2011/9/27 David
<tenniswithshovels@xxxxxxxxx>
I like the idea, but wouldn't it mean coding a delay before Unity actually launches the program? Otherwise, how will it know whether you want to launch or just move the icon?
That is a very good question. Would the reuse Super+# indeed add a delay? If yes, that would be, in my opinion, completely unacceptable.
In that case, a different key combination could be used. Shift+Super+# would be a suitable combination, in accordance with the workspace switcher shortcuts (Shift+Ctrl+Alt for moving an item vs Ctrl+Alt for regular use).
I've been thinking of something similar for a while; my idea was to have launchers that opened more than one program at a time, in effect a kind of session launcher, but the way they worked became more complicated the more I thought about it. Your post made me think of something (slightly) less complicated:
Somewhere in the code, Unity stores what's on the launcher bar, right? Well, how about it stores multiple config files, so there are you can have multiple arrangements of launchers that you can switch between? That way, you could have terminal, geany, bazaar-explorer etc., in the different orders you want, and instead of moving them about, you just switch to the launcher bar that has them in the order you want at the point you need them. The way I imagine it, it would be as if the launcher bar has pages.
This is already available: just use multiple user profiles, one for each launcher configuration. Need to switch to a different task? Switch a profile. It's fast, stable and already available.
Another reasonable approach: write scripts that launch the necessary applications for each 'task' you wish to support, e.g. 'programming' and 'guitar'. Invoke these scripts through the Dash - problem solved.
Third solution: use a different workspace for each task and keep all applications running. Need to switch to another task? Just switch the workspace. (The Launcher should be able to hide application icons that belong to a different desktop).
Indeed, I do not consider this use case all that useful or interesting (different Launcher layouts per task). Now, I don't disagree with adding keyboard shortcuts to relocated launcher icons - keyboard navigation is somewhat lacking in Unity currently - but overloading the Launcher to support multiple layouts? That's not really what it was meant to do, plus we already have better solutions.