Re: Some thought about the shell idea

[Marina Zhurakhinskaya <marinaz redhat com>]

Hi Daniele, 

Yes, this means we are using two panels for now. But I believe we will explore other options that would allow just having one panel, such as representing windows by icons or making the task list available on an optional sidebar or as a free-floating widget. 

Thanks again for your feedback!

Marina

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniele Di Mauro" <daniele dm gmail com>
To: gnome-shell-list gnome org
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2009 7:41:57 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Fwd: Some thought about the shell idea


I forgot to reply to the list too. sorry. 


daniele 


---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
From: Daniele Di Mauro < daniele.dm @ gmail.com > 
Date: Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 1:30 AM 
Subject: Re: Some thought about the shell idea 
To: Marina Zhurakhinskaya < marinaz redhat com > 


Hi Marina, 





I like an idea of thinking of the dekstop overhaul as creating a graphical console that immediately enables you to do things. We are planning on incorporating such things as a better notification system, an intuitive desktop search, non-hierarchical file browsing, and an integrated IM client as part of the gnome-shell. 



I'm glad that i'm not the only one who thinks in that way 




We are still experimenting with the overlay/workspaces/taskbar/task switching/tiling ideas. While we tried to hold off on re-introducing the taskbar, it turned out that it was one of the major components lack of which made the gnome-shell unusable. It seems that users like to be able to do rapid task switching back-and-forth, so the taskbar is back in, at least until we find a better solution. 



A small premise: as i can remember there have been 3 ways to manage/switch tasks in "history": 
- Iconify (windows 3.1, fvwm, etc...) 
- docking (wmmaker, macosx) 
- taskbar (windows 95 and others) 



As i understand, you're not thinking anymore to use only one panel because of taskbar, isn't it? 
With the overlay idea going on, i.e. divide applications by context, i believe that iconify would be a nicer solution. It has some drawbacks if implemented like in win3.1 or fvwm: 
- the desktop will have a mix of file and iconified windows 
- iconified windows will be most of the time covered by active ones. 


(* i just got this idea reading your email, maybe it has even more drawbacks than a taskbar *) 
A new way could be to extend the use of tray icons to all the applications: 
- left click to bring to top (if more windows are present, e.g. 3 browser windows, a menu to chose one) 
- right click to access options (if they have) 
- we use only a panel ;) 


I guess it's all for now, keep the good work ;) 
Cheers 


daniele 


p.s. i apologize for my english, it's not my mother language and i'm not talking/writing since some months 

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