What is hover intent?
Hover intent is a short wait before a hover opens something. The aim is to tell a pointer that stopped on purpose from one that is only passing through. Without it, every flick across the top of the screen would open the panel.
Why it matters
The notch is at the top centre of the screen, where the pointer often travels on the way to the menu bar. A panel that opened at once would pop up all the time. Too long a wait makes the panel feel sluggish. The delay is a trade between the two.
How NotchStar does it
Hover opens after an 80 millisecond intent delay. The open panel is 660 by 296 points. The code also treats SwiftUI’s onHover only as a hint. When a panel resizes under a still pointer, SwiftUI can fire spurious exit and enter pairs, and that would open and shut the panel in a loop. So NotchStar confirms every enter and exit against the real pointer position.
For users
You can also pin the notch open from its header, and the Quick Notes and Clipboard tools stay put while you use them. See the Quick Notes page.
Related
The window itself is an NSPanel. For the idea of the app, read what is a notch app.
