X-Assist v0.8 is out. X-Assist has a new home.

What is X-Assist?

X-Assist was created to assist in the much loved but missing features of OS 9 in OSX.
Specifically:

Application Switcher Menu (top right corner of screen)
X-Assist has a similar implementation.
More than a 5 item "Recent Applications" menu.
X-Assist has no "limit".
The ability to add personal hierarchies of items in an OS9-like "apple" menu.
X-Assist allows users to add any hierarchy into a "Shortcuts" submenu.
An extensible "Control Strip" like plugin architecture.
X-Assist supports Objective-C (NSBundle) plugins.
They are easy to write, and examples "SetVolume" and "MP3 Player"
plugins are provided in this distribution.
OS 9 window behavior - when you switch applications by clicking in a window, all windows for that application are shown. This behavior has changed in OSX and can be a bit annoying.
X-Assist brings back the OS9 windowing functionality and also allows you to toggle between modes.
Easy access to System Preferences (Control Panels).

Screen Shots:

Figure 1: Display of custom items to appear in X-Assist Shortcuts submenu.
This screenshot is a window from NetFinder browsing a local disk, not OSX's Finder.

xassist screen shot

Figure 2: X-Assist menu hierarchy.

How much does it cost?

Its FREE!

But if you feel the need...

Check out the following Shareware application which may also interest you:

NetFinder is a Finder-like browser for local files, and also FTP (See Figure 1 - its NetFinder).
It supports viewing remote servers and local files in a hierarchy, plus much more.
A fully functional installer can be downloaded from:

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pli/netfinder/

Some features of NetFinder:
- As Finder-like as you can imagine when browsing. (see Figure 1)
- resume FTP/HTTP
- Drag and Drop everywhere.
- Its Local File Browsing mode allows you to view, sort and change Label's too!

A screen shot of NetFinder can be seen here.

Try it and you will be hooked.

Contacts:

Author:
Peter Li [X-Assist Application] email

Assistants:
Ross Tulloch [MP3 Player Plugin] email

Tom Beckenham email

You can email any of us for suggestions.

Version History

v0.7 [4 Nov 2003]

- added preference to enable control-ESC hotkey for those who don't want the feature.
- added preference and hot key capability for classic applications to Hide Current (command-H).
- added preference and hot key capability for classic applications to Hide Others (command-option-H).
- added Traditional Chinese Localization - thanks Joe Wong
- fix a bug in 10.3 and when "Hide Application Name in Menu Bar by Default." is enabled, the menu would not appear to the far right.
- synced new changes for all Localized resources - these new items aren't localized.

v0.6 [27th Oct 2003]

- dug out the code from 2 years ago and updated it to the latest compiler.
- updated compatibility for OSX 10.3, appears to still work in 10.2.
- fixed a few long standing "small" memory leaks. <grin>
- included Italian Localization - thanks Simone Bettini

v0.5.1 [12th Nov 2001]

- updated for OSX 10.1 support. As a result some features may no longer work with 10.0.x
- integrated/updated a few more localizations (some incomplete), Japanese, German, French, Spanish

v0.5 [21st May 2001]

- added icon for Menu Resizer.
- added support for using Shift key to temporarily invert the current Windowing mode. (defaulted off).
- improved the display of Control Panel name (internal name and localized).
- integrated a few localizations (some incomplete), Japanese, German, French
- re-arranged preference pane and added two new prefs.

v0.4 [1st May 2001]

- added support for remembering recent applications.
- added ability to hide icons for everything but the Application Menu.
- added support for hiding other apps when switching - for those who asked for it.
- added Control-ESC hotkey to toggle on/off OS9 windowing mode.
- added more prefs.
- improved handling of "non-standard" filenames causing X-Assist to quit.
- adopted application icon. Thanks to Mike Meacham.
- updated SetVolume plugin to support setting Alert and System volume.
- fixed bug in SetVolume causing one channel to be set to Zero volume. Doh!

v0.3 [23rd April 2001]

- fixed a bug in the application menu causing icons to not draw properly.
- fixed cause of occasional sudden quiting of app.
- added "Control Panel" submenu to Shortcuts submenu for easy access to Prefs.
- added alias resolving of folders in the "X-Assist Items" folder. So you can now add an alias to the Applications folder.
- menu resizer now updates correctly. Sweet!!
- added more prefs.

v0.2 [19th April 2001]

- added support for showing the application menu on the right of the Clock.
- added current running process tickmark in application menu.
- added support for option-select new process to hide current process then switch.
- added Hide (app name), Hide Others and Show All - for all those that asked for it.
- added more preferences to configure the app:

the location of the application menu.
the ability to hide the application name, ie only show icon.
enable the resizer, allowing for a one click hide/show app menu names.
This pref is defaulted off as it causes a few drawing glitches.
enable/disable "X-Assist Items" loading
enable/disable "Recent Applications" feature.

- relocated the Toggle Window Mode item and moved the "Edit Preferences" to a submenu.
- added a checkmark next to Toggle Window Mode to indicate the current state.
- x-assist is now a fully background application.
- re-arranged preferences window to include access to what used to be in the apps menus.
- improved internal handling of OSX applications.
- application menu items now sorted in alphabetical order.
- fixed a bad resource in the about box text... oops.
- improved documentation.

v0.1 [Initial Release] 17th April 2001