Re: [Usability] GNOME UI principle: All applications should saveinternal state?

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Mon, 2004-04-05 at 11:15, Andrei Yurkevich wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-04-05 at 02:58, gabor wrote:
> > for example it would irritate me VERY much if epiphany would restore the
> > last visited page(s) (tabbed browsing) everytime i start it.
> > there is a reason why i have closed epiphany. it is because i do not
> > want to see the webpage anymore.
> 
> I think that saving application state only makes sense if the application
> has
> been terminated (but not closed by user). For example, when the browser has
> been showing some page and you logoff without shutting down the browser.

Saving of state needs to be done *right*, of course.  Yes, when you
close a browser window, that page is no longer being viewed.  That is
*part* of the application state.  Restoring that window when Epiphany
loads would be, from a user perspective, a *loss* of application state.

On the other hand, if Epiphany remembered the window location, scroll
bar position, etc. of a page opened from a bookmark (or an application,
etc) then that would be remembering document state (not application
state) similar to what Nautilus does with folders in spatial mode.

The only problem with that is, unlike with Nautilus, you can quite
easily have many windows referring to the same page.  Clever schemes
like storing the document state with a cookie keyed to the
bookmark/.desktop link/applicaton link/etc may resolve that.  Then
clicking "App Website" from a Help menu would open the browser window in
the same state/location, while browsing to that site in a normal browser
window would not.  I don't know if the necessary meta-information for
this is possible, tho.

Similarly, tho, apps like GPDF and such could (and should) save state
*per document* in a similar fashion.  Closing the document window for
MyTaxStatement.pdf wouldn't affect the position or state of any other
current or future GPDF windows except for those relating to
MyTaxStatement.pdf.  Likewise, GPDF should make sure only one copy of a
document is open at a time.  Clicking on the PDF file in Nautilus would
ask GPDF to display, and GPDF should detect its already open and raise
that window.

Also, speaking of raising windows, what happens (or should happen) when
that window is on another workspace?  Should the window be moved to the
current workspace?  Should the user be taken to that window's
workspace?  If the window is brought to the current workspace, could be
that be confusing for the user when they switch back to the window's
original workspace and find it missing?  What is the right behaviour?
-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.