unity-design team mailing list archive

["Stefanos A." <stapostol@xxxxxxxxx>]

2011/5/8 Ed Lin <edlin280@xxxxxxxxx>

> I think that's the best implementation of taskbar meats dock offering
> all functions of both without sacrificing too much.
> But I'm not sure that's what you after. You are asking for a primary
> window-centric launcher. That doesn't exist, it's not possible to do
> without turning the launcher into something else, i.e. back into a
> taskbar.
>

Let's attempt to think outside the box for a moment.

The problem: clicking an application icon launches/restores the application
in question. Clicking the icon again does *not* minimize the application, as
most users would expect coming from the previous version of Ubuntu.

The current approach: this is a dock, not a taskbar, and thus does not offer
window management functions.

A potential solution:
- (if application is not launched) click launches application
- (if a single application window exists)
- - (if application window is not active/focused) click raises/maps/focuses
the window
- - (new: if application window is active/focused) click minimizes the
window
- (if multiple application windows exist)
- - (if not in expose mode) click activates expose mode
- - (new: if in expose mode) click minimizes all windows and leaves expose
mode

The two "new:" items form the proposal. The current dock has some minimal
window management capabilities (raise/map, expose) - this is the simplest
natural extension to those capabilities (minimize/unmap, remove expose) to
achieve the functionality expected by the users. The dock remains an
application-centric dock, without becoming a window-centric taskbar hybrid.

Arguments/comments welcome!