Bob Appleby's Profile

The Case of the Disappearing Thesaurus I am writing a paper. If I pick up my thesaurus, and my paper disappears. If I pick up my paper, the thesaurus disappears. Q: How is this possible? A: Widgets. You are writing in your word processor, and trying to think of a list of synonyms for "good." You invoke the widgets, go to the thesaurus, and seek out the words. You try to copy the words, but they are not selectable. So you click on your document to manually copy the word list, the thesaurus disappears. Poof! It's gone. You bring it back, but you are unable to type. To improve OSX, let go of the marketing-centric word/concept "widget" and stick to the user-centric word "tool". I should be able to select synonyms from the thesaurus, or at least see them while I'm typing. I can in the real world. If anything, I think some of what we are calling "widgets" should be persistent, and able to ride atop open applications. It's not just the thesaurus. I have similar concerns about the clock, the calculator... an a few other widgets. Why must I use a desktop calcluator? Why must I use a stopwatch to time my scripts? The more I think about it, the more I believe that the false distinction "widgets" is what lead to these odd behaviors, and user interface issues. Abolish this false class of programs, and allow the "widgets" the freedom to be used with other programs.