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Re: [Ayatana] Will Modal-Dialog windows fix this problem with Unity?



On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 13:35, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx wrote on 10/12/11 18:07:
>
> On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 18:40, nick rundy <nrundy@xxxxxxxxxxx ...
>>
>> How can I minimize a window when a modal-dialog has taken over
>> the focus of the window? Right clicking the Update Manager icon
>> in the Launcher does not give a minimize option either.
>
>> Anyone consider this a problem with the Unity design?


No, that would be a bug in Compiz.

> a window should change its shape and design, it should morph,
> rather than spawn new little focus stealing "dialog" boxes. MPT had
> a design for that iirc, morphing windows, especially pertaining to
> update-manager. I don't know where all that good work went, but it
> surely didn't land in 11.10, unfortunately. did it?
>
> ...


My design for Update Manager does use a morphing window.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareUpdates#Installing>

The code "didn't land in 11.10" because it doesn't exist yet. :-) I
would be delighted if anyone volunteered to implement even a small bit
of that design. (I've specified it as lots of independent chunks, to
make this easier.)
At the moment, the most challenging part of your spec would be the visual morphing animation to be specific.
Which exact chunk would you designate as chunk #1, in case someone decides to make the first step here?
Perhaps there's an effective way of taking the edge off here, without reducing the effect of your concept.


However, while that would solve Nick's problem for Update Manager in
particular, it would not solve the problem in general. For example,
when you save a document for the first time, the document window
shouldn't morph into a Save dialog. That would change too much of the
screen at once (visual instability), and it would hide information
that you needed for deciding the document's name.

what information would that be?
 

Instead, you should be able to minimize a window regardless of whether
it has a dialog modal to it.

yes, ..able to minimize.. or to hide.