Re: [Ayatana] Making workspaces great (branched from "Farewell to the notification area")

[Jan-Christoph Borchardt <jan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 22 April 2010 15:24, Remco <remco47@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 10:27, Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> It's a good point. The workspaces experience has languished, and I'd
>>> like for us to climb in and improve it substantially. At the moment, we
>>> do a half-hearted job - we ship what's there but as you say, only
>>> configure two workspaces. I'd be inclined to say "ship without
>>> workspaces" so that we are at least definitive about the position for
>>> the moment.
>>>
>>> I'd welcome a discussion about how we could make workspaces *great*. If
>>> we can do that, then we would make more of them. And your contribution
>>> above is a useful start: great workspaces give you easy access to some
>>> apps regardless of the workspace you happen to be in.
>>
>> I'd love that discussion too. :)
>>
>> A tabbed system like Robin mentioned sounds very nice to me for two
>> reasons: first, it's very familiar as tabbed browsers are nearly
>> ubiquitous now. Second, am I the only one here annoyed at the fact that
>> there is a *huge* waste of space in the middle of the top panel? This
>> would be a very good and use of it.
>>
>> Brainstorming a little bit, I think a very nice way to visually show
>> workspaces this way would be extending the wallpaper to the tabs.
>> See the (ugly) mockup I'm attaching here, what you guys think?
>>
>
> I brainstormed a little on your mockup. The attached image shows
> workspaces as tabs, and inside it are the actual applications.
>
> This could easily carry dock functionality as well, where you pin some
> applications to a particular workspace.

Wow, that is a really nice concept, a hybrid of tabs and workspaces.
It feels fine for me as well; the solution is not awkward when not
using any workspaces.

The size of the close button is discussable though. Maybe a click
anywhere on an inactive workspace tab summons it and the close button
(maybe even the selection of individual apps) is deactivated until
then. That way the tabs have a bigger target area and misclicks are
less likely.

Another problem could be to distinguish the icons; if there are too
similar programs open on different workspaces or if there are many
instances of the same program open (file manager). I do not think that
will be the case too often though.


On 22 April 2010 13:33, Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-04-22 at 13:15 +0200, Jan-Christoph Borchardt wrote:
>> I do not use workspaces at all. Neither do I have a bottom panel. The
>> waste of space on the top panel has become the area for the »tabs« –
>> the window list applet. That way I can comfortably change between
>> full-screen applications – for me this serves the same purpose as
>> workspaces.
>
> If you use only one maximized window at a time, there would be only one
> remaining reason for workspaces that I can think of, and that would be
> shortcuts for switching between them.

I do not use only one maximized window at a time. Oftentimes I have
some app windowed above another; then I use »select windows when the
mouse moves over them«.

> Workspaces don't make much sense for switching between single windows,
> they only shine when it's about switching between _sets_ of windows.

As I said, I might not be the best example because I do not use that
many applications at the same time. But seeing that Remco’s solution
caters for both groups, it might be a good way to go.