Since the alt+tab discussion I have been thinking about the differences and
evolution of windows and tabs and I have come to the conclusion that tabs
should be something handled by the OS (window manager) rather than
individual applications. Take a look at IE (despite everybody hating it,
please leave your prejudices for now), they didn't want to integrate tabs,
because the taskbar should have been responsible for switching between
'windows'; The Problem, the taskbar took an extra click as it was nested and
uncategorised as you couldn't drag/drop and it's order was by creation.
Below there is a list of arguments, advantages and brainstorming and at the
end I wrote a system how this could be technically achieved.
- The difference between tabs and windows will fade
- Tabs can be visible in the alt+tab interface (and if nesting would
be removed as I suggested than this would make it extremely easy
to browse
through tabs)
- Tabs can be integrated directly into the gnome-shell
- Loosing a tab is extremely common for hardcore multitaskers and if I
am not incorrect gnome-shell also allows searching through windows
- Logical user interfacing: Tabs are logically placed (e.g. in google
chrome) together with the other window buttons (_ [ ] x).
- Right now, if you develop an application (I am in general a web
developer, so correct me if I am wrong) it's extremely
complicated to create
such an interface, despite being extremely logical.
- Tabs should be above all the other toolbars, as the toolbars actions
always only have an effect on the content of the tab and rarely
on all tabs
at once.
- Allows grouping (*potentially* an extremely exciting feature, but
definitely not a main feature.)
- Imagine dragging the a graphical app window into a browser window with
tabs which are related, just like you can drag and drop tabs in Google
Chrome.
- It can be argued that this is already provided by the workspaces,
though I think the advantage of tabs is that you have a logical
to the point
taskbar.
- UI customizability/fluentness
- Any plugin/program could change the behavior of all tabs, rather
than only for a single application like firefox
- Try dragging a tab in firefox from one window to another and check
how problematic it can sometimes be (only chrome really handles it
fluently), this mainly shows that even for a huge product like
firefox it's
hard to create a good interface, as an application is looking from the
window level up, while gnome-shell could easily create such an
interface as
it is capable off looking down on all windows at once (if that
didn't make
sense ask and I will try to explain it with better words)
Technical implementation
- Application with tabs would be set up to work with single windows just
like IE6 and below, this is definitely a option with firefox which could be
the default browser using this pref.
- Next comparable windows would be grouped into tabs just like Google
Chrome
- First a custom per-window based type-option would be checked which can
be set by developers (not sure how or which product is handling this part)
- If not available the system would check windows of the same
application with a certain amount of similarities, as
preferences should for
example be opened in new windows
- 'Random' window information I have seen in compiz sometimes
- Window titles
- Size
- A blacklist should be checked where anybody can add applications for
which it is illogical (which should naturally be moderated) (I
could create
the web-side of this)
You might have already realised that I am only referencing browsers, as I am
a webdeveloper and I think browsers are forced to evolved most to keep up
with the rapid progress of the internet and thus are an important example to
look at. Aside of that I typed this up in a bit of a rush, so some of my
arguments may not make perfect sense and my english may be messed up (I am
not a native speaker, so that might contribute as well). Feel free to ask
and please criticise the idea as much as you can, as criticism is the best
way to improve an idea.
David Mulder
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