A major feature I'd like to see in 10.7 (that will never happen)...

[Strifer]

I would like to be able to anchor panes from different applications into one tabbed window.

Allow me to explain.

I am often working on one project that spans multiple applications. Perhaps I am writing a document in Word, while referring to text from several different websites in Chrome, a spreadsheet in Excel, and a PDF in Preview. I would like to be able to give all of those documents their own tab in a single window. That would allow me to organize all of the pertinent documents for that one project in a single discrete place. Adding or removing a document from the project could be as simple as dragging and dropping from the tab bar--just as in a browser.

A bonus feature would be the ability to save the project as its own document in its current tabbed state. When you open that single document, your tabbed project window would relaunch.

 

[lokiju]

Closest thing to it is just using spaces to group the items for the project you're working on in a single space.

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, I've been doing virtually the same thing with virtual desktops in Linux for years now. It lacks the "open a single document to restore the entire project state" aspect but that's it. You could possibly script that aspect, but it seems like too much work for too little gain.

Apple could probably give you 99% of what you want just by allowing you to save your workspace sessions so that when you login it restarts all of the same apps/documents in the same spaces that you had them open in when you logged off.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, that'd be really nice. Right now I just use Spaces with Expose - that way you get get a specific group of applications within it's own desktop, then hop between them with Expose.

As a temp fix, you can try DragThing:

http://www.dragthing.com/english/about.html

 

[Kaido]

Nice video on DragThing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUSRxvYvl8o

 

[TheStu]

Yea, I've been doing virtually the same thing with virtual desktops in Linux for years now. It lacks the "open a single document to restore the entire project state" aspect but that's it. You could possibly script that aspect, but it seems like too much work for too little gain.

Apple could probably give you 99% of what you want just by allowing you to save your workspace sessions so that when you login it restarts all of the same apps/documents in the same spaces that you had them open in when you logged off.

10.7 is supposed to bring session restoring for apps that support it, so that could be feasible. You relaunch the applications, and they re-open in the space where they were before.

 

[Nothinman]

10.7 is supposed to bring session restoring for apps that support it, so that could be feasible. You relaunch the applications, and they re-open in the space where they were before.

Why would the apps need to support it? My WM could remember all of that at least 10 years ago, probably more. All you need is a way to identify a window, I don't know OS X manages windows internally but in X there's name, class, role, etc that uniquely identify a window and are the same across restarts. All you need is that and way to set certain attributes like location, size, stacking layer, opacity, desktop, border, etc.

 

[TheStu]

Why would the apps need to support it? My WM could remember all of that at least 10 years ago, probably more. All you need is a way to identify a window, I don't know OS X manages windows internally but in X there's name, class, role, etc that uniquely identify a window and are the same across restarts. All you need is that and way to set certain attributes like location, size, stacking layer, opacity, desktop, border, etc.

Well, window size, location, and space are all remembered currently. This is application resume, picking up exactly where you leave it off. If you have to restart for an update, you can sleep and then resume all the individual applications without having to save each one individually. Sort of like how multi-tasking works on iOS. You are doing something in a program, and then switch to something else, the app you were just in is frozen in place.

 

[Nothinman]

Well, window size, location, and space are all remembered currently. This is application resume, picking up exactly where you leave it off. If you have to restart for an update, you can sleep and then resume all the individual applications without having to save each one individually. Sort of like how multi-tasking works on iOS. You are doing something in a program, and then switch to something else, the app you were just in is frozen in place.

That makes more sense, saving the internal application state would obviously require support in the app itself. But they should be able to add window memory right now without any trouble if they actually wanted.

 

[TheStu]

That makes more sense, saving the internal application state would obviously require support in the app itself. But they should be able to add window memory right now without any trouble if they actually wanted.

If by window memory you mean the applications/OS remembering the size, location and desktop of any given app, that already exists and has for as long as I can remember.

The new thing for 10.7 is saving application states, meaning you close out iPhoto and when you reopen it, the same photo that you were touching up is still open, right where you left off.

I think we are on the same page now.