Mac OS X Panther Feature? 'Piles' (The Patent Description)
The patent was filed in 1994, but has gained interest with recent rumors that the next major revision of Mac OS X (Panther) will utilize this design.
The function of a pile is, of course, the grouping of documents. While a good description was provided by this AskTog article, it spawned a surprising amount of confusion regarding implementation amongst readers.
For those interested, the Patent description provides more details on the actual implementation and also describes advanced sorting/searching functions, including:
- analysis of the content of a document in a pile
- automatically filing new documents according to criteria (date, content etc...)
- piles looking neat or disheavled per user preferences
- create/sort into subpiles based on criteria (date, content etc...)
- script based sorting of documents
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
Originally posted by kanesean
I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to try and copy this.
well, lets see here... it's patented. So microsoft would get their ass sued off.
Originally posted by qwerpafw
well, lets see here... it's patented. So microsoft would get their ass sued off.
In which case, I hope they do :D
oh well. i like to view my project files in list or column view. list lets me see mod dates at a glance.
- automatically filing new documents according to criteria (date, content etc...
- create/sort into subpiles based on criteria (date, content etc...)
i'm hoping that this is somehow related to a new filesystem (how cool would all kinds of BFS metadata hijinx be with piles?)
- script based sorting of documents
when considering that osx supports just about every scripting language available, the possibilities for both local and remote scripting of data makes one's head spin. this is great news, i hope that these ui innovations continue, now that the trouble of getting osx stable is out of the way.
Originally posted by qwerpafw
well, lets see here... it's patented. So microsoft would get their ass sued off.
"But your honor, our Mound™s are completely different from Apple's Piles. Piles represent a collection of files graphically. Mound™s represent groups of documents pictorially. The two systems are completely unrelated."
[ Read All Comments ]
Analytics firm Chitika today released a report showing that by its metrics iOS has now surpassed OS X in overall web traffic share in the United States. Chitika's methodology involves an analysis...
One of the most frequent reasons for an iPhone to go on a trip to the Apple Store's Genius Bar is because of water damage. Typically, a water damaged iPhone can be replaced for a flat $199...
TheVerge's Joshua Topolsky summarizes the iPad 3 casing findings reported earlier today, but also adds his own sources regarding some details of the iPad 3.
Image from RepairLabs
As...
Last July, Apple discontinued the white MacBook from its consumer lineup, pushing consumers toward the company's popular MacBook Air line or the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The company didn't kill...
Popular iPhone Twitter client Tweetbot has finally arrived on the iPad, with a user interface instantly familiar to any current Tweetbot user. Designed for the Twitter power-user, Tweetbot packs a...
