unity-design team mailing list archive

["frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx" <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 20:24, Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Thu, 2010-12-30 at 18:33 +0100, frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> With all these words, you don't define any single, concrete problem with
> windows as they are.
>

Thank you for reading, i apologize again for being a bit blurry with my
thread starter.
It was an attempt at starting a quite general discussion about the metaphor
"window" in design.

now here's a list of example solutions how one can design something without
"window" in mind:
* OLPC's Sugar: http://www.collabora.co.uk/services/case-studies/olpc
* Ubuntu's: http://blog.canonical.com/?p=379
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxpzNGppcbs ( XMONAD Demo on Compiz 0.9 )

..there are still a bunch of other examples, all obviously moving away from
what we call "window".
Window decoration doesn't get in the way, the application has full royalty
over the display space.
Instead of "minimizing" or "resizing" we would now speak of "scaling",
"positioning", "distributing" etc.

I don't think that windows as they are getting in our way at all, i just
think we have already chosen to go along another path, as above design
documents and demos sufficiently indicate.
And i'd be greatful if someone could step forward and tell me i'm wrong with
this assumption, or if someone could add an opinion or suggestions how to
implement some of the software we discuss in here without the usage of the
"window" metaphor in that design.

 You don't make much of a case for using another

metaphor for the same thing, as there are no obvious candidates that

don't already mean lots of things in varying contexts.


of course i'm not looking to replace the "window" metaphor, i'm just saying
it is getting of age and we need it for nothing but legacy purposes.
If you look at the dash for example, there is no window decoration or
anything of the sort, it's pure content and interface for the management
thereof.

This topic is dear to me, that is why i raised it here. I couldn't think of
any other list better suited for such a topic.