Re: [Usability] Changing the taskbar semantics

[Kalle Vahlman <kalle vahlman gmail com>]

On Wed, 1 Sep 2004 00:16:58 +0200, Maurizio Colucci
<seguso forever tin it> wrote:
> Currently the taskbar is a list of (open) windows.
> 
> Idea
> ------
> 
> Could the taskbar become a list of (open) application instances?

[...]
 
> 1. There is a very good reason. While the taskbar is a good place to switch
> between different instances (e.g. two mozilla windows), it is not a good place
> to switch between child windows of a single instance (e.g. gimp windows).
> 
> Why? Because different instances are usually meant to be visible one at a
> time, whereas child windows of a single instance are meant to be all visible
> at once.
> 
> Take gimp for example: gimp has a single instance with many windows. The
> windows are meant to be visible at the same time, so you would never use the
> taskbar to switch between them.  You would just click inside them.

This is actually not true. When working with Gimp, I often have several image
windows open but do not want to have them visible all the time. Of course this
could be made a special case. But Gimp could do this already, just hinting
the window manager that only the main window and image windows should
appear in the list and raising the others with main would have the same effect
but without hiding any other applications. With the new docking system, I think
this is something that should be considered.

> 2. Gnome should automatically allocate a virtual desktop for gimp. When the
> user clicks the gimp button on the taskbar, the view will change to that
> virtual desktop, which REMEMBERS the active window. Voila'.

But what happened to the Gimp tutorial web page I was looking things up?
It would be annoying to have to jump around vdesktops just to see it again.
 
> What about it?

Basicly, the idea is good and, I would think, doable. I don't think the virtual
desktop part would work though.

-- 
Kalle Vahlman, zuh iki fi