Re: Add un-maximize and close button to the top pad

[Patrick Niedzielski <patrickniedzielski gmail com>]

On 7/6/2011 10:11 PM, Donato Marrazzo wrote:
> Since I use maximus to remove the title bar when the window is 
> maximized, I'd like add close and unmaximize button to the activity 
> icon on the top pad.
> I think that it should become the default behaviour for the gnome shell.
> What do you think about?
>
> Donato
>
>
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Hi Donato,

My first reaction is to say this ought to be in an extension, but I may 
be misunderstanding what you're asking.  Are you suggesting that Close 
Window and Unmaximize Window should be in the menu that appears when you 
click on the application menu?  Or do you want unmaximize and close to 
be permanently visible on the panel?

With regard to the first one, application menus are still being worked 
on, but the consensus seems to be that they are for application 
commands, not window commands.  An example of an application command 
might be "create new document", something that deals not with windows an 
application happens to have open, but instead with tasks the application 
presents to the user.

The second one would be better as an extension.  Maximize isn't 
available in GNOME Shell through any Shell command, and maximus is a 
third party application. This isn't the place to discuss this decision, 
as it has been discussed to death already.  Integration with it thus 
should not be default behavior.  An extension, for users with a similar 
setup, could be written.  From a UI design point, as well, it doesn't 
make much sense (to me, at least), to have an unmaximize button on the 
panel, but no maximize button.  Adding these buttons would also clutter 
the top panel.  For you, this may not be an issue, but on netbooks and 
small laptop screens, this would be detrimental.  By placing this in an 
extension, it gives users the ability to turn it on if necessary, but 
*only* if necessary.  Most users don't need this, so it doesn't seem 
like a good candidate for a modification of default behavior.

If you want to write yourself an extension to do this, email me offlist, 
and I'll point you to a tutorial on how to do this.  If you'd rather not 
write this extension yourself, you could possibly ask someone who works 
on maximus to code something?  Don't assume they will, though, because 
they may not be familiar with GNOME Shell development.

Cheers,
Patrick Niedzielski