Re: Regarding application holder...

[Charles Iliya Krempeaux <tnt linux ca>]

Hello,

On Sat, 2001-12-01 at 06:32, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson wrote:
> Howdy, all.
> 
> I'm new on this list, so I apologize if I'm missing the point. ;)
> 
> In Ximian GNOME, there is a drop-down for running applications. It's
> pretty similar to MacOS. I've been looking for this type of application
> dock for a very long time, and I just don't get why nobody seems to have
> taken this excellent method from the Mac, while they haven't hesitated
> to take other good features of GUI as roll model. I find the
> Windows-type dock pretty silly, although it's fine when the applications
> are grouped together, like in KDE, GNOME and even Windows XP.
> 
> Anyway, two key elements are missing in the MacOS-type application dock.
> Those are application grouping, and global minimization. The point is
> that sometimes people want to get to the desktop, and that feature is
> missing in this dock.

Well, as a kind of UI-hack, you could always switch to a different
desktop (that has no Windows open on it) to get to the desktop.

On Ximian GNOME, in the bottom right corner of the screen, you'll
see some rectangles.  (There's probably four of them.)  Each of
those rectangles represents a new desktop.  And clicking on any of
them will switch you to that new desktop.  Assuming you have the
same background and icons on each desktop (which you probably do)
you can get to your desktop that way.

But this is not the way it `should' be handled.

 
> Furthermore, it has proven handy on MacOS to be able to throw all
> windows of an application to the front. For example, when I'm using
> SciTE and have eighteen million windows of it, I'd like to see them all
> when I select the grouped application SciTE (e.g. if I don't select a
> specific window from the SciTE submenu). This is not really currently
> missing because it's ridiculous without the grouping. :)

On Ximian GNOME you usually get Windows of the same application
grouped together.  For example, I have 5 Mozilla (web browser)
windows open right now, and all of them get grouped under one
rectangular button on the task bar (at the bottom of the screen).
If I left-click on the button, I get a popup menu letting me choose
any of the five windows (that I have open) to bring it to the
front.

However, if I left-click on its rectangle on the task bar (on the
bottom of the screen), I get a popup menu.  One of the choices (of
the popup menu) is "Iconify All"; this can be used to minimize all
those Windows.  Another choice (on the popup menu) is "Restore All";
this can be used to bring all the windows back (of that application).


> Just wanted to express myself on this one, hoping that some
> trigger-happy coder agreed and implemented this. I was going to do this
> myself, but I'm up to my neck in work and other projects, so I don't see
> me implementing this myself until late next year or something.

:-)  Someone else (besides me) will have to code it.  I'm busy with
other stuff right now.

See ya

     Charles Iliya Krempeaux
     tnt @ linux.ca
     ckrempea @ alumni.sfu.ca