Re: [Usability] GNOME3: Handling/Opening Documents (Website for Contributing Ideas?)

[Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Samuel Abels wrote:
> ...
> Currently, most of the GNOME applications feel like, well, applications.
> I thought about why, for example, a word processor does not feel like
> what I believe it in essence should: A sheet of paper.
> How could it be fixed?
> ...
>    - When the application is loaded, the document zooms to real size and
>      the toolbar is attached. There is no real window border and the
>      controls are kept to a minimum. Basically, the application IS the
>      paper.

Yes, that would make it possible to get rid of the "window" terminology 
altogether. There would be documents, and dialogs, and alerts (alas), 
and control panels, and toolboxes, and progress indicators, but ... no 
windows. (You could make all sorts of fun slogans about Gnome 3.0 being 
An End To Windows.)

And since the title bar would be contiguous with the rest of the 
"window" (hereafter a programmer-only term, unless a new name can be 
found that will rewire programmers' mindsets appropriately), dragging 
*any* non-interactive part of the window could move the window. That 
would make arranging items on the screen considerably easier.

>    - Consequently, when the application is closed, it zooms out and
>      becomes an icon again.
>
> * The above is implicitely also a plea for "Instant Save".

Amen.

--
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/