[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [Ayatana] How to handle multi-window launcher icons



Hi David, can you state a precise use case when this would be useful? Personally I think that showing the windows on mouse over is a bit heavy (on your mock-up the application name is also missing). Being based on over makes it not much touch friendly as well. I wonder if this problem can be sorted differently. For instance, as it is today, you can easily get to windows expose clicking on the focused application. Why do you think this wouldn't be enough?

Thanks, chr

On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 6:02 PM, David Prieto <frandavid100@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,

One of the few problems I have with Unity is that there is no way to perform window-specific actions from the launcher: everything is app-specific. I can press the launcher icon to focus an app's most recent window, but I can't focus a specific window. I can't minimize a window by clicking the launcher icon, see an app's different windows without focusing it, or launch a new window.

I propose replacing Unity's current behaviour when you hover on a launcher icon (where you only get the app's name) with something like this: http://imgur.com/1cP0B.png

  • When you hover the cursor over Unity's launcher icon, you get a preview of all the open windows belonging to that app.
  • If one of them is the active window, it has some kind of visual indication (in the mockup it has an orange box around).
  • You can click the active window to minimize it, or click an inactive window to focus it.
  • You can right-click a window to get a contextual menu, where you can perform operations such as minimize, maximize, close, send to another workspace...
  • You can click a button (in the mockup, located at the left) in order to open a new window for that app.
  • You can drag that specific window, which solves the problem raised by Mark Shuttleworth (https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/667245/comments/10) about dragging launcher icons to other workspaces.
I would like the Ayatana team to consider implementing along the lines.

_______________________________________________
Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ayatana
Post to     : ayatana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ayatana
More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp