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Rethinking Window Management

blogs.gnome.org

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Re: Rethinking Window Management

#2

Post by goosedragons »

Maximizing windows in their own workspace is annoying and one of the worst parts of macOS window management. I really hope they don't bother with that. Just because I want a maximized window doesn't mean I want it in it's own workspace. It just makes dealing with windows harder because you now have to move to some other workspace to grab a window you want to reference first.

Re: Rethinking Window Management

#4

Post by markstos »

I use Sway, a tiling window manager, so the direction towards tiling seems sensible to me.

If Gnome implements this well enough, I might consider switching back it from Sway. We'll see. I'm pretty pleased with Sway, though.

Re: Rethinking Window Management

#5

Post by and0 »

I like the idea of an initiative for applications to provide metadata for any window manager to handle them more intelligently. Letting the user quickly fill in the gaps in the meantime for local applications would also be nice.

I've played with super detailed Unux WMs (bspwm?) and I've also started using Powertoys FancyZones on Windows and in both cases it's a lot of setup that only works ideally for rather specific situations.

Re: Rethinking Window Management

#6

Post by generalizations »

With a bit more work to not surprise the user and not break the window organization (e.g. the user really wanted these two windows next to each other), this mosaic paradigm could actually be really cool. Looking forward to see how it develops. If the kinks are worked out I may very well switch over from i3.

> As you open more windows, the existing windows move aside to make room for the new ones. If a new window doesn’t fit (e.g. because it wants to be maximized) it moves to its own workspace. If the window layout comes close to filling the screen, the windows are automatically tiled.

I can see this part being really cool, when the user doesn't care about the layout, and really, really, annoying when the user does care.

Side note: the article should really have made a comparison between a tiling wm like i3 and this new mosaic concept, not between gnome tiling and mosaic...i3 is still way better and they'd do well to compare to the actual 'state of the art'.

Re: Rethinking Window Management

#7

Post by galkk »

Not sure how to feel about more windows, but the idea that first window shouldn't take all space is certainly good. If someone will come up with better intelligent control over that placement, that will take into account actual windows length (who knows, maybe even ML for learning typical window sizes used by an operator) that will be a killer feature.

Default sizing is one of my pet peeves with i3, even if it is the whole idea of tiling managers. You open first window and it takes entire screen space, meaning that with 32" screen (and even 27"), you need to look to the far left side for actual task (e.g. if it is a terminal, or code editor with column limit of 80 chars, dictated by code style). Then you open another window and you look straight into border between those 2 windows - your app isn't centered. etc etc

I have small bind in i3 that helps a bit, but it works only with one window

    smart_gaps inverse_outer                                                            
    bindsym $mod+g exec "i3-msg gaps horizontal current toggle 900"

Re: Rethinking Window Management

#8

Post by low_tech_punk »

On the other side of the problem is how modern applications waste screen real-estate with empty space, bloated menus, and poor typography. The application designers also need to adopt responsive layout to make sure the app provides the right amount of information using provided space.

I hope a deeper rethink can consider the user's end goal being task management rather than window management. Maybe something in the spirit of "Ctrl + Z" and "fg" can be helpful.

Re: Rethinking Window Management

#9

Post by teddyh »

> You can also manually tile windows. If there’s enough space, other windows are left in a mosaic layout. However, if there’s not enough space for this mosaic layout, you’re prompted to pick another window to tile alongside.

Oooh, that’s going to be a usability problem, because it introduces a special mode for answering the “prompt”. Most users will never know that this mode exists, just that the system behaves weirdly and half-maximizes a single window sometimes.

I see people today unknowingly or uncaringly invoking the window overview mode (sometimes called “Activities”), and then trying to, say, click a link in a visible browser window. They then become confused when the windows all zoom around, and the click they wanted is ignored.

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