[OS X TeX] Two problems with TeXworks

[Herbert Schulz]

On Feb 23, 2011, at 1:10 PM, Alan T Litchfield wrote:

> 
> On 24/02/2011, at 6:58 AM, Jonathan Kew wrote:
> 
>> On 23 Feb 2011, at 17:12, Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard wrote:
>> 
>>> Le 23/02/2011 10:29, "M. Tamer Özsu" a écrit :
>>>> On 2011-02-23, at 4:44 PM, Joseph Wright wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> On 23/02/2011 08:38, Manuel Pouring-Gonnard wrote:
>>>>>> First, I noticed that when I "close" TeXworks by using the red button at the top
>>>>>> left of the main window, I can't reopen it later from the dock as I would do
>>>>>> with any other application (firefox, safari, OOo, etc). I need to first quit it
>>>>>> (either right clic -> quit from the dock or cmd-Q from inside the app). Am I
>>>>>> doing anything wrong? Is it a (known) bug?
>>>>> 
>>>>> You need to do File -> New (Cmd-N) to get a new TeXworks window on the
>>>>> Mac (I've always found it a bit odd, but I guess I've got used to it).
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> It is actually not that odd -- when you click on that red button, you are not
>>>> quitting the application, but only closing the window. If you check it, you
>>>> will see that TeXworks is still running. So, you need to open a new window
>>>> (as you indicate), not restart the application.
>>>> 
>>> Thanks for the details. I understand that the red button doesn't close the app.
>>> I simply would expect double-clicking the icon in the dock when the app is
>>> running with all windows closed to Do The Right Thing, in that case open a new
>>> window, rather than forcing me to think "what I want to do is open a new window,
>>> so let's hit cmd-N."
>>> 
>>> Not that it's a big problem, but that's what I'd come to expect from my very
>>> short experience with other apps on OS X.
>> 
>> Yes; if the app is running but has no windows open, clicking the Dock icon ought to trigger the same response as launching the app when it's not running at all - by default, a new window, unless you change the startup action in the preferences.
>> 
> 
> Except that the application is already running and the Dock only provides a launch command when an icon is clicked. If it is not already launched then, then it will launch, but if it already running there is nothing to launch. If a person is use to running Windows then I can see why it may be confusing where clicking on the red cross (I think) quits an application, but Mac OS X is not Windows.
> 
> When the icon in the Dock to launch the application was clicked, It Did The Right Thing. It launched the application. To insist that it should open a new window each time it is clicked Does the Wrong Thing, in fact if it is already running, clicking on it brings the application to the front - so, should it do both? Ugh messy.
> 
>> We should fix that for the next release, really.
> 
> Perhaps you could have a right click option to open a new window from the Dock if there is not already a window open. This behaviour is normal but some applications do it badly, such as Groupwise where if I accidentally close the main window there is no option to open a new one because the New Main Window function exists `inside' the Main Window.
> 
> ⌘-n is normal, isn't it?
> 
> Alan
> 

Howdy,

The Apple Guidelines say that by default a window should open when you click on the icon in the Dock. Try it with Safari; close the window, switch to another app and then click on the Dock icon for Safari.

Of course there are Apple apps that don't behave according to the guidlines. E.g., if you close the System Preferences window the app quits. That makes sense though since there is only one window that System Preferences ever opens; very different than an Editor that can have many windows open at once.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)