To: Kaj-Ivar van der Wijst <kaj-ivar vanderwijst com>
Cc: gnome-shell-list gnome org
Subject: Re: Window management pie menu
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:36:35 +0200
Ok, the Aero thing can be useful. And I think we can have both, Compiz and Aero. For Aero, we need 3 touch points, one for the whole screen and two for the half screens. I don't know if it's possible but can we cut the menu-bar sensibility in three parts, with a big one in the center?
When we touch a menu-bar side, the window takes the half screen, and when we touch the center, the window take the whole.
With that solution we can keep the both sides free for transferring an application to another desktop.
Another thought: Can we have always a free workspace ready to receive a new application? Gnome Shell is design to work among many workspaces and for now only one is active at the startup. If we just add a new empty workspace each times the last one is full, it's can be useful.
With that solution we don't need an extra button on your pie menu to add another desktop, you have always one waiting for you.
Can we imagine a simple window drag and drop like in
Compiz, without button or menu?
Can we just throw the application to the right or the left desktop?
It's what we already do in the overview.
If we throw the application from the last desktop it can move to the
first like in a circle.
And If we really needed to place the window on a specific workspace,
then we should use the overview.
Numbers or icons aren't necessary on the workspaces because
the pie thrower is not for organizing windows, but rather putting them
aside. That said, it would be nice to simply have rectangles
representing all the workspaces appear on a long hold, so one could
have a little more control regarding where the window goes.
Now the issue with this extended view is just that the different
workspaces aren't represented by numbers in the Shell. And I'm not
quite shure how you would represent each workspace. By showing icons of
the apps running on that desktop? Seems like an ugly solution.
I would defiantly be against using the numbers to represent
the workspaces because PieThrower would be the only area of the Shell
where the workspaces would have numbers, which is confusing/not
helpful. Also, I'm not keen on the icons of the apps for each
workspace, it just complicates things.
I think the original mock-up using simple, clean arrows is
the best way to go about it. For the extended view (more than one
workspace) a double arrow (like fast forward buttons) would throw the
window over two workspaces (my original suggestion). I like the arrows
because its simple and to the point; one arrow will throw the window
one workspace, two arrows will throw the window two workspaces, and so
on. This works because most people have a feeling or visualization of
where the current workspace (and their work) is in relation to the
others, not by what number they are on, but simply by its position in
the entire array (the visualization part is helped by the Overview,
which displays the workspaces in position with respect to the others,
not by their number or even what apps are running in them).
