Re: RFC: a project idea

["Brandon S. Allbery" <allbery ece cmu edu>]

In message <NDBBLPKCFNJGBCPPMPJPMEILCAAA.anthony.clark@adv.sonybpe.com>, "Antho
ny Clark" writes:
+-----
| To design a desktop system that goes one step further than the
| virtual desktops provided by most X window managers.  It should
| allow the user to create multiple desktops that are task oriented.
+--->8

Ummm, it's been done:  OS/2 has "work area" folders.  Mark a folder as a work 
area, drag apps or documents (or shadows thereof) into the folder, open the
apps/documents.  Now:

* minimizing/restoring the folder minimizes/restores the apps and documents
* closing the folder (cleanly) closes the apps/documents
* opening the folder re-opens all the apps/documents that were open when it
  was closed

The problem I usually had with it was finding the folder underneath all the
apps, but that's the price of tiny/low resolution monitors :-)  Of course,
you could also pop the window list and RMB on folder entries to control them;
they were even indented appropriately:

	...
	Work Folder #1
	  App #1
	  Doc #2
	Work Folder #2
	  App #3
	...

-- 
brandon s. allbery	[os/2][linux][solaris][japh]	 allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator	     [WAY too many hats]	   allbery@ece.cmu.edu
electrical and computer engineering					 KF8NH
carnegie mellon university	      ["God, root, what is difference?" -Pitr]