Re: [Usability] Changing the taskbar semantics

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Wed, 2004-09-01 at 00:16 +0200, Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I think a change to the semantics of the taskbar could result in a usability 
> improvement.
> 
> Currently the taskbar is a list of (open) windows. 
> 
> Idea
> ------
> 
> Could the taskbar become a list of (open) application instances?

This is one of the things I find the most broken about OS X.  Real life
work does not categorize itself by applications.  It categorizes itself
by documents and tasks.

Say, for example, I am "multitasking."  I have a terminal window with
some code and a browser with an online API reference; this is my first
task, a programming project.  I also have my word processor open and a
browser window with some reference material open; this is my second
task, a school project.

When you group things together by application, the above scenario
instantly breaks.  Now suddenly the desktop is oh-so-helpfully grouping
my two totally unrelated browser windows together.

The same goes for the gimp, an example you use.  I only ever have one
instance of the gimp running, but I'm editing several completely
unrelated documents.  An application instance can easily have several
completely unrelated user tasks running in it.

> 
-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.