3 ms·

I actually wasn't aware of disappearing scrollbars before iOS. Care to provide an example of prior art ?

billsix 14y ago
Smalltalk 80. http://st-www.cs.illinois.edu/users/smarch/st-docs/mvc.html http://st-www.cs.illinois.edu/users/smarch/st-docs/mvc.html
- taligent 14y ago
  That article is talking about focus follows mouse. Which I fail to see how is applicable for a touchscreen device which has no concept of focus.
  - dsirijus 14y ago
    Of course it has concept of focus. 0-length focus.
Steko 14y ago
Are "disappearing scrollbars" in general patented or just the implementation on mobile touchscreens with a non full-scrollbar and moves with the scrolling? The language used suggests that disappearing scrollbars aren't completely novel but the prior ones used a full length scroll bar (on desktops, etc.) The iOS scrollbar does seem both novel and innovative. It also seems fairly minor and the kind of thing I'd be easy to program around.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Yes, you're definitely right that this is what their patenting, not disappearing scrollbars generally. But I don't agree that it being done on a touch screen makes it novel.
  - Steko 14y ago
    I'm not saying doing it on a phone is what makes it novel. The minimal and smaller but proportional bar that moves and then fades out does seem novel to me in total regardless of prior bars that were minimal (windows has had a setting that allowed 1 pixel bars since xp or vista at least), smaller (my understanding is that smalltalk's original bar was not full length), gave a sense of proportion (pretty sure BeOS had a setting for this) or disappeared (I'm sure there's something). Analogously there could already be robots that ride horses, robots that chew bubble gum and robots that do the macarena but we can still patent a new robot that did all three of those at the same time.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
It might very well be the first on a touch screen, but it's been quite common (in a trendy sort of way) throughout computing. Haven't you every used an image viewer that had the scrollbars disappear when you zoomed in and where panning around?

Smalltalk 80. http://st-www.cs.illinois.edu/users/smarch/st-docs/mvc.html http://st-www.cs.illinois.edu/users/smarch/st-docs/mvc.html

taligent 14y ago
That article is talking about focus follows mouse. Which I fail to see how is applicable for a touchscreen device which has no concept of focus.
- dsirijus 14y ago
  Of course it has concept of focus. 0-length focus.

Steko 14y ago

Are "disappearing scrollbars" in general patented or just the implementation on mobile touchscreens with a non full-scrollbar and moves with the scrolling? The language used suggests that disappearing scrollbars aren't completely novel but the prior ones used a full length scroll bar (on desktops, etc.) The iOS scrollbar does seem both novel and innovative. It also seems fairly minor and the kind of thing I'd be easy to program around.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
Yes, you're definitely right that this is what their patenting, not disappearing scrollbars generally. But I don't agree that it being done on a touch screen makes it novel.
- Steko 14y ago
  I'm not saying doing it on a phone is what makes it novel. The minimal and smaller but proportional bar that moves and then fades out does seem novel to me in total regardless of prior bars that were minimal (windows has had a setting that allowed 1 pixel bars since xp or vista at least), smaller (my understanding is that smalltalk's original bar was not full length), gave a sense of proportion (pretty sure BeOS had a setting for this) or disappeared (I'm sure there's something). Analogously there could already be robots that ride horses, robots that chew bubble gum and robots that do the macarena but we can still patent a new robot that did all three of those at the same time.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago

It might very well be the first on a touch screen, but it's been quite common (in a trendy sort of way) throughout computing. Haven't you every used an image viewer that had the scrollbars disappear when you zoomed in and where panning around?