unity-design team mailing list archive

[mm <manymachinesix@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I can't seem to figure out the reasoning behind the behavior of
left-clicking a launcher icon when there are multiple instances of a
program running. It is currently quite confusing. As it is now, there
are at least five different things that happen when you click the
launcher:

#1- If there are multiple instances of a program running and the focus
is already on one instance, then all instances are shown in scale mode
and the user can pick one.

#2- If there are multiple instances of a program running, the focus is
not on any of them, and they are unminimized, then all instances are
brought forward above all other windows, the last used one to the top.
*Worthy of note is what happens if you go a step further: if the one
just brought into focus is minimized or closed, then the others return
to their previous positions (behind other programs' windows if opened
already or gone from sight if minimized). This behavior can cause some
really weird things to happen, like windows being automatically
minimized hours after they were brought back on screen.

#3- If there are multiple instances of a program running, the focus is
not on any of them, and some are minimized, then only the unminimized
ones will be brought forward – even if the last one used was a
minimized one. The same weird behavior of windows changing positions
later also applies here.

#4 - If there are multiple instances of a program running and all
instances are minimized, they are all brought forward - sort of. They
are all opened and displayed, but if there are any windows from
another program open, only a single one of them (the last one
minimized) will be in front of those other programs' windows. Unlike
in cases #2 and #3, if that one window is minimized/closed, the others
stay sitting there.

#5 - If there are multiple instances of a program running and all
instances are minimized, but you click the icon from a workspace
without any of the programs running, the view is first shifted to the
workspace in which the last instance was minimized and that single
instance is opened – the others stay minimized. This directly
contradicts what we see happen in #4.

I explained all this in more (probably too much) detail here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/923228

Why can't scale be invoked every single time there are multiple
instances of a program open? Or, better, just show the windows on the
same workspace, which would fit better with the new alt-tab behavior.
This would make the outcome of clicking on the launcher not only
simpler to understand, but also much more usable, as users could
easily choose the window they wish without clicking several times and
causing random unwanted windows to be brought forward.

Apologies if something like this has been talked about before, but I
couldn't find anything exactly the same, and the behavior has been
bugging me for a while.


Thanks!


Aibara