[Usability] GNOME UI principle: All applications should save internal state?



Do you agree that all applications should save their state such that
they are no different from the time they were close to the time they
were reopened? If you agree should this be part of the HIG or similar UI
policy? What are the positive or negatives of such a policy, were it
implemented? Should there be a unified API/framework for apps to reuse
so they can store their state?

As an example of an app that goes a long way to save state in a real
spatial or sessional way, see Eclipse's workspaces. Epiphany and Pan
also save their current workload state in the event of a crash, but
should they *always* save their state (ie: save the current web pages
seen, or items queued for download), even if they are terminated
normally?

I think they should, and doing so provides a number of UI benefits.
Consistent state meshes *especially* well with a spatial design, since
the "real world" always has a consistent state. When I leave my papers
spread out at work, they are sitting exactly where I left them the next
day. I also think there should be a GNOME-wide policy and method to
allow apps to save their state data is a consistent and easily
manageable way.

Cheers,
Ryan

Cheers,
Ryan




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