Some thoughts about window management

[Yaron Tausky <decaycell gmail com>]

Hi there,
Lately I find myself, on many occasions, struggling to manage my
windows, when I believe they should be doing it for me. Therefore, I
have a few suggestions regarding the subject. I think they should be
discussed on FD.o rather than GNOME, but I thought I'd better hear some
comments first...

1. The context menu for tasks in the taskbar is not very helpful. Most
of the functions it offers are rarely used (rollup, anyone?), even
though it's the best place to put the most used ones, since it's always
accessible (as the panel is always visible). I suggest that some sort of
API would be implemented to allow the application developers to add
app-specific functions to that menu, and put all the window management
stuff under a "Window management" submenu. This will allow the user to
easily access useful functions (e.g. "Play" or "Pause" for a music
player, "New message..." for an e-mail client, etc.). The "Close"
function should stay in the main menu, as that is the most used function
for that menu anyway (otherwise, I suspect most apps will implement it
themselves).

2. A custom that stemmed from Windows is to make background apps
minimize to the notification area -- which is RARELY used for
notifications. A lot of people have been complaining about it, but the
truth is that that hack is used because currently it's the best way to
handle such applications. I think that need should be addressed in an
appropriate way, and here's my idea:
First, implement a panel option to display tasks as icons only, and not
labeled buttons. This would also, as a side effect, allow users with
smaller resolutions to better use screen real-estate, since the use of
tabs in applications usually makes it to see the icon in order to
identify the desired window. The main use, however, would be to replace
the notification area as a place to put background apps in. In effect,
the user would have two taskbars (it should be possible to move apps
between them as desired -- to manage screen real-estate, for example),
one of them would be a "regular" one, and one would only show icons. The
apps would be able to send a WM hint in order to request to be placed in
the icon-only taskbar -- the request would be ignored if the user
doesn't have one, and a regular button would appear in the regular
taskbar. If the request can be fulfilled, however, in junction with my
previous idea, it would form a robust and flexible solution to the
problem.

I think these suggestions would make the user experience MUCH better --
at least, I know they would for me. ;-)
Hope to hear some comments!
-- 
Yaron Tausky <decaycell gmail com>