How to keep dock icon magnified when opening subdock?

There is this one thing that keeps bugging me. Hopefully it's in the setting somewhere, but I can't find it. The below picture and video illustrates my concern.

I have both Rocketdock and Winstep Xtreme active on my desktop currently to do some different testing. I have both docks set to purposely magnify moused over icons.

Subdock/Stackdocks: As I mouse over docked icons and click to open subdocks, rocketdock's subdock icon will remained magnified as the programs within the subdock reveal themselves. On the other hand, Winstep, automatically stops the magnification process when the subdocks open.

Is there a way to have the subdocks behave like they do in Rocketdock? because it actually feels smoother opening up subdocks/stackdocks in Rocketdock than in Winstep.

This one particular aspect seems more polished in Rocketdock than in Winstep, while everything else as I can see is more polished in Winstep than in Rocketdock. It's just this one little tidbit that's bugging me.












EDIT: If it's not a "subdock," and simply a "program," the magnification process works perfectly in Winstep. In other words, it can be done. But when it comes to 'subdocks' that's when the experience differs. The video below shows "programs" remains magnified when opening. I simply would like to get 'subdocks' to remain magnified when opening as well.


Having discovered Winstep Xtreme, I no longer use Rocketdock. But this one tidbit is something that I would like implemented into Winstep, hopefully either it's already present in the settings or soon in the next release.

The problem is that you are trying to compare Apples to Oranges. Can't be done, sub-docks and Stacks are different animals.

Sub-dock functionality came to life long before MacOSX and its magnifying dock. Back then each icon in the dock had a square background tile, and icons did NOT magnify. So, when you opened a sub-dock, it would be a perpendicular extension of the parent tile, and aligned perfectly with it.

If you try to do the 'sub-docks align with parent' thing with magnifying docks, what happens is that when the parent dock magnifies the magnified icons will partially overlap the sub-dock, preventing you from freely accessing all elements in it. Very, very, cumbersome. So, a decision was made many years ago to prevent the parent dock from magnifying when you open a sub-dock - this keeps the parent dock out of the way, while still allowing the sub-dock to align with the parent dock.

Stacks do not suffer from this limitation because the icons in them have no background(s), they're just free floating icons that can be placed anywhere, even at an elliptical angle.

A similar issue happened with how sub-docks were opened in the past: before magnifying docks, a sub-dock icon could also be used to run an application. To open the associated sub-dock, you would click on the 16x16 sub-dock indicator symbol instead. Clicking on the icon itself would launch the associated application rather than opening the sub-dock.

This worked fine until magnification came along. With magnification, the sub-dock indicator no longer stays in the same place, it moves around as you mouse over the icon and the icon size changes, making you chase after it. This makes hitting such a small target a hit-and-miss affair - again, perfect before magnification, too cumbersome afterwards. So now sub-dock place-holder icons are no longer allowed to 'double-up' as regular dock shortcuts.

The only solution to what you mentioned is to come up with my own version of the Stacks docklet, which has been on the to-do list for some time now.

Is it really a different animal when they both essentially do the same thing, despite what program code is required. From a programming standpoint it may certainly be different in the way stacks and subdocks are programmed, but just looking at both their functionality, they're pretty much equivalent features.

More importantly, if the parent dock partially blocks the subdock icons when magnified, the logical solution would simply be to have a "spacer" or even two "spacer" between the magnified parent and the subdock.

I managed to get the desired effect using the standalone stack program. Parent dock item stays magnified as the subdocks fanned/or stacked out. The first subdock icon was overlapping the parent dock icon. To rectify the situation, I simply manipulated the distance where the first subdock icon spawned. And this was available in the standalone stacks setting available to the user.

Still would rather see winstep have its own feature thst mimics the standalone stack because it takes a few more steps to create a "stack/subdock" effect in standalone stack.

Where is it on the list of to do. Is it fairly high on the priority list. Should we expect something this year or way further down the line?



EDIT:

For completion sake, if anyone reading is interested.

http://www.aqua-soft.org/forum/topic/52 ... -released/

http://www.chrisnsoft.com/standalonestack

Someone video describing how to use standalone stack.

Now, now... you should know better than to ask such a question. The answer to THAT particular question is always 'it will be ready when it's ready'.

But if you look at my previous posts I think you will find out it's high on my priority list. That and a third alternative 'launch method' I don't want to talk about just yet.

And also a hard disk monitor module. With SMART based temperature monitoring, activity led, and pie charts to make it easy to figure out which files and folders are using the most hard disk space for that particular drive/folder.

I know about that question. Forbidden question.

The standalone stack works, but also some links (program x86 folder vs program folder) don't work and need to do a workaround (see below *****). Sometimes trying to change the icon in the standalone stack don't respond (i.e. change icon simply doesn't respond). So for now, I have decided to just skip the magnification process and simply increase the size of my dock icons. It works better this way to get rid of that small hitch when opening up the subdock. The transition feels smoother. So for now, I'm simply creating a little bit more subdocks to compensate for the increase in icon sizing.

Sounds like great things in the works with regards to the hard disk monitor module. Will be anxiously waiting for the magnification fix including that top secret "launch method."

Have you considered a CPU temperature monitor and also a GPU temperature monitor? These are the big two that I like to monitor and am currently using HWmonitor to keep tab on them.




*****For anyone interested. Some programs are installed in the program x86 folder (always work in stackdock links), and others are installed in the standard program folder (these become major problems, they simply won't open up in the stacks).

Search around long and hard for 1 week and finally found the following solution.
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/217 ... cklet.html

Not going to happen. Unlike hard disk temperatures, which are obtained via SMART, there is no standard method for obtaining CPU/GPU temperatures - it changes from chipset to chipset.