Re: [Usability] Window List (not the applet)

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl>]

Hi Gregory,

You've brought up an interesting subject...

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003, Gregory Merchan wrote:

> With it, the user could perform operations on a single window or a
> user-selected set of windows.

Correct. As a matter of fact, the OS/2 user still can. ;)

> I'll address those before going on to describe the rest. I last used Warp3,
> so I'm basing this off a screenshot of Warp4's window list and my
> recollection. Here's the screenshot:
>
>   http://www.contact.net/os2/TOUR/01.gif

Let's set one thing straight first: this is not the default OS/2 window
list, this is a tweaked window list provided by Stardock's Object Desktop.
Object Desktop adds lots of power toys to the Workplace Shell that the IBM
people would never have put in.

I'd provide you with a screenshot of my own Warp4 partition, if only it
hadn't bitrotted to the point of not booting anymore. :_(((

I've done some Googling, and here's a shot of the Warp4 window list
(titlebar decorations courtesy of the nice X-it utility, ugly colors by
the bad taste of the user who took the shot):

http://people.cc.jyu.fi/~juhtolv/screenshot/os2/winlist1.jpg

There are some more interesting shots in that directory as well.

I'd like to point out that icewm has a window list which looks very much
inspired by the WPS one. I've took a screenshot of that one myself:

http://www.cs.vu.nl/~reinout/icewm-windowlist.png

The entries 'Browsen' and 'Mailen' etc. are names for my virtual desktops.
Note that this window list also provides an 'All Workspaces' category (not
visible in the shot) for windows that are sticky.

The context menu for the icewm window list looks like this:

+------------------
| Show
| Hide
| Minimize
| Move To    >
|------------------
| Tile Vertically
| Tile Horizontally
| Cascade
| Arrange
|------------------
| Minimize All
| Hide All
| Undo
|------------------
| Close        >
+------------------

In case you're wondering what Undo is doing in there, it lets you put back
windows to their previous positions when you've arranged or cascaded them
and you decided you didn't like it.

> I don't know what the Filter button in Warp4's window list does.

It's an OD thing - I have no idea either. :-]

> I can't tell from the screenshot whether Warp4 had the right-click menu
> for listed windows that Warp3 had.

Yes, it definately has.

> Details of the proposed window list
> -----------------------------------
> The list will be shown in response to clicking mouse button 2 or
> pressing Ctrl+Esc. It may also be available from a menu or a launcher.

Ideally I'd like to see it as a complement to the current panel window
list in the upper right corner. Hm, have to think about that a bit more...

HTH,

-- 
Reinout van Schouwen			Artificial Intelligence student
email: reinout cs vu nl			mobile phone: +31-6-44360778

Softwarepatenten bedreigen Europa. Teken op petition.eurolinux.org!