How to make X11 applications show up in the Dock?

May 1, 2007 10:47 AM

Is there a way in to make Mac OS X X11 applications show up in the Dock separately?

I make frequent use of several X11 applications. It bothers me that there isn't a way to access an X11 application from the Dock without clicking on the X11 icon and then selecting the appropriate application. Is there a way to do this?

posted by jpf to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Make sure the binary is set to open w/ X11.
Drag the binary to your dock.
Adjust icon as necessary.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 11:10 AM on May 1, 2007

er..binary/shell script/whatever
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 11:19 AM on May 1, 2007

Best answer: Cat Pie Hurts - that won't select an already running application which might be one of the things jpf wants it to do. It will probably try to spawn a new instance of the application in fact.

As far as I know it's not possible to get it totally like a standard OS X app - the best you can do is wrap it using something like Platypus.
posted by edd at 11:43 AM on May 1, 2007

Good point, edd.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 11:51 AM on May 1, 2007

Best answer: Your best bet is to wrap up a script into an executable, ala edd's Platypus, and drag that to the Dock.

This is what Matlab does, for example: you open up a helper application (a script), which subsequently opens up Matlab within X11.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:34 PM on May 1, 2007

Response by poster: Ah well, not quite what I had in mind, but I'll take this as confirmation that there isn't any way to do what I want. Thanks kids!
posted by jpf at 3:35 PM on May 1, 2007