unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 15/02/12 07:27, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> On 02/15/2012 06:19 AM, mm wrote:
> > Though what happens if the last viewed window is minimized while there
> > are still others open? Would clicking on the launcher (if another
> > application had focus) bring forward the minimized window (which was
> > last-focused) or the last used open one (the, um,
> > penultimately-focused)?
> >
> > If the minimized one is brought forward, that goes against the 'ignore
> > minimized windows unless explicitly requested' tenant, whereas if it
> > brings one of the still-open windows forward, it breaks the
> > 'last-focused' rule. Either way might make sense, but cases like this
> > make it tough for the user to predict what will actually happen when
> > they click on the launcher.
>
> The "last-focused" rule should be amended to be "last-focused of those 
> that are not minimized". Because minimizing a window means putting it 
> away, making it have less weight than any non-minimized window.

Well I can see how you would interpret it that way, but that adds a 
whole bunch of load, because one then has to remember *how* one lost 
track of a window. Did you minimize it, or just cover it with something 
else?

So let's just relax about minimization. As I said in my guidance, 
minimizing doesn't change the state of the window, it just puts it 
"somewhere else". As far as the focus order is concerned, minimized is 
nothing special.

If I:

 * use window A1 from app A
 * then maximise window B1 from app B so I cannot see A1
 * then raise window A2 from app A
 * then minimize A2
 * then click on the icon for app A

.... I would still want to see A2, even though I minimized it, because 
it's the *last-focused window of app A".

> I also suspect that naive users will see the difference between 
> minimized vs not-minimized (obviously), but may have no (complete) 
> concept or awarness of focus. Thus "breaking" the last-focused rule 
> should have less impact to them, than "breaking" minimization.

MPT can probably point to it, but there's more research that people 
don't understand the difference between minimising and closing, and 
"just want it back" when they click on the app icon. So that's what we 
should give them :)

Mark