Re: Why nested alt-tab?

[Gregory Petrosyan <gregory petrosyan gmail com>]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 5:27 PM, David Mulder <greatslovakia zoho com> wrote:
> Problems with the current alt+tab (ubuntu/windows)
>
> Tabs from existing applications are not automatically integrated, although I
> think this problem was addressed in Windows 7
>
> When switching between more than ~3 windows the user needs to use the
> taskbar/gnome shell. If we want to regard this as a problem than we should
> research a solution, otherwise the alt tab interface should
> be explicitly designed to only focus on the last four windows.
>
> Alt+tab can only be practically used using keyboard input, yet mainly serves
> the same purpose as the taskbar, it would make sense to have a uniform
> interface. Possibly this could mean that we should consider alt+tab opening
> the gnome-shell and have it rotate through the currently open icons on the
> left and show the relevant windows on the right (this would be a nested
> implementation, so we should be aware of the disadvantages)
>
> If there is sufficient interest I could create a graphical mockup of the
> last idea I described.

Thanks for the good explanation, looks like this email got lost in my inbox.

IMO any hierarchy will completely ruin the reflex-like no-brains
alt-tab experience. Alt-tab must be really trivial.

And yes, when lots of windows are open, flat list is experiencing
troubles displaying them all.

So here's my proposal:
- fast alt-tab switches back to the previous window, as always
- regular alt-tab grays the current screen a bit, and displays on top
all the windows in a grid (a la overlay mode). There alt-tab,
alt-shift-tab, mouse etc. all work as expected.

Comments?

                Gregory