Here are the answers by Stefan Robl, the author of AmiDock.

The OS4.0 version of AmiDock is an almost completely rewrite of the version included with OS3.9 and a lot of outstanding issues were fixed.

The new design comes with a much improved layouter which arranges all types of icons very well (from very tiny to really big ones).

A very nice new feature is the interactive mode of AmiDock which allows the user to arrange, add, remove icons, categories and even docks directly using the mouse without the need to open the configuration dialog.

AmiDock now also supports button type docks allowing for numerous objects (programs, files) to be available at once as this mode consumes very little "desktop real-estate".

With OS4.0's AmiDock, docks can now have their drag bar on all four possible sides of a dock; each dock is now also minimizeable to conserve space.

The new AmiDock is now up to ten times faster than the old version (depending on the number of icons visible at load time).

The most interesting new feature is the possibility to have active content within a dock through plug-ins.

A plug-in of AmiDock is called a "docky". Each docky has full access to all of AmiDock's functionality and can provide for a virtually endless number of features. The usage of dockies is very transparent - throw in a docky and it will work (and vice versa).

A number of dockies will already be included with OS4.0; one of the most requested features - subdocks - was made possible using a docky. There is also a docky which minimizes a dock automatically if the mouse pointer is no longer over the dock. Other included dockies allow you to have clock, a lens, animations and other active content within a dock.

The most thrilling stuff will surely come from third party programmers in the form of third-party dockies (the API will be released with OS4.0) - just imagine having the current network traffic, the printer status, the current rendering process of your raytracer and other similarly useful things in the form of a small and corresponding picture within your dock.