4 ms·

That looks more like a task bar to me, and in the open Write document on the right it mentions "Rudamentary[sic] taskbar" which is what it's likely referring to

That looks more like a task bar to me, and in the open Write document on the right it mentions "Rudamentary[sic] taskbar" which is what it's likely referring to.

barrkel 6y ago
The bar at the bottom in Windows is called the taskbar even today. The chief difference between the Windows task bar and a MacOS dock is that some subset of icons on the dock are present even if the application hasn't been started.
- Vendan 6y ago
  Windows task bar can pin things to always be on it, even if it's not running, as well
- Narishma 6y ago
  That's the case on Windows as well, since Windows 98 I think.
  - lproven 6y ago
    [OP/article author here] You could not pin icons to the taskbar in Windows 98, no. Windows 98 integrated IE4, which contained a feature called "Active Desktop". This was not a Win98 innovation -- if you installed IE4 onto Windows 95 or NT 4, you got the same features. Active Desktop included dockable "toolbars" that could be pinned to the desktop or to any edge of the screen. One of these became part of the taskbar, and was called the "quick launch" bar. It's a separate area for program icons. If you launch an app, you end up with _two_ icons: one in the quick launch bar, _plus_ an icon in the taskbar as well. The Quick Launch toolbar is still present in Windows 10 today, in 2020, and can be turned back on very easily: https://mywindowshub.com/add-quick-launch-toolbar-windows-10/ https://mywindowshub.com/add-quick-launch-toolbar-windows-10... Pinning launcher icons directly to the taskbar was a new feature in Windows 7 and was not possible before that: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/SharePoint/en-US/faae577e-a88d-47f5-b5a6-2bab84f81711/quotpin-to-taskbarquot-in-vista?forum=itprovistadesktopui https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/SharePoint/en-US...
jlarcombe 6y ago
Yeah, the key thing with the icon bar in RISC OS was that it showed running apps on the right, devices on the left. There wasn't really a 'launcher' component to it, and the blurred distinction launcher and running-app-selector bothered me a bit on Mac OS X (until I got used to it, I suppose).
- abrowne 6y ago
  How did you typically launch apps? Through the file manager kind of like classic Mac OS?
  - pmyteh 6y ago
    Yes. Most apps were 'installed' as a self-contained directory beginning with a '!', wherever you wanted. Double-clicking on such a directory ran the '!Run' script within it, which started the app. You could open up the app to see its component files by holding shift while double-clicking. It was really quite a lovely system (very few installer programs, install/uninstall very clean with minimal dependencies), but it managed as well as it did mainly because nearly everything was statically linked and did its own thing for config. So centralised management of preferences was difficult, and what shared code there was (like the C library) broke the model a bit by needing to be kept in a separate '!System' directory. As systems got more complex and ended up on the Internet, there was a greater concern for shared state between applications and security. Consequently the amount of stuff that started from disc on startup, the number of shared libraries and config files etc. went up, and some of the advantages of booting from ROM and the minimal 'copy to install' model went away a bit.
  - jlarcombe 6y ago
    Yes it was called the Filer. Pretty much like the Finder on the Mac.

That looks more like a task bar to me, and in the open Write document on the right it mentions "Rudamentary[sic] taskbar" which is what it's likely referring to.

barrkel 6y ago

The bar at the bottom in Windows is called the taskbar even today. The chief difference between the Windows task bar and a MacOS dock is that some subset of icons on the dock are present even if the application hasn't been started.

Vendan 6y ago
Windows task bar can pin things to always be on it, even if it's not running, as well
Narishma 6y ago
That's the case on Windows as well, since Windows 98 I think.
- lproven 6y ago
  [OP/article author here] You could not pin icons to the taskbar in Windows 98, no. Windows 98 integrated IE4, which contained a feature called "Active Desktop". This was not a Win98 innovation -- if you installed IE4 onto Windows 95 or NT 4, you got the same features. Active Desktop included dockable "toolbars" that could be pinned to the desktop or to any edge of the screen. One of these became part of the taskbar, and was called the "quick launch" bar. It's a separate area for program icons. If you launch an app, you end up with _two_ icons: one in the quick launch bar, _plus_ an icon in the taskbar as well. The Quick Launch toolbar is still present in Windows 10 today, in 2020, and can be turned back on very easily: https://mywindowshub.com/add-quick-launch-toolbar-windows-10/ https://mywindowshub.com/add-quick-launch-toolbar-windows-10... Pinning launcher icons directly to the taskbar was a new feature in Windows 7 and was not possible before that: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/SharePoint/en-US/faae577e-a88d-47f5-b5a6-2bab84f81711/quotpin-to-taskbarquot-in-vista?forum=itprovistadesktopui https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/SharePoint/en-US...

jlarcombe 6y ago

Yeah, the key thing with the icon bar in RISC OS was that it showed running apps on the right, devices on the left. There wasn't really a 'launcher' component to it, and the blurred distinction launcher and running-app-selector bothered me a bit on Mac OS X (until I got used to it, I suppose).

abrowne 6y ago
How did you typically launch apps? Through the file manager kind of like classic Mac OS?
- pmyteh 6y ago
  Yes. Most apps were 'installed' as a self-contained directory beginning with a '!', wherever you wanted. Double-clicking on such a directory ran the '!Run' script within it, which started the app. You could open up the app to see its component files by holding shift while double-clicking. It was really quite a lovely system (very few installer programs, install/uninstall very clean with minimal dependencies), but it managed as well as it did mainly because nearly everything was statically linked and did its own thing for config. So centralised management of preferences was difficult, and what shared code there was (like the C library) broke the model a bit by needing to be kept in a separate '!System' directory. As systems got more complex and ended up on the Internet, there was a greater concern for shared state between applications and security. Consequently the amount of stuff that started from disc on startup, the number of shared libraries and config files etc. went up, and some of the advantages of booting from ROM and the minimal 'copy to install' model went away a bit.
- jlarcombe 6y ago
  Yes it was called the Filer. Pretty much like the Finder on the Mac.