On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 6:06 PM, Frederik Hertzum <
[email protected]> wrote:

> This was inspired by the discussion "Window controls for GNOME 3" by
> Owen Taylor --
> https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-shell-list/2011-February/msg00192.html
>
> =====================================================================
>
> I think it's important for people to know a bit about how I use my
> computer if they are to get anything out of reading my feedback -- so
> here goes:
>
> I am a CS student who frequently use SSH from terminals while reading
> junk in Firefox or epiphany and having several editors open (either
> gedit or anjuta) and compiling stuff in more terminals and talking to
> people in Pidgin and listening to music almost all of the time. I have
> two monitors. The primary monitor is 22" and the secondary is 20".
>
> I group my windows so that my main editor is maximized on the primary
> monitor, have a gnome-terminal with multiple tabs taking up half the
> left of the secondary monitor and (usually) one IM session upon to
> talk to people about the code I'm editing on the right half of the
> secondary monitor.
>
> I usually have everything else in separate desktops.
>

Just for clarification, "desktop" means "workspace"?

<snip>


> Maximized windows and title bars:
> =====================================================================
> The extra bar below the top bar bar is annoying when maximizing a
> window I suggest fusing the title bar of a window with the top bar
> when maximized and possibly moving the clock to the side:
>
> Current layout
> AI ---- C ---- MU
> ------- T -------
>
> Becomes one of
>
> AI ---- T --- CMU
> or
> AI ---- T --- MCU
>
> A = Activity area
> I = current Icon (may want to get rid of that as well)
> T = Title
> C = Clock
> M = Menu area (volume control, networkmanager interface etc)
> U = User menu
>
> This is especially nice on low resolution monitors since the top bar +
> a title bar takes up a lot of space (I, for example, always go
> fullscreen when I can on my EEE, which does not have GNOME 3).
>
> Problems:
> It may be confusing for people when there's nothing that separates the
> window from the rest of the desktop.
> It may be even more confusing if maximized windows on secondary
> monitors look different from a maximized window on the primary monitor.
>

This has been suggested a significant number of times before, for mostly the
same reasons. I'm unsure of why it hasn't been done, but I'm quite sure it's
for technical limitations.


> Horizontal desktops missing:
> =====================================================================
> This is really annoying. Especially when GNOME 3.0 is so focused on
> using desktops. My ideal interface would be having horizontal
> desktops, with each vertical desktop having it's own list of with one
> of them being marked "current" (which means this is the desktop to
> switch to when switching to that desktop) -- new desktops would be
> created by moving a desktop (ctrl+alt+right arrow) to a new desktop or
> by clicking some icon on the desktop in the overview (an empty desktop
> for example)
> Problems:
> May take up too much space in the overview.
> May be confusing if people have more than one physical monitor
>

I'm really confused at what you mean by this. Why do you feel you need
horizontal workspaces?


> Volume control:
> =====================================================================
> Since pulseaudio has per-application volume control it may be a good
> idea to allow the user to control the volume of an app in the window
> of that app, rather than forcing the user to open the volume control,
> pick a tab with a list of connected apps, look for the app and then
> change the volume. Problems: can't really see any, except that it
> means GNOME 3 is tied up with pulseaudio. But that may not be a real
> problem. Could be done using plugins if that's in place. Otherwise it
> might be a good reason to put plugins in place.
>

This is a good idea, but I'm curious how it would be implemented.

<snip>

This sort of file management stuff is a big focus for gnome-shell 3.2, under
the name "Finding and Reminding". I don't think the designers have an idea
of how it would look yet, but I know Seif and Federico have been working
extremely hard on getting Shell-based search and a journal overview ready.

Hiding/minimizing windows:
> =====================================================================
> I'm not sure about this, but maybe a hiden window should appear as a
> tab in the overview (either individual tabs for each window or one
> huge one for all hidden windows).
>

What are hidden windows?


> Program menus:
> =====================================================================
> I am badly missing the set of menu entries which are not in
> Programmes. I usually get around it though, but some times I really
> need the menus and don't remember the name of the binary, meaning I
> can't even launch it from a terminal before desperately searching the
> web and where ever I think it might be. This quickly gets very
> frustrating.
>

Again, I'm unsure of what you mean by this. If there is anything missing
entirely from the Applications tab in the overview, that's an extremely bad
bug. Can you give examples of what's missing?


> Locations:
> =====================================================================
> I miss a way to launch locations, especially for external media and
> servers (sshfs and ftp for instance) in the overview.
>

This ties into "Finding and Reminding". External media, servers, local
directories and files are all considered "places" to the shell. (well,
really to gio/gvfs)


> Programmes remembering their desktop:
> =====================================================================
> Always remember which desktop a app was on when it was closed (this
> really means remembering which apps where shared the same desktop) --
> should be possible to disable (and maybe it should be disabled by
> default and/or be possible to toggle per app). May want to allow
> launching a desktop group (starting all apps which shared a particular
> desktop)
>

There is no "which workspace" in the dynamic workspaces of the shell. The
most you really can do is "the current workspace" and "a new workspace", and
while it may be useful to mark an application as starting on a new
workspace, I think good ol' drag and drop is fine here.


> I hope this is helpful.
>
> Frederik Herzum
>
> --
> Date stamps are your friends
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>
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