unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ed Lin <edlin280@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just a heads up. I finally got around posting this to launchpad:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/783498
Probably the most discussed feature in the last few weeks here...

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 12:13 AM, Niklas Rosenqvist
<niklas.s.rosenqvist@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 2011/5/15 Ed Lin <edlin280@xxxxxxxxx>
>> [...] Though I have to say I really don't
>> like the hover in the Win 7 taskbar, mouse clicking or clicking and
>> dragging is faster. The sole reason for this feature after all is
>> speedy access to all windows.
> Is it really needed to have a delay on showing the windows for the current
> applications? I know Windows 7 has it and I prefer the hover over the
> clicking when using a touchpad since it's much more comfortable not having
> to click and do extra movements. But can't this be solved with hover and a
> minimal delay?

Good point, added to the bug report.

>> Unlike Win 7 there is an "expose" view
>> so if those window thumbnails are slow no one is going to use them
>> over the current scale views.
> Unity has many different ways to switch windows and I'm used to switching
> with alt+tab but for some reason it's window is very slow and takes some
> time to pop up before I can switch to the desired window. What's up with
> that?

Compiz being slow? Not by design, that's for sure.

> 2011/5/15 Ed Lin <edlin280@xxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 6:04 AM, Brandon Watkins <bwat47@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> >
>> > Unity badly needs better ways to deal with applications that have
>> > multiple windows open. Currently if you have a program with multiple windows
>> > open, and you click its icon on the dock it just brings every window to the
>> > front. This is terrible behaviour and would be downright overwelming for new
>> > users.
>>
>> I agree with the problem. Some corrections though...
>> A single click focuses the last used window (singular).
>>
>> > 1. Reversing the currently default behavior. Currently single click
>> > brings all windows to the front. Double click brings up scale. Unity is
>> > supposed to be easy to use, new users would not know to double click,
>> > instead they will click and be assaulted with windows. IMO single click to
>> > bring up scale and double click to bring forward all windows would make more
>> > sense.
>>
>> It's not really a double click: it's two single clicks. The first
>> focuses the last window as above, a subsequent click will open the
>> spread view. Here's where this difference becomes apparent: If you are
>> trying to switch from one window to another within the same app you
>> only need a single click for the spread view.
>>
>> It's not immediately discoverable but I think it's simple enough that
>> people figure it out after a view minutes of playing with the Unity
>> launcher. I'm against reversing it because among other issues you will
>> always at a minimum need one mouse click more to do the same thing.
>>
>>
>> > 2. Windows 7-like thumbnails. Hovering over and/or clicking the icon
>> > could bring up thumnnails that you could click on to bring forward the
>> > desired window.
>>
>> Suggested multiple times, maybe the most sought after feature on the
>> mailing list lately (hint, hint). Though I have to say I really don't
>> like the hover in the Win 7 taskbar, mouse clicking or clicking and
>> dragging is faster. The sole reason for this feature after all is
>> speedy access to all windows. Unlike Win 7 there is an "expose" view
>> so if those window thumbnails are slow no one is going to use them
>> over the current scale views.
>>
>> > 3. Slide-Down thumbnails. When you have multiple windows open there
>> > could be OSX-Like thumbnails in the launcher, but hidden until you click the
>> > app icon. For example you would click the application icon and if it has
>> > multiple windows open thumbnails for these would slide down from under the
>> > icon in the launcher. For this to be intuitive there would need to be an
>> > indicator on the dock icons that shows it has multiple windows open.
>>
>> This is an interesting design because it still preserves one goal of
>> the launcher: predictable icon placement (something were OS X dock
>> fails miserably). If the animation is fast this would solve the speed
>> problem of above very elegantly. One issue: especially all text based
>> windows will look pretty much the same in the thumbnail view, window
>> titles are needed to distinguish those but titles don't really fit
>> into the narrow launcher (the reason why I prefer horizontal panels on
>> larger screens...;) )
>>
>> There already is an indicator: little arrows on the right side of an
>> app icon show how many windows are open.
>>
>> > When you bring up scale there should be an X button on the top right of
>> > every window so you can close windows within scale (See: Gnome Shell)
>>
>> Yes, and a minimize button (or at least hidden via middle click or
>> something) because unlike in G3 you can still hide windows with a
>> button.
>> Let me repeat that we need to rethink the term "minimizing" and the
>> layout of the button which was designed with a taskbar in mind.
>> Secondly, minimized (or "hidden") windows should be represented
>> differently in the Scale view. Reason being: people minimize to get
>> stuff out of their way, preserve for later and so on. A user
>> deliberately chooses not to see those windows so why should those
>> become mixed with the "active" windows in the spread view?
>>
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