Re: interapplication communication

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

On Tue, 2009-12-29 at 20:27 +0000, Samuel Arthur Wright Illingworth
wrote:

[...]

> One thing I will say though - Owen, you say you're dead set against
> having a static list of the existing windows

I did not say that. I said:

 - Adding a task list to the current design does not make sense
   *in isolation*.

 - We want to do user testing with the current design (including the
   message tray) and are unlikely to make any big changes without
   reference to that.

>  but I for one need a visual reminder of what windows I've got open
> for the current activity - it helps focus my mind on what I'm doing,
> what information I have available to me, what I need to do next, etc. 

One of our big problems with the task list going in was that we didn't
feel it did that; window titles get abbreviated beyond
comprehensibility, titles for tabbed windows aren't meaningful, it
doesn't scale beyond 5-6 windows, and so forth. These are some of the
reasons that Windows 7 moved from a window list to an application list,
and are things that we are trying to address with the overview.

>  It's also an instant and predictable way of finding the window you
> want - if something pops up or is arranged dynamically (like a hidden
> alt-tab style dock or Scale style action) you have to wait and look to
> find where the window you want is.

Note that the window arrangement in the overview is stable - it is
designed so that switching the currently active window doesn't rearrange
the windows, so the hope is that you can build up a memory of how things
are arranged there.

> OK, here's an idea (not thought about it much):  how about we get rid
> of the minimize button, and replace it with a don't-minimize button.
>  Any window that's not got don't-minimize ticked will minimize
> automatically when you select another window.  But when minimized, it
> will actually shrink into a thumbnail on whichever edge of the screen
> (left, bottom or right) has the most space (so they can be as big as
> possible), depending where the active window is.  Because it visually
> shrinks down you know where it is.  If the active window gets too big
> so the thumbnails would have to shrink down tiny to be visible then
> they'll start to be covered by the active window and only come on top
> on mouse over.  When maximized they won't be visible.  To see two
> windows side by side, unminimized, you can click the don't minimize
> button on one of them (although having some Windows 7 style
> side-by-side thingy would be handy too).

How do you see this working if the user has maximized windows so there
is no free space at the edge of the screen?

- Owen