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Open-Source App Mimics Exposè!

anappaday.com — This tiny app for windows emulates the "fade out" effect of exposè in Mac OSX.

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  • relinquish, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15For those of you that are curious, the app itself is around 300 lines of C#.
    • Locuester, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Added about 50 more since saying this in the chat. Tried like hell to suppress the Win-J hotkey from letting the keypress through. Still not sure whats wrong, so I added Ctrl-/ which is less intrusive on most apps. F12 is good for most too...
    • obobo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14300 lines, not forgetting a 20MB .NET run-time dependency!
    • bobmcsmith, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4A 20MB Dependency that will be preinstalled in Vista and all future versions of Windows...hmm...doesn't sound so bad to me
    • AceTracer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Typical Microsoft developer thinking.
    • wastern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1get rid of .Net. while you're at it why don't you delete all those pesky dll files. who needs them......
  • codeoptimist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Sweet! +digg!
    • V1ncent, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2I NEVER run apps that rely on bulky crud to run like .NET
    • Hickeroar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Never used anything Java I take it?
    • Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Correct. Well, of course I've used java in the past but only because I was forced to. I'm currently studying C, C++, Assembly and, *pukes*, Java at uni, so naturally do use java, but only for development. I don't use any java applications and do not install the JRE unless I have to, same with .net though it's a bit easier not to install .net when running a linux machine :)
  • joechrz, on 10/12/2007, -42/+4Heres a version with options for opacity and speed:
    http://beta.gyrolabs.com/jediconcentrate/JediConcentrate_Options.zip
  • devindotcom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+40That's not really what Expose does, is it? Expose allows you to show or hide all the current windows. This merely darkens the background, am I right?
  • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19This doesn't actually mimic exposè, it just fades everything in the background, leaving the active windows looking bright and shiny.

    It's pretty cool, but I can't really imagine using it for anything. Also, it causes an annoying flicker as it fades, which is probably a refresh-rate issue on my LCD, but it's nothing that I can fix. 60 Hz is what my monitor will handle, and what my driver is set for.
  • Necron, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Alright, THESE are the types of apps that should have been made earlier but now we have Jedi to save the day.

    Really, this is completely awesome what you're doing (and awesome stuff to the people in the chat room suggesting it).
    • jewbilee, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4Different apps are useful to different people. This app just happens to be useful to you. I know I've only really been able to use 3 of them but it's still awesome what hes doing. He's saved a lot of people a lot of with some of his other projects. This man truly is a jedi /bow
  • noamsml, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I was going to say "Yeah, it's part of compiz", but apparently the is expose for Windows. Well, have fun, Windowsites!
  • netdroid9, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3There's an expose-like feature in Windows XP. Right-click on the task-bar and click cascade windows.

    It's not as pretty, but you can't say Windows ripped off Apple if Vista has a hotkey for this. I'm pretty sure XP came before Expose ;).
    • bearda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7That's a nice feature, doesn't quite compare to OS X's Expose in terms to sheer usefulness. Mainly, you can't see the content of any window but the one in the foreground (although you can see their title bar) and that it messes with the window position/size of anything you have open (it doesn't "snap back" like OS X).

      Andrew Beard
    • toxicredm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If XP came out before Expose, then this (cascade windows) has definitely been around before Expose. It's been around at least since Windows 3.1
    • Nitro420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Cascade is nothing like expose. Cascade puts all the windows together but in line with each other. There are many ways to set expose but the way I use it is that it shows every window that is opened (small enough so you can see all of them on the screen) and then choose the window you're looking for and hit the expose button again. This is great in photoshop when you are making a collage of many photos.
    • ApeInago, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@bearda

      - it does snap back... there is also an undo option once you've done it once.
  • daonlyfreez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Nice apps...

    If you are no (real) programmer (or don't like C#), check out some of these variants (all in AutoHotkey, simple and OSS):

    http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic8597.html
    http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#TransOther
    http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#Ghoster
    http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic5721.html
    • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Autohotkey is great! I fall into the "no (real) programmer" category, but AHK's language is so simple. In minutes you can do things like remap keys, create hotkeys, key/mouse macros, hotstrings, etc. It's also surprisingly powerful, supports GUIs, and you can do really amazing things with it. It brings the Windows API within reach of the common-man, that's for sure.
  • JimGardner1973, on 10/12/2007, -20/+13You can't polish a turd, but you can put it in a box and tie a ribbon round it.
  • Cossins, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Marked as inaccurate, since this doesn't mimic Exposé at all. Exposé makes your windows fly around, giving a total overhead view of all open windows. It can also show all windows from the current program (very useful with Apple HIG-compliant MDI applications on Mac OS X), which produces an effect similar to what this mimics, except the windows highlighted aren't interactive (since you're supposed to choose one). When an application has more than one window open.

    Appreciate the effort, but this just doesn't do the same.

    - Simon
    • tominabox1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Ditto.
    • zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, this is more analogous to FocusLayer (http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/10347).

      It has to be noted that FocusLayer etc are very old and out of date. The effect is incomplete and won't work too well on Intel Macs since these focus layer apps are for PPC. If someone knows of a new one for intel macs, which doesn't have so many quirks, please let me know.

      So, right now the Windows mob have a pretty effect newer mac owners don't :)
    • chadseld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Try OmniDazzle
    • theDevilsDue, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Boo *****' hoo. I think you missed the point.
  • ImTheDarkcyde, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5doesn't work on dual-screens
    • twe4ked, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4yes it does. marked as inaccurate
    • catoutfit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2doesn't work for me on dual-screen either.
    • SeenD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It works on my dual :)
      even with the window in the middle.

      But this ain't expose the title is misleading.
      fun little app though. but not very useful for me.

      marked as inaccurate
  • FatController, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It's a neat looking application ( from the screenshots ) but this isn't what Expose does. Marking inaccurate.
  • relinquish, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Holy crap guys, did you even read the description? I said it mimiced the "fade out" effect. Not the omigoshwindowsflyingaround effect.
    • gr00vy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Yes but that is not what expose does. There is an app called doodim on the mac that does almost exactly the same thing as your app does. Nobody who is a mac user would go "oohhh.. Expose." They would go: "Hey, that looks lke what doodim does"
    • relinquish, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5To be honest, I don't really care. Sure, mac users may have there eye candy, but most typical windows users haven't seen stuff like this. And thats aside the point:

      The SoftwareJedi writes these apps merely as a proof-of-concept. Alone, this effect may not be useful, but if someone were to say, "Hey, I think I'll write a killer app today", which just happens to need code from one of these projects, then hip hip hooray!
    • catoutfit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@relinquish

      Maybe it should be called class-a-day not app-a-day then.

      (Class in the programming sense not the educational sense)
  • Brennan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1This is absolutely useless, all it does is fade the background around the current active window. Completely useless, I thought this guy was going to be making useful apps?
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The source code is released along side it, alter it a bit and make it automaticly fade non-active windows out..
      Yay for open-source
      (Also, it's simply the Digg article that was innacurate, the App A Day site specificaly states it "mimics A feature" of Expose)
      - Ben
  • OlliLartinen, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Exposé, not exposè...
  • mbabauer, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2This isn't want Exposé does at all. Yeah, it darkens the screen, but Exposé also shows you all the windows of the same running app or all the windows that are open in nice little thumbnail sizes. It also allows you to easily show the desktop.
  • azrael13666, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The only app ive seen that works sort of like exposé for windows is Top desk

    http://www.otakusoftware.com/topdesk/
    • BevosGhost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I haven't used it in a little while, but Reflex Vision (http://www.reflexvision.net/) (formerly Entbloess) also does something similar to Expose for a PC
    • D14BL0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3TopDesk is nice, but it sure is a memory hog.
    • sislak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I found one called "Entbloess 2" which works really well. Top desk is pretty bad.
  • mjar81, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3When will they ever learn?
    Not to mention that this is a completely lame attempt to implement a system-wide feature in OS X, it also fuels the fire about Windows trying to copy Mac.

    Just go buy a freaking Mac if you want the Mac features.
  • popezaphod, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Why would I want to download something that I can already do on my Mac OS X box?

    Oh, it's for Windows... nevermind. :P
    • jaydj, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2This app will probably still have more of the market than OS X :P

      Now let people enjoy free code. When they open up OS X let me know.
  • berkes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Look at http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=14865 for a linux/KDE version. Its also open source :P
  • hadak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6*pets his ibook*
  • D14BL0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Awesome app. Sure, it doesn't mimic ALL of Expose, but it's nice that it does mimic one interesting feature.

    Word of advice, though. Don't keep Firefox focused if you're trying to download anything. The little popup and notifier lag like crazy when they appear.
  • danz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I thought this venture would be fun to follow but most of these apps are not impressive. I applaud the effort but I would like to see some solid usable apps that could be used on a daily basis and not "trinket" apps that are fun for a single use.
  • kingkool68, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It still needs some work. Dragging windows around is slooooowwww. And not much use to me since I keep a clean desktop.
  • redrighthand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is the one major App I really miss while at work on a Dell. Amazing how you take it for granted and then wish for it and would even pay for it on a windows machine
  • RossH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Too bad it's called jedi concentrate...
  • zwilliams, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1As said before, this doesn't mimic Expose.

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/
    http://www.apple.com/macosx/theater/expose.html
    • catoutfit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Why say it again then?
    • Locuester, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Does it mimic "a feature of expose", as the blog says?
  • manish22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How about SmallWindows ?

    Free, open source and works like Expose

    http://smallwindows.sourceforge.net/
    • fuelvolts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Small Windows is really great for open source - my only complaint is that it isn't easily customizable besides editing source code, which will NEVER make it a successful program outside of the people who have favorite sourceforge mirrors

      But it works and that is what's important

      +digg for people to try it
  • relinquish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I reiterate, once again, loud and clear. The program MIMICS AN EFFECT OF EXPOSE. Whatever the hell you guys interpreted that to mean was spun way out of proportion. I did not say "Windows program clones expose" or "Program competes with expose". Not even close.

    No, I'm not suggesting that it's a replacement or even competition. It just so happened that nobody came up with a better app for the dude code that day so he thought he'd have a go at it. And for 2 hours, work, it really isn't that bad.

    For all you mac lovers out there: Shut up and use your macs.
  • Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Umm let me get this straight, the applications just dims the other applications in the background? THAT'S IT??? What part of Expose is this supposed to mimic? The shading of the background applications is only used when you look at all the windows of one application. When viewing all the applications this only dims the desktop. If this at least did what F10 does then it would be a useful app, but this is just pointless. Not to mention a unportable .net application.
  • chedabob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3quit your whining, this guy codes stuff for free. if you dont like it, STFU, and dont download it.

    personally, i like it. it does mimic expose slightly, just not 100%.
  • minc727, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Persoanlly I like this app, i use it for what it's for, I use it to help block out the other windows when i'm working so that i don't get distractracted

    For all of you mac users: Try linux, if you don't like it, get a PC (if you still dont like it, then stick with a mac, they could be worse)

    For all of those who maked as inaccurate: www.learntoread.com
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