncheck ‘Show animation when windows are windowmized/de-windowmized.’” In fact, you need to check that option, not uncheck it. (Or at least I had to, and I tried both ways several times.) Having the option on does have the unfortunate side effect of then displaying the window minimizing down to the dock at the same time as it is rolling up into the windowshade. It’s not nearly as disconcerting as having the screen go black, but it does take time.

This next hint is a definite must for Mountain Lion users who have to set animation to on and may be true for everyone: You can greatly decrease the time it takes to windowshade or unwindowshade a window by going to the Dock Preferences inside System Preferences and setting “Minimize Windows” to use the “Scale Effect.”

How it works: What the developer appears to be doing is quite clever and involves a lot of smoke and mirrors: He starts by asking the original app, using standard Apple-published methods, for the name, size, and location of the window that you have double-clicked on, then commands the original app to minimize it to the dock, again using a standard, Apple-published method. He then creates a new window within WindowMizer itself, giving it the identical name, the identical width, and the identical location as the one you were just using, but making it only as tall as the title bar. What you are now looking at is actually a new window within the WindowMizer app. (You’ll notice that the WindowMizer app has taken over the menu bar and the original window is sitting in the dock.) You can drag this stand-in window around as much as you wish just as you would have a real windowshaded window of yore. You can even resize it horizontally. When you later double-click the window in WindowMizer to restore it, the WindowMizer app communicates to the original app the new size and location, then tells it to redisplay the real window using those parameters, simultaneously taking down its own stand-in window in the process.

The advantage of the windowshade method is that the window largely gets out of your way while at the same time staying exactly where you had it. You don't have to go pawing through the dock to find it. Humans have been endowed with excellent spacial memories. That gets thrown away when documents are jumbled up in semi-random locations in a remote dock. If you need to see another document or the desktop below it, double-click, look, and double-click again and you're back. So much simpler. Need to open one of six text documents you've minimized? They all look identical in the dock. When they've been windowshaded, you can read each title perfectly. (Sometimes a word is worth a 1000 pictures.)

-Bruce Tognazzini, former Apple employee #66 and Apple's first human-computer interaction designer

Can find no reference WindowMizer at Apple Store or Google??......

do you have a link??

Hi, Gordon.

Go to RGBWorld.com and type in: WindowMizer.

You'll find everything you need there.

Take care.

Art

You must live in a parallel universe that has a different app store and google than mine. I think windowmizer is much better than nothing but not a patch on windowshade. Something to do with that spatial memory that is just slightly put out by the slight delay on the windomizer action. It really makees a difference and I just dont use it as much as much as I used to use windowshade. All those half seconds add up.

Good news is in the works. I traded emails with the programmer for WindowMizer.

There will be an upgrade coming up that will make WindowMizer very much like WindowShades.

I never liked the animated movement of the window to the tool bar, while the information bar remained on the screen. The new update will allow you to turn that activity off, so the window will blip off the screen quickly, leaving only the info bar.

This update may take a few more months, as the programmer is very busy.

But a beta version of the update can be available in a week or so.

Like you, I'm impatient with seconds and fractions of seconds. To think I ever waited for two seconds for anythingn to happen. Preposterous. Tch tch.

I got mine at the RGBworld.co site.

from there it gives the apple app site: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/windowmizer/id532091278?mt=12

http://www.rgbworld.com/

Link to Windowmizer. HUGE bargin for $9.99

Windowmizer is no longer in the Mac App Store for reasons which elude me. For some reason Apple just can't stand having "window shade" in the OS, (They use it on stickies still.), despite thousands of Apple enthusiasts who would love to have it back.

However, Windowmizer does the trick. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles (transparencies, etc.) that the windowshade haxie had, but those were secondary to the primary usage anyway.

Glad to see it available. And if your Mountain Lion gatekeeper won't let you have it. Learn how you can fix that here on youtube: Hidden Features Tips and Tricks of Mountain Lion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u8XdPb7Ho0

Much earlier on this huge thread I seem to remember that the windowshade IP (that's intellectual property, not internet protocol 😁) was originally licensed to Apple by its owner. This may be why the mizer is not on the app store any more.

I also recall someone gave as the reason why windowshade is so good is that humans have an excellent spatial memory for where something is on the desktop. Windomizer is slightly slow but you can speed it up slightly by hitting the 'show animation' checkbox in the preferences. Unfortunately, this cause the window to collapse in the direction of the dock which, personally, I find obliterates my spatial memory of where the window was left minimized.

I would request the developer to speed it up if possible. Still a bargain for 10 bucks.

<< Windomizer is slightly slow but you can speed it up slightly by hitting the 'show animation' checkbox in the preferences. Unfortunately, this cause the window to collapse in the direction of the dock which, personally, I find obliterates my spatial memory of where the window was left minimized.

I would request the developer to speed it up if possible. Still a bargain for 10 bucks.>>

The newer version I just downloaded last week Is a big improvement in windowmizer. The window collapses quickly and doesn't leave a trail to the dock. It seems much more like windowshade used to. And I also feel this is a good app to buy and the owner if very responsive if you need help. I have up on unsanity taxies. I paid for window shade rarely got updates and no updates for the last two systems and they are not responsive. I haven't followed closely the apple/unsanity window shade situation, but Apple had it and should have kept it in the first place. It still uses window shade on sticky notes. But I am grateful for windowmizer so I can get back to getting windows I am using out of the way without going to the dock or going to mission control, both of which take more of my time to use that windowmizer.

Whoopee! Thanks for that! V2 is very much quicker and eminently usable.

Regarding why it is not in the app store see info below from the web site.

WindowMizer is being phased-out of the Mac App Store because it can not be sandboxed due to its use of the Accessibility API. Adding new features is not allowed for non-sandboxed Apps in the App Store, so in order to improve WindowMizer, it has to be removed from the MAS.

Licenses purchased via the App Store will be converted to RGB World licenses at no cost. If you previously purchased WindowMizer from the App store, please follow the instructions in the FAQ titled "How do I switch to the website distributed version of WindowMizer?".

RGB World is now the exclusive distribution channel for purchasing WindowMizer.

If you previously purchased WindowMizer from the Mac App Store, you can convert your license by following these instructions:

1. Create an account here at RGB World.
2. Make sure you are logged into your account, then add WindowMizer to your cart and checkout using coupon code CONVERT.
   You must be logged into your account or the coupon code will not work.
3. Go to: Account >> Downloads page and download WindowMizer.
4. Install and Launch WindowMizer - It will ask if you want to convert your license.
5. Enter the account details used to create your account in step 1.

Now I only have 99 reasons for not updating to Mountain Lion. 😉

What are those 99?

Pete

I was going to ask the same question about the 99 reasons not to upgrade. I have not upgraded to Mountain Lion, although that was my original intention, but my intuitions keeps telling me don't do it. I liked snow leopard, but I moved up to Lion and then had to spend a fair amount of money to get new programs to replace those I needed and used that no longer worked.That really irritated me. Want won't work if I move up to Mt. Lion? What is the point? I am always worried that after Mt Lion they'll come up with a new system and I'll be too far behind to continue or even keep my computer.I am worried about Apple to. We need another Jobs because Apple is losing ground in the market.

Message was edited by: itasara