Re: Breadcrumbs in the panel

[Sander Dijkhuis <sander dijkhuis gmail com>]

Thanks for the reactions about the breadcrumbs idea [1]! I tried to implement
parts of it in a separate, experimental Git branch. The code is very ugly and
some things like maximalization, minimalization and urgent windows don't work
well yet, but it might be enough to see if the ideas work.

Here is a screenshot of how it looks right now:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sander.dijkhuis/GNOMEShell#5331656296470360274

Below are the commands to try the branch (edited from Marina's useful list of
Git commands). Only the JavaScript files are changed, so if gnome-shell
currently works for you, this should work too.

    First, navigate to the gnome-shell source directory:
      cd ~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell

    To add my repository:
      git remote add -f sander git://github.com/sander/gnome-shell.git

    To switch to my branch:
      git checkout sander/breadcrumbs

    To run gnome-shell from my branch:
      src/gnome-shell --replace

    To return to the regular, official branch:
      git checkout master

    To get updates from my branch:
      git fetch sander
      git checkout sander/breadcrumbs

    To remove my repository:
      git remote rm sander

Reporting technical bugs is probably not very useful for now, but I'm
interested to hear about your experiences and ideas. For example, would this
really make task switching slower than the current task bar at the bottom of
the screen does?

Things that aren't implemented, but would have been if I worked faster:
- Display workspace names ("Workspace 1") in the overlay view.
- Use the same grid layout in the workspace menu as in the overlay view.
- When the mouse cursor hovers over a window title in the menu, highlight that
  window, as suggested by Brian Fleeger.
- Show the window dropdown menu when switching windows using Alt-Tab.
- Allow for point-and-scroll at the menus, as suggested by Greg K Nicholson.
- Put the _ [] X buttons of maximized windows in the panel and hide their
  title bars.

There's a Summer of Code project that will (among other things) let
GNOME Shell work with tabs within windows, so that would allow for extending
the breadcrumb trail to "Activities > workspace > window > tab".

To see how a "maximized" mode should work in my view, try Maximus (used in the
Ubuntu Netbook Remix): https://launchpad.net/maximus

If anyone wants to experiment further with this code, please email me if the
code is too unstructured or if more explanation is needed.

[1]: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/DesignerPlayground/BreadcrumbsEtc