A change in workflows (Isolator)
Isolator - What it does is rather clear... or blurry, depending on your preferences.
I’ve always been a fan of the multiple desktops. In KDE I’ve always had 4 desktops with multiple wallpapers, before spaces I did the same in OSX with VirtueDesktops. I used a custom shortcut which was something like CTRL and one of the arrow keys which I assigned to each space. Since spaces was released I started using that since it was more stable (though I lost my much loved multiple wallpapers, one of the reasons I couldn’t convince myself to fall back on the lighter XFCE instead of KDE… I found it somewhat useful for identifying at a glance exactly in which workspace I was in seeing as it becomes a hassle to assign apps to workspaces every time I want to try something new). The main thing I gained with spaces was the ability to ditch the keyboard shortcuts and rely on the middle button to bring up a pane with all of my spaces. This combined with a relatively clean shifting of spaces by using the dock worked rather well. Since I just aquired a last gen MacBook Pro I don’t really feel like using a keyboard shortcut to bring up a mouse based interface… and I really don’t feel like forcefully assigning the 3 button scroll to a global spaces command. Instead the current solution to my workspace needs is a little app called Isolator.
Isolator basically makes it so only one app is visable at a time by hiding/dimming all other applications. In the current beta you have an option to disable isolator automatically when finder is the foreground so you can toy with your desktop (though if you don’t have it to autohide the windows and only blur them they’ll all still be infront of your desktop, I myself set it so it autohides the windows), though the show desktop expose command also shows behind the isolators dimming. I myself am finding it quite useful to my workflow as it is kindof like having an automatic workspace for every single application (this is pretty useful with applications that use a multiple window work flow like photoshop or xcode when you multitask alot to create a cluttered interface). It does have some dissadvantages, like you have to disable the whole thing to get 2 applications side by side for drag and drop stuff, but overally thats not a major loss in my workflow. Also if you just want application fading it makes you reliant on expose to ever see your desktop properly, though you often are anyway, but it certainly may be worth a try.
I must mention that the one app at a time is not exactly a new thing. Early developer releases of OSX had a single window mode that allowed only one window to be visable at a time. Theres also various apps that provide the same idea a bit differently like Think and Doodim.
Anyway, it would be hard for me to say whether any of this will be useful but I do feel its worth mentioning. Anyway, give it a try maybe. I’ll link you up again.
