Dock (OS X)
The Dock is a prominent feature of the graphical user interface of the OS X operating system. It is used to launch applications and switch between running applications. The Dock is also a prominent feature of OS X's predecessor NeXTSTEP and OpenStep operating systems, and the term "dock" is sometimes used generically to refer to similar features in other OSes, such as RISC OS's icon bar. iOS has its own version of the Dock for iPhone and iPad.
Apple applied for a US patent for the design of the Dock in 1999 and was granted the patent in October 2008, nine years later. Applications can be added and removed to the Dock by drag-and-drop, except for the Finder, which is a permanent fixture as the leftmost item (or topmost if the Dock is configured to be vertical). Part of the system core services in OS X, Dock.app is located at /System/Library/CoreServices/.
Read more about Dock (OS X): Overview, Related Software, Curiosities, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the word dock:
“I walked on the banks of the tincan banana dock and sat down under the huge shade of a Southern Pacific locomotive to look at the sunset over the box house hills and cry.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)