Mad dock trick!

[bighairydog]

OK try this:

(disclaimer - if you mess things up, don't blame me. always back up any system files you edit. Don't attempt this if you don't know what XML, backing-up and preferences are)

Locate your preferences (Home > library > Preferences) folder, and back-up the file 'com.apple.dock.plist'. then open the original file in a text editor (not textedit - that's an Rich Text Format editor, you want something like BBEdit Lite, which is free from Bare Bones Software)

You will see, towards the top of the file (which is in XML code), a couple of lines like this:

<key>largesize</key>
<real>8.200000000000000e+01</real>

These define the size of the icons in the dock when they are magnified under the mouse. Set the number to something like 30.200000000000000e+01, and save the file. Log out and back in again to restart the dock, and you now have insane big icons when you put your mouse over it.

Lookie:

[genghiscohen]

Impressive! I can see how that could be very useful for viewing a streaming video that you keep in your dock until it gets interesting, similar to the way in which I use picture-in-picture on my TV screen.

[ksv]

Uhm, does it actually get bigger than when setting the size to max in the preferences?

[kilowatt]

Originally posted by ksv
Uhm, does it actually get bigger than when setting the size to max in the preferences?

not that I can tell.

I was thinking it would also be neat (not really useful...) to make the magnification *reverse* so it got smaller

But the dock is a very tricky application, and will ignore 'out of bounds' preferences.

BTW, here is an easier way to set this preference:
defaults write com.apple.dock largesize 30.200000000000000e+01
then:
ps aux | grep -i dock
kill (pid of the dock)
no need to use -HUP, the system UI server will automatically re-load the dock if it dies (if its not the UI server, maybe its the login panel.. not sure).

Also, expand the terminal window because either ps aux or grep will not look at data over the size of the terminal window.

[bighairydog]

Originally posted by ksv
Uhm, does it actually get bigger than when setting the size to max in the preferences?

Oh yeah - much. As far as I can tell the upper limit is the point where an icon gets so big that there's no room for the rest of the dock. That screenshot is reduced 50%, so the actual icons were huge. The scaling isn't as smooth at big sizes, but it is big...

I should try it with a movie, to see if the resolution adjusts so thatn it isn't pixelated when huge.

Bernie :o)

[bighairydog]

Unreduced:

Bernie :o)

[ksv]

Wow
Still, the max amount of pixels in an icon, 128x128 I suppose, is the same as in the max setting in the dock prefs. Cool for watching movies in the dock, but I don't quite see the need for it
And I don't want the dock icons look like a windoze startup screen on a 17" monitor... THAT looks bad...