16-Nov-04 DM Review

A review of Desktop Manager has been posted to apple-x.net and pretty sweet it is too. I've been working hard on splitting DM into smaller sub-components and documenting them so be on the lookout for WorkspaceKit - a framework which will allow you to write your own (better?) DM clone.

20-Jul-04 DM ebuild

To celebrate the release of Gentoo for Mac OS, I've made a little ebuild for it to allow you to emerge Desktop Manager if you so wish. Please note that I just hacked this together last night so its probably not the 'official way'.

To install, change to your portage directory and untar the file, yous should then be able to emerge DesktopManager. If there is enough demand I'll try to knock up a fetch-latest-source-from-arch-and-compile version.

20-Jul-04 New webpage

I re-designed the Desktop Manager website a little to make it a little easier to update and organise things. Hope you like it.

12-Jul-04 0.5.2-rc2 Released

And another release, rc2.

• [NEW] Sticky windows should work now. Try invoking the operations menu over a window (default hotkey Command-Opt-O). The UI for this will improve.
• [NEW] Length of time that desktop switch notification bezel remains on screen is now configurable. (request from Jon Walton)
• [NEW] 'Collect windows to one desktop on exit' is now a preference rather than a dialogue box which pops up on exit.
• [FIX] More multi-monitor fizes for placement of desktop pager. Hiding may still be a little funky.
• [FIX] Re-wrote some of the internal window list handling to (hopfully) be a little lighter on memory. Fixed a (tiny) mem. leak in the process.

9-Jul-04 0.5.2-rc1 Released

I've managed to find a bit more time recently and been tidying up my backlog of patches for Desktop Manager. I've put a 0.5.2 release candidate up for people to play with. There should be some support for multi-monitor setups in this version along with a few bug fixes which have been annoying people. Can people with multi-monitor setups please test.

Also the arch repository has moved to http://lotsofnakedwomen.com/arch/ while I wait for the old domain to be transferred.

• [NEW] New icons. (Glen Gear )
• [NEW] 'Fast desktop create', hot-key triggered desktop creation. (Christopher A. Watford)
• [NEW] Switching to an application via shift-clicking in the Dock switches to an appropriate desktop. (me based on patch from Mike Gorski )
• [NEW] Started adding some code to be multi-screen aware. (me)
• [NEW] Core-code is now a private shared framework. First stage in exposing functionality to outside 3rd party apps. (me)
• [NEW] Hot-key preferences have been re-written (again). Now configuration is done similarly to key bindings in other Apple apps. Still unable to test with Unicode keyboard but shouldn't crash if it can't work out what you typed :). (me)
• [NEW] Hot-keys can now be disabled via preferences pane. Please stop begging for this now... (me)
• [IMP] Moving windows between desktops is faster. Found some more secrets buried inside CoreGraphics. (me)
• [IMP] Active Edges now use fewer resources. (me)
• [IMP] Desktop pager behaviour changed slightly. Now anchored to one corner/side of the screen. Auto-hides like the Dock. Position set via preferences. (me)
• [FIX] Switching desktop via statusbar now correctly uses transitions. (me)
• [FIX] Switching via active edges now centres the mouse after a switch if set in prefs. (me)
• [FIX] Some memory leaks detected and fixed. Still uses quite a chunk of memory but I think a lot of that is shared with the WindowServer. (me)
• [FIX] Double-free in active edges now fixed.
• [FIX] Fixed some problems with panels and draws. Some problems still remain however.

4-Jul-04 Rich Wareham Interview

An interview with Rich Wareham, the Desktop Manager lead developer, was released today. Enjoy!

12-Feb-04 We're not dead

DM development isn't dead! My iBook was for a while but that is fixed now. I've put up the current ChangeLog for what will become 0.5.2 once it is released. Please check with it before e-mailing me with feature requests. Thanks.

12-Feb-04 0.5.1 Released

DM 0.5.1 has been/will be released and the change log is below. This is a mop-up release to try to file down some of the rough edges from 0.5.0 and clear my patch backlog. There are a fair few bug-fixes and small usability improvements including some crash-fixes. I will be concentrating on multiple-monitor support for 0.5.2 [ SO STOP E-MAILING PLEASE! :) ].

More importantly the icons for Desktop Manager suck IMHO. I am no graphic designer. If any kind soul feels they could do better, please drop me an e-mail. Ideally I'd like something as pretty as the icons on the new Mozilla FireFox browser. Eternal fame in the About Box shall be thine reward.

Grab the latest version (and source) from the SourceForge file-release section.