Re: Active Applications list

[Giovanni Campagna <scampa giovanni gmail com>]

On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 4:00 PM, Marcus Moeller <mail marcus-moeller de> wrote:
> Dear Giovanni,
>
>>>> I propose some kind of active apps/tasks list that is displayed at all
>>>> times. I get the feeling that the developers want to keep the
>>>> panel/task bar (whatever it is being called) clutter free, so they are
>>>> not going to want program names splattered across it. I think the
>>>> solution would be to have smallish icons of the active apps/tasks
>>>> displayed next to the activities button.
>>> Hi and thanks for trying the Shell and reporting. This issue has been
>>> discussed many times already on this list though, and designers and
>>> developers don't have the time to answer again an again the same
>>> concerns.
>>>
>>> To be short: it's at the core or the Shell's design to work with the
>>> overview rather than an application list. Though the Shell has a support
>>> for optional extensions, so if somebody steps in and provides an
>>> application list extension, this feature will be available for people
>>> who feel the need for it. But not by default.
>>
>> I managed to write something that, while looking similar to the
>> Application pane in the overview, offers rapid window management,
>> without zooming in and out and without moving the previously active
>> window, if only for a second. A dock, if you prefer.
>> Differently from AWN and Docky, though, this uses Shell's own window
>> management facilities, so should have the same behaviour in edge cases
>> (like windows with incorrect class, loader windows, windows with no
>> title, windows that cannot be mapped to an active application, etc.),
>> to get an overall consistent experience.
>> You can find it at
>> http://ilmagazzino.altervista.org/personal/activeapps_scampa.giovanni.gmail.com.tar.gz
>> (replace _ with @ after download)
>
> Could you perhaps leave us a note how to integrate/use it?

It is not a patch, it is a standard GNOME Shell extension, so to use
it, just untar the package into $XDG_DATA_DIR/gnome-shell/extensions
(~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions) and reload the shell.
Of course, in the future the Shell should have some extension manager,
but for all users of this mailing list manual management should be
easy enough

> --
> Greets
> Marcus
>

Giovanni