Re: [Usability]Keeping the Quit menu item

[Julien Olivier <julo altern org>]

> If we were really application-based as on the mac, when I clicked the
> word processor menu item the second time, it would simply focus the
> existing application, not open a new window. But GNOME doesn't even
> *support* "focusing an application."
> 

I think that would be a great way to handle launching "applictions". I
mean, am I the only one who sometimes opens Evolution twice because I
didn't remember it was already opened on the 3rd workspace ? I mean, who
needs 2 Evolution windows ?

I think document-based apps should be able to "intercept" running
processes and perform something like "new window" on the running
process. For example, in the menu for OOO, you shouldn't have "OOWriter"
but "Create a new text document" which would start OOO if it's not
running or create a new document if not. Instead of "Applications", just
call it "Tasks". The task "Read emails" would run Evolution if not
running or focus it if running. For web browsing, what about "Open a new
browser window" ? For XMMS, focus on the existing one instead of
starting it twice as very few people like mixing music. For Nautilus, if
you click on a folder that's already open, focus on it. Else, open a new
window. Etc etc... for each app.

I don't know which component of the GNOME desktop would have to be
modified to get this behaviour (I just hope you don't have to patch
every single app...) but I think that would be a step forward.

Finally, for the "quit" problem, I think "quit" is useless. By the way,
I hadn't even noticed that there was such a menu entry in Mozilla as I
always closed windows manually. I think the QUIT behaviour should be
managed by the task list in the panel. I mean,if you right click on a
Mozilla window's task, you should have "close" and "close all Mozilla
windows". You could also for example have "Close all tasks on this
workspace" that would close all windows that run _only_ on the current
workspace, whichever app they belong to.

Well, that's just some thoughts... do whatever you want with them.