Re: [Ayatana] Awesome critical review of Unity

[Christian Mackintosh <christian.mackintosh@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is a very real problem and one that I think needs resolving, though my solution may be too complex to implement before Natty is released. In my opinion merging the title bar of maximised windows with the panel is absolutely brilliant, it saves a ton of otherwise wasted vertical space and is also just really cool. Furthermore, merging the menu bar with the panel/titlebar hybrid of maximised windows is another stroke of genius, again saving loads of vertical space.

However, putting the menubar of restored windows in the panel just causes so many problems that are in no way made up for by any purported speed boost (though I would argue this itself is far outweighed by the jarring disconnect between window and menu: I personally keep my empathy window in the bottom-right of my 17" laptop screen and using its menus certainly isn't faster when I have to travel down to the window, click to focus it, travel to the other corner of the screen and click the menu). On the other hand, I like the fact that it saves space by getting rid of the menu bar. Again, I keep my empathy conversation windows stacked on top of the empathy window on the right-hand side of the screen so not having menu bars gives me 40-odd extra pixels to play with. As far as I'm concerned the only sensible solution is this: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/unity-mockup-menu-integrated-in-window.html , which I will keep banging on about because it's so brilliant.

Andrea Azzarone's mockup means that we still save the same amount of screen space without having to click on each window separately and then travel somewhere else entirely on the screen to use the menu (particularly good for something like the main empathy window where you're probably not constantly interacting with it). This probably also means it would be quicker to access than the current set up, or at the very least, no slower than the previous behaviour which we've all put up with since time immemorial.

Furthermore, we could keep the panel acting as the titlebar of non-focused, maximised windows and no longer have it acting as some sort of weird hybrid that half belongs to one window and half belongs to another.

Thanks,

Christian Mackintosh

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 7:16 PM, Luke Benstead <kazade@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 15 April 2011 16:08, nick rundy <nrundy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> This is where the whole thing falls apart quite epically. Now visually
>> the panel is the titlebar of the maximized window, but the contents of
>> it are the focused window, which is likely not the same window. It's a
>> complete WTF? moment and I still think it is ridiculous and confusing.
>
>

> I don't find it confusing at all. (Assuming I am fully understanding what
> you are describing), I did not have any problems acclimating to this design.
> I found it quite intuitive actually.
>

The panel is now the titlebar of the maximized window, yet it has the
title of the focused window... how is that not confusing?

>> The worst part of it is that in this situation, the maximized window
>> controls can't just be left where where they SHOULD be, where the user
>> EXPECTS them to be, because the panel has the title and menu of the
>> focused window and it'll be near impossible to tell which window would
>> be closed or resized by clicking them.
>
>

> I do not understand you here. I had no problems whatsoever figuring out
> "which window would be closed or resized." When maximized the controls are
> merged. clicking the buttons affects the maximized window. When not
> maximized, the controls are not present in the panel. The controls are
> exactly where I expect them to be.
>
> I found the global menus intuitive as well. The panel tells what the focused
> app is.  move the mouse to the area and menus are present. You can also hit
> F10 to use the menus.
>
> I don't agree with your assessment. Or I don't understand what you are
> describing.
>
> I opened up Empathy. It works like everything else. What exactly is the
> problem? Window not maximmized = controls on the unmaxmized window. Menubar
> on the panel. Panel displays the apps name wehn mouse is not over the panel.
>

You are missing my point, with Empathy focused, try closing the
maximized window. There is the problem, the maximized window should
have it's controls in it's titlebar like it normally does, like every
other window does, but it doesn't.

Luke.

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