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Re: tasklist/reusing gnome-panel

Sorry to respond to my own email, but I thought about the problem a little more and came up with a more logically structured solution to task-panel management using three modes of visualization: the Gnome-shell panel overlay for workspaces; window-picker applet with mouse-over to show open window groups within a single workspace; and tabs raised to the tops of windows to different tasks in the same window.  Please see below:

From: Brian Fleeger <brianfleeger yahoo com>
To: Neil J Patel <njpatel gmail com>; gnome-shell-list gnome org
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 3:12:19 AM
Subject: Re: tasklist/reusing gnome-panel

<<I basically proposed addressing the problem by listing all open
<< window tabs along the top window panel, a la Chrome. 
<<The window label text size per tab in Chrome is about
<<the same size as the task list widgets people are used
<<to using in GNOME and Windows.  Top-tab appearance
<<and basic behavior would basically be like Chromes'
<<except that I envision it would being system wide. 
<<LIke-programs could be grouped into one window, but
<< nonlike-programs could not.  (i.e. OO.o docs could be
<<open and tabbed like in Symphony, but a GIMP tab
<<could not be dragged into/merged with this type of
<<window/task).  This would turn windows from individual
<<instances of applications into "grouped like-tasks",
<<and force unlike-tasks to be separate and easily
<<distinguishable in the expose-esque panel view. 
 
There are really three hierarchical levels of applications whose labeling needs resolved in the proposed Gnome-Shell UI: docs/apps in different workspaces; apps in the same workspace but in differnt windows; and tabs grouped together in the same window (regardless whether or not Gnome uses the idea of universal tabs, some apps will always have tabs). 
 
How to visualize these different layers and keep them all distinct? 
 
I think each layer (workspace, window, and tab) should use its own distinct method of visualization.  For workspaces, the panel overlay as it appeared in the Hackfest proposal is excelent.  For representing opened windows, you could use the window-picker applet to show different tabbed window-group clusters (i.e. if you ripped a tap away from a task window and formed a new window, a new (numbered?) icon would appear in task-picker for it).  And for grouped tasks opened in the same window, the tab labels would be the primary task label.
 
Visually, I suggest staying away from using thumbnail windows as a taskpanel switcher.  I think a better solution would be to use the window-picker + mouse-over effect.  A window could "jump" to the font of a group on mouseover of the window-picker icons (when the mouse moves away, the window returns to the bottom of the stack).  If a moused-over window is the one you want at the top of your task group, you just single click its icon in window-picker and it stays at the top.  For computers that enable compiz, an effect could be used where the window appears to literally "jump" to the front, as in this video at the 30 second mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqJWE1DEoI  In this way, it would be functionally similar to the "aero peek" found in Win7, but different in that it does not rely on thumbnails.
 
Win7 only uses two layers of applications (applications and tabs within running apps) because it does not support workspaces.  Further, Win7 mixes together apps and tabs in how it renders thumbnails.  In this regard, it is logically inconsistant.
 
-Brian

From: Neil J Patel <njpatel gmail com>
To: gnome-shell-list gnome org
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 1:00:18 PM
Subject: Re: tasklist/reusing gnome-panel

Hi,

2009/1/14 Johannes Schmid <jhs jsschmid de>:
> Hi!
>
>> > I would rather vote for a task list at the top. And not the normal task
>> > list as used in GNOME but something that is used in the Ubuntu Netbook
>> > Remix
>> > (http://www.hy-tech.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/ubuntu-netbook-remix.png). It's basically a normal task list but the non-active window collapses into an icon. It doesn't waste as much space as the taskbar and it avoids the need for a second panel.
>> Have you considered using Avant Window Navigator (AWN)? I've been using
>> it for some time now, and I must say while I'm no real fan of MacOS, the
>> dock concept is quite efficient and nice to use. AWN is really
>> customizable (bar height, decorations, theming...) so that it can fit
>> with gnome-shell in whatever way you want.
>
> Well, AWN is like a second panel and it never really worked well for me.
> In addition it wastes a lot of screen space when you don't make it
> auto-collapse (which is confusing...).

Yes, autohide in Awn does suck, but if we're talking about task
management capabilities (or at least the capabilities that will exist
in a few weeks time), then I don't think anything else comes close in
Gnome.

Awn is under going a rewrite[0] at present (and yes, it has done for
quite some time), a part of which is a brand-spanking new taskmanager,
separated from the core. Over the next couple of weeks, the
taskmanager rewrite will reach maturity and provide these
capabilities:

- Launcher support (like the dock: icon representing desktop file.
click to launch, will then control launched window, and will become
launcher again if window closed).
- Task support: normal windows that open during the session
- Startup-notification support
- Application/Arbitrary group support - drag-and-drop window icons
onto each other to create an icon group that controls the entire group
of windows)
- a (much nicer) dbus backend to allow applications to have custom
right-click menus, whether that's a context menu, or a mini-player
(i.e. Banshee)
- support for an document-based applications to set the uri of the
file they are displaying to allow for automatic entries into the
right-click menu to manipulate that file
- some other things that I can't think of right now :)

The code is pretty abstracted in that it the view object could
(pretty) easily be ported to a ClutterTexture, for instance. I'm open
to making it easier.

Fwiw, the netbook-remix[1] way of presenting open windows gets a big
thumbs up from nearly everyone who uses it, and has ended up on many
people's desktops' gnome-panel. The name of the applet is
window-picker-applet[2].

Kind regards,

Neil

(author of both Awn and Ubuntu Netbook Remix)

[0] https://code.edge.launchpad.net/~awn-core/awn/trunk-rewrite-and-random-breakage
[1] https://launchpad.net/unr
[2] https://launchpad.net/window-picker-applet


> Regards,
> Johannes
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-shell-list mailing list
> gnome-shell-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-shell-list
>
>
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