unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the analysis. Here is my understand of what *should* be 
happening. There are clearly bugs, in part because I suspect the 
interaction of all this with minimised windows was never specified in 
detail, I may be speaking out of turn, John Lea will be able to provide 
clarity.

The first role of the launcher is to 'give you a window of the app'. If 
you already have (focused) a window of the app, it should let you choose 
one of the other windows (hence the app spread). If you have the app 
running, but not focused, it should focus the last-focused window of 
that app.

With regard to minimization:

 * we should not unminimize a window unless that is explicitly requested
 * we should make no assumptions about app windows which "go together" 
unless we have a basis for doing so, such as child windows

So clicking on a launcher icon should behave as follows:

 * if the app is not running, launch it, focus the window
 * if the app is running but has no windows, create a window and focus it
 * if the app is running with windows, but not focused, bring the 
last-focused window to the top and focus it
      => if we know there are other windows which are part of that 
window's experience, like floating toolbars and palettes, raise them too
      => do not raise or unminimise any other windows
 * if the app is running with a focused window, spread the windows 
(even minimised windows) so the user can choose
      => when the user chooses, bring that window (and child windows 
ONLY) to the front and focus it

Mark