Re: Live preview for all windows in alt-tab display?

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Welcome to the list Adam. :)

On Wed, 2010-10-27 at 14:15 -0700, Adam Williamson wrote: 
> On Wed, 2010-10-27 at 23:06 +0200, Milan Bouchet-Valat wrote:
> 
> > > "Alt+Tab switches between windows. The windows are grouped by
> > > application and the previews of the applications with multiple windows
> > > are available as you click through...Previews of applications with a
> > > single window are only available when the Down arrow is explicitly hit."
> > > 
> > > But...why? Is there any reason to show just static icons of apps with
> > > only a single window open on the alt-tab list? I'd find a live preview
> > > of every application, no matter how many windows it has open, much more
> > > useful. This was one of the things I liked about Compiz, when I used it.
> > > I tended to use it as an easy way to see if a console operation had
> > > finished, or if anyone had said something in a given IRC channel, etc -
> > > just have a quick look through the alt-tab list, then back to what I was
> > > doing.
> > Maybe because the overview mode is precisely doing this already? What
> > would be the point of having almost the same functionality available
> > from the Activities button and Alt+Tab at the same time? If you want a
> > keyboard shortcut to get an overview of windows, use the Logo key or Alt
> > +F1.
> 
> It doesn't do that at all. Alt-tab cycles through windows, with whatever
> I was doing still visible behind it. Start / Alt + F1 does not; it
> brings up an entire separate interface, which includes application and
> document launching as well as window switching. It also doesn't have a
> usable keyboard interface; even when
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=587071 is fixed, using the
> keyboard in alt-f1 view will naturally navigate through the left-hand
> side pane, not switch between windows.
> 
> To switch windows from the alt-f1 view I hit alt-f1, examine all the
> windows it shows, and use the mouse to pick one. I can't cycle, and I
> can't use the keyboard. alt-tab allows me to cycle through windows using
> a keyboard interface. They're completely different. Without alt-tab,
> gnome-shell would be extremely clunky to use, for me.

We need to address is the question of switching order before concerning
ourselves with visual presentation. (I know that this has been discussed
by some of the design folk, though I'm not sure what the content of
those discussions was.)

Personally speaking, I often find the current alt-tab behaviour to be a
bit confusing. I haven't been able to pin down exactly why, but I seem
to end up in a tangle. It behaves differently from how I expect it to.
It might be the application/window split in the alt-tab logic, or it
might be something a little more nuanced. Has anybody else on the list
had similar experiences?

Best,

Allan
--
Blog: http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/
IRC: aday on irc.gnome.org