Re: Window controls for GNOME 3

[John Stowers <john stowers lists gmail com>]

On Tue, 2011-03-01 at 07:54 -0800, Sandy Armstrong wrote:
> (What happened to your mail client line-wrapping settings?)
> 
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 4:21 PM, Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com> wrote:
> > The maximize button
> > ===================
> >
> > The above was about minimization - but the request was also to remove the maximize button. This is a little different since there are more obvious ways to maximize a window - the drag to the top gesture or double-clicking on the title bar - we're not really talking about removing the feature of maximization but just the button.
> 
> I generally applaud the bold changes happening in the shell, but I
> disagree with removing the maximize/restore button.  I'll paste here a
> comment I wrote on Allan's blog:
> 
> 1) Drag-and-drop is very difficult on touchpads, and most people these
> days are buying laptops. Drag-and-drop is also undiscoverable.
> 2) Double-clicking the title-bar is undiscoverable.

I agree with these reasons.

May I also add one more - double clicking is terrible. Firstly, I always
opt for single click (recovering RSI/OOS). Secondly, how many computer
users *still* have no idea what double clicking does; the kind of people
who double click on *everything*, links in websites, menus, buttons, or
keep double clicking on applications while waiting for them to start.
Admittedly it is usually windows users who I observe doing this, but I
think it is wrong to assume that users;

a) know that double click exists
b) can actually distinguish that it is different from single click

I would prefer the approach of 'one foot in the old and one in the new'.
maximize for the old, dragging for the new. I still know windows 7 users
who don't use aero snap, so keeping maximize not only retains
familiarity for them, but current gnome2 users too. 

John