Re: Launching vs. Raising an application...

[Ian Bicking <ian bickiia earlhall earlham edu>]

[I'm having problems with my mail -- apologies if this got sent twice]

Ami Ganguli [aganguli@interlog.com] wrote:
> ...
> A common problem is confusion between launching and application
> and raising/maximizing an application that's already open.  I've
> often found users having trouble because they'd somehow opened
> a dozen or so copies of the same program.  New users find it intuitive
> that in order to get back an application that has "disappeared" (i.e..
> you've minimized it or hidden it behind a window)  you repeat
> whatever you did to start the thing in the first place.  Why not
> try to blur or eliminate the distinction between minimized and
> terminated applications?
>
> 1/  Each Gnome app creates a PID file when it starts.  If a previous
> PID file exists, check if the process is really running and take some
> action to maximize it, as this is probably what the user wants.

FWIW, Window Maker does just this with applications on the wharf
(dock?  I forget what it calls it) and clip.  This, in turn, is taken
from NeXT (of course), and everyone always falls over themselves to
talk about how wonderful the NeXT is :-) (I'll admit that NeXT worship
gets a little out of hand at times) This allows you to kill and app
with an option on the button (nice for zombie processes -- not that
those should ever exist, of course, but...)  It currently doesn't
unminimize minimized apps (it just brings them into focus), but I'm
sure that's a very doable feature to add (maybe it already has been,
and I just don't realize it).

Anyways, I think this is the proper place for this functionality to be
-- in the window manager (or, more accurately, in one implementation
of a window manager).  Not everyone necessarily wants it, plus it
gives you the option of starting an app from an xterm or a root menu
(gnome menu, what-have-you) if you really want another instance.  (You
can also set an attribute that allows you to start more than one
instance from the same button, for xterms and such) Because Window
Maker uses it only on the wharf and clip, and these aren't found in
most other window managers (or at least have a different feel if they
do), it won't be too surprising to users when this functionality isn't
available across all gnome platforms (e.g., gnome over E).

If this functionality was directly placed in the app, you would
quickly piss off users who wanted to get around the "feature" (it's a
feature when the user wants it, but a "feature" when the user doesn't
want it :).  To have an app think for you -- and to make it hard to
get around it -- is a certain way to make a user feel like the
environment is condescending.  Linux and Gnome should be easy to use,
but never condescend.  That this isn't a usual rule in interface
design is a shame.

For beginning users, I think Window Maker will really be the most
appropriate window manager on a number of points, so it's a feature
that is already present where it needs to be.


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< Ian Bicking                 |  bickiia@earlham.edu                >
< drawer #419 Earlham College |  http://www.cs.earlham.edu/~bickiia >
< Richmond, IN 47374          |  (765) 973-2824                     >
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