FileMaker 7: Intrusive Dock icon bouncing when launching in background
Posted by Pierre Igot in: MacintoshOctober 22nd, 2004 • 6:11 am
If you launch FileMaker 7 by double-clicking on a FileMaker 7 file in the Finder, and then, while FileMaker 7 is in the process of launching, you switch to another application to continue what you were doing instead of waiting for FileMaker to finish, then inevitably FileMaker starts high-bouncing in the Dock as if it required your attention, when in fact it does not.
It just wants to be a pain.
One of the great benefits of Mac OS X’s multithreaded/multitasked environment is that you can actually launch several applications at the same time or switch to something else while an application is launching. Even on my fast Mac, FileMaker takes a little while to launch. It’s not a big delay, but I am the impatient kind of user. I don’t like to wait for my computer. I want my computer to wait for me.
Obviously, FileMaker has other ideas about who’s in control. Sometimes it’s rather embarrassing to think that this application is developed by a fully-owned Apple subsidiary.
October 22nd, 2004 at Oct 22, 04 | 1:17 pm
FileMaker 6 did this, too. It was using what appeared to be some kind of Carbonized modal dialog to announce that it was opening a file in multi-user mode that annoyingly stopped the launch until FM was brought to the front. Sometimes I wonder if anyone in the company actually uses the program.
I cut them a little (but only a LITTLE) bit of slack because it seems as if a decade ago their programmers used a lot of secret little system backdoors and their current crop of programmers are still working around them.
October 23rd, 2004 at Oct 23, 04 | 7:40 am
Right. I think Steve should put some of that iPod money to good use and invest in hiring a few additional Mac OS X developers for the FileMaker team!