unity-design team mailing list archive

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

2011/9/26 Naba Kumar <naba.kumar@xxxxxxxxx>

> Hi Jo-Erlend,
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:19 PM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad
> <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Den 26. sep. 2011 13:21, skrev Naba Kumar:
> >>
> >> y and is what others have pointed out. But what is there to lose if the
> >> two are done through same interface - without any lose of functionality
> of
> >> either? Some subtle difference between the two can be brought in, such
> as
> >> like  joerlend suggested with "~". Or, having no difference in the
> input,
> >> but instead additional command-prefix completion is shown below (lens?)
> in
> >> addition to the free text
> >
> > I have not proposed anything like that. That was someone else ...
>
> Yeah, I mixed up the replies, sorry :) It was Stefanos, who proposed
> it.


Indeed. Please note that I proposed a toggle button, not a command prefix.
Huge difference.


>  > and I
> > completely disagree with it. I don't want commands in the dash at all.
> They
> > do not belong there. I like it just the way it is, but having an output
> > section in the Alt+F2 screen would not be too bad. I don't think it's
> > important.
> >
> What is "output section" - you mean a terminal output when running
> terminal-only commands? Why not just start a terminal, then :)?
>

Window management (the lack of it), so you don't need to open and manage a
new terminal for quick, one-shot commands (e.g. ping example.com). This is
especially important for laptop screens, where you really don't have space
to open any new windows, requiring both window and desktop management - and
all that for a ping command (same for killall, top or other "quickies").

This is a surprisingly useful power-user feature that Unity can support
without too much effort (just add an output window to Alt-F2 and a way to
switch between Dash <-> Alt-F2). Right now, you can get a non-integrated
version of this via drop-down terminals ala guake (try it on a 1366x768
screen to see just how useful it is!)