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Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

blogs.windows.com

101–110 of 313 posts

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#101
post #44

I actually wish programs do not put content in the Title bar area. The title bar area is meant for users to move the Window around. Try opening Microsoft Word, make the window narrow and drag the window. You have to hunt for a small bit of empty space in the title bar or you have to understand you could drag on the Title text, Search box and the Sign in Username, but not the Auto Save text, Upcoming Features icon, or…

The Windows style for bars (both title and status) is way too large. Ditto for the task bar. It's no wonder people are tempted to not use status bars, and shove as much as possible at the title. If applications could exploit the task bar, they would too. (Anyway, you don't need an entire bar for system interaction. But applications aren't designed in a way that allows this.)

Pretty sure it's even bigger on Windows 11, same with the taskbar. Gnome 3 has the same issue.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#102
post #44

I actually wish programs do not put content in the Title bar area. The title bar area is meant for users to move the Window around. Try opening Microsoft Word, make the window narrow and drag the window. You have to hunt for a small bit of empty space in the title bar or you have to understand you could drag on the Title text, Search box and the Sign in Username, but not the Auto Save text, Upcoming Features icon, or…

Random sorta related complain: at work when I'm using two different-sized screens, sometime when doing a click and drag to move a fullscreen window from one screen to the other, it's not the top one that's going to get dragged, but instead one 'below' it. Really annoying

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#103
post #6

With all this Electron and PWA focused development a cannot shake a feeling that we add an extra layer of a "runtime" on top of an operating system, that could be avoided. An extra layer which occupies RAM space and processor time which feels unnecessary but it is where we are headed. I wonder if the reason is simple, that we (myself included) have not provided anything better or the reason is that big corporations w…

I choose it for portability. I can ship to my users today, work on new features for all users, or I can spend 3-4-5-6 months dealing with differences in platforms, differences in tooling, build environments, deployment, etc....

I also it choose is because as a programmer it's far easier IMO to make a web tech app look good than a native app. CSS, Unicode text, emoji, images, video, canvas, webgl, it's all easy, portable, and batteries included, vs the various platform specific ways of providing those features.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#105
post #90
post #86

> installed desktop web apps are really starting to look and feel like native apps I think we are having the opposite problem: native apps are really starting to look and feel like web apps, and in many cases, they are. The problem: the web has a terrible UI toolkit for desktop apps. It has clickable links and basic forms, that's all. It was made for documents, not apps. If you want better than that, you have to rewr…

> Traditional Windows apps all use system provided common controls, because they are good, and therefore they have a consistent look and feel, even through OS updates. This hasn’t been consistent since at least Vista and the release of WPF, which does totally custom control rendering. Circa 2006. I think web is taking over on Windows because any of 10 or 15 different design systems can get you to a better app than th…

> I think web is taking over on Windows because any of 10 or 15 different design systems can get you to a better app than the native (whatever that means) toolkits in much less time. It is easier to get a decent color picker in a web app than a WPF, WinForms, UWP, WinUI, or Win32 app (assuming you have a reasonably high expectation for UI/UX, as I do).

I'll grant you that it's probably easier and cheaper to get a workable "color picker in a web app," but I don't grant that going that route will get you a "better app than the native."

The reason why the web stuff is taking over is because it's cheaper while providing minimally-viable functionality, full stop. It's not actually good in any other way.

IMHO, the trend here is similar to the one consumer printers took.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#106
post #44

I actually wish programs do not put content in the Title bar area. The title bar area is meant for users to move the Window around. Try opening Microsoft Word, make the window narrow and drag the window. You have to hunt for a small bit of empty space in the title bar or you have to understand you could drag on the Title text, Search box and the Sign in Username, but not the Auto Save text, Upcoming Features icon, or…

The Windows style for bars (both title and status) is way too large. Ditto for the task bar. It's no wonder people are tempted to not use status bars, and shove as much as possible at the title. If applications could exploit the task bar, they would too. (Anyway, you don't need an entire bar for system interaction. But applications aren't designed in a way that allows this.)

> If applications could exploit the task bar, they would too.

Winamp did exactly that, on Windows 95. The capability is there.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#107
post #44

I actually wish programs do not put content in the Title bar area. The title bar area is meant for users to move the Window around. Try opening Microsoft Word, make the window narrow and drag the window. You have to hunt for a small bit of empty space in the title bar or you have to understand you could drag on the Title text, Search box and the Sign in Username, but not the Auto Save text, Upcoming Features icon, or…

I much prefer what a lot of Linux desktop environments support, which is holding down alt and clicking anywhere on a window to move it. With that + a keyboard shortcut for closing a window you can get rid of title bars on apps entirely if you want. Sadly Windows doesn't support it natively, although there's another comment on this thread talking about ways to make it work.

Me too. Don't forget about right-click + key to resize the window. I have to use a mac for work and so use Easy Move+Resize to get this same functionality.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#108
post #44

I actually wish programs do not put content in the Title bar area. The title bar area is meant for users to move the Window around. Try opening Microsoft Word, make the window narrow and drag the window. You have to hunt for a small bit of empty space in the title bar or you have to understand you could drag on the Title text, Search box and the Sign in Username, but not the Auto Save text, Upcoming Features icon, or…

I much prefer what a lot of Linux desktop environments support, which is holding down alt and clicking anywhere on a window to move it. With that + a keyboard shortcut for closing a window you can get rid of title bars on apps entirely if you want. Sadly Windows doesn't support it natively, although there's another comment on this thread talking about ways to make it work.

I love this feature and it's since become indispensable to me. I find it pretty funny that my #1 favorite desktop UI feature is from Linux. One of the first things I'll put on a fresh install of Windows or MacOS is a utility that re-creates this behavior.

I use AltDrag on Windows (requires a quick tweak for HiDPI): https://stefansundin.github.io/altdrag/

And Easy Move + Resize on MacOS: https://github.com/dmarcotte/easy-move-resize

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#109
post #44

I actually wish programs do not put content in the Title bar area. The title bar area is meant for users to move the Window around. Try opening Microsoft Word, make the window narrow and drag the window. You have to hunt for a small bit of empty space in the title bar or you have to understand you could drag on the Title text, Search box and the Sign in Username, but not the Auto Save text, Upcoming Features icon, or…

Hard disagree. Vertical space is a scarce resource and I hate when it's used for dead space I can't get rid of or use productively. Alt-drag is the way to go.

Vertical space should not be scarce. 16:9 or worse display is the root issue. Framework has a 3:2 and it is lovely though a bit glossy for my taste. Portrait external is another option.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#110
post #6

With all this Electron and PWA focused development a cannot shake a feeling that we add an extra layer of a "runtime" on top of an operating system, that could be avoided. An extra layer which occupies RAM space and processor time which feels unnecessary but it is where we are headed. I wonder if the reason is simple, that we (myself included) have not provided anything better or the reason is that big corporations w…

> With all this ... PWA focused development a cannot shake a feeling that we add an extra layer of a "runtime" on top of an operating system...

Is this not ChromeOS? A little OS, a lot of browser and little else?

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