@Nick: It isn't new with 10.4's Mail.app; it has a long history in Mac OS X apps, dating from iTunes
A lot of those apps just use table views and outlines views, which have been a standard part of Cocoa since the dawn of time. Certainly developers subclass NSTableView to customize the look and behavior, but that's by design. I think it's unrealistic and unnecessary for every app's sidebar to behave and look the same since different apps do different things.
The articles promotes a level of consistency that I think is unlikely to ever happen. The author has an exquisite sense of attention to detail, but people just won't agree on the one "right" way on such fine-grained issues.
For what it's worth, I think of "source lists" as the light-blue thingies with the resizing control at the bottom, seen in both Mail and iTunes. Maybe that's not the conventional definition, I don't know.
Drawers, too, have been completely neglected since 10.0, and they definitely need some serious work or simply a replacement
I agree with Chris. I think drawers are essentially done.
by Scott Stevenson — Jan 01
A lot of those apps just use table views and outlines views, which have been a standard part of Cocoa since the dawn of time. Certainly developers subclass NSTableView to customize the look and behavior, but that's by design. I think it's unrealistic and unnecessary for every app's sidebar to behave and look the same since different apps do different things.
The articles promotes a level of consistency that I think is unlikely to ever happen. The author has an exquisite sense of attention to detail, but people just won't agree on the one "right" way on such fine-grained issues.
For what it's worth, I think of "source lists" as the light-blue thingies with the resizing control at the bottom, seen in both Mail and iTunes. Maybe that's not the conventional definition, I don't know.
Drawers, too, have been completely neglected since 10.0, and they definitely need some serious work or simply a replacement
I agree with Chris. I think drawers are essentially done.