task window should open in the same location

[Gusakov]

It's rather feature request than bug. Sorry, but I didn't found where it should be placed.

Window for every new task opens at bottom right corner of the screen. While it will be more handy to put it to more habitual place. I think it should be coordinates of previously closed task. Thank you!

[Chris Johnston (cjohnston)]

Mine rotate around on the screen.

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

what is the exact point of this bug? Currently, if you close GTG with opened tasks, those tasks will be restored at the exact same location when launching GTG.

For the rest, I think that it's up to the window manager to decide where to put task, isn't it?

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

Making it as incomplete as I don't understand what to do for this one

[Gusakov (a-n-gusakov)]

I've wrote not about previously opened task(s), but about NEW task.
Dialog window for new task every time opens in the corner of the window.

If I enter lot of tasks one by one, I have to move that dialog to comfortable position for every next task.

I propose to save dialog position, when task being created (after all fields was filled in). Then, on next new task creation, open dialog at the same place, where it was closed previous time.

Sorry for late answer, I was offline till today.

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

So your suggestion is to save the position of new task to always open new task on the same place.

I think I understand your point but I'm unsure about it because I have a few questions:

- isn't that interfeering with the window manager job?
- how will we now that we are moving "a new task"? When is a task switching from "empty new task" to "task with content"?
- if we solve the above point, will it be intuitive for any user? I mean: what if a user move one new task for a given reason (like to see the window beneath) and then discover that all his new tasks are created in an awkward position?

An intermediate solution, I think, would be to have the "position" argument available through the gtcli. That way, you could make your own shortcut to create a task in a given position.

What do you think? And what are other GTG developers thinking?

[Gusakov (a-n-gusakov)]

> is to save the position of new task to always open new task on the same place.
always on last used place.

> - isn't that interfeering with the window manager job?
not sure. I've never developed in that field. However my user experience tells me that most programs behave in that way - open previously used dialogs where user placed it last time.

> - how will we now that we are moving "a new task"?
dialog window (AFAIR, I have no GTG at hand at the moment) can be opened in two ways - when we open an existing task and when we create a new one. Second case is "a new task", until user save it and open again, in that case it would be "existing task".
I can't tell for all GTG users, but for me it's most intuitive - if I open dialog, found it in uncomfortable place, move to more useful position, close and open the same dialog, I expect it in that useful position.

> what if a user move one new task for a given reason (like to see the window beneath) and then discover that all his new tasks are created in an awkward position?
As soon as user found new position awkward, he immediately move the window to more comfortable and then all posterior new task will be opened in new position. Until he will decide to change it again.
It's the point - user can easily change behaviour by intuitive action - drag dialog to new position.

Again, to make it clear - my proposal is to change behaviour from "open dialog always at constant (predetermined) position" to "open dialog at the same place it was closed". I don't know if it is possible by program itself means or involves window manager, however I'm sure it is.

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

I'm not sure if we should do something about that. It seems to me as a very special, rare use case. What if I create a new task and then create a new one for something other, but the old one is still open. The new task will be open in the same place shadowing the old one.

For me it seems to be a work for tools like Devil's Pie.

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

Gusakov> For me, GTG opens a new task window in a different location every time. If I get it right, your GTG opens tasks always in the same place? What window manager do you use?

[Gusakov (a-n-gusakov)]

Previously it was Gnome, recently I use KDE and I just tried it under KDE - all the same (however now it is upper right corner):
1. Click "New task", it opens window in upper left corner of the screen.
2. Move that window to the center, enter data to the field.
3. Close that window.
4. Click "New task", it opens window again at corner.

Existing task is opened at the same place where it was closed previous time. Seems like this logic conflicts with the one I've proposed, since there is not button/action 'save'. However this can be solved.
For example, if we will internally distinguish just created task and task opened from tasklist, we can differ behavior on close. For just created task we can save position both to default-position-for-all-new-tasks and to position-of-task#ID, while for task opened from list we will save position on close just to position-of-task#ID.

Sure there are other ways.

[Gusakov (a-n-gusakov)]

kubuntu 10.04.3
GTG 0.2.4

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

I've played a little bit with this. I wasn't able to reproduce this with GTG 0.2.4 on my Ubuntu 11.04. However, I can do that with GTG from trunk. It is really annoying.

I would propose that the "correct" solution should be to not show the new task window in the same location but it should be random and left to window manager.

Gusakov, I can see a problem with pressing a "New Task" button many times in row. It would open all windows of new tasks in the same position. If it open in position which is not shown to user (e.g. another turned-off monitor), pressing the button many times in a row would have absolutely no effect. Can you understand my point of view?

[Gusakov (a-n-gusakov)]

> Izidor Matušov (izidor) wrote on 2011-09-07: #11

> I've played a little bit with this. I wasn't able to reproduce this with GTG 0.2.4 on my Ubuntu 11.04. However, I can do that with
> GTG from trunk. It is really annoying.
Yep, so I switched from GTD.

> I would propose that the "correct" solution should be to not show the new task window in the same location but it should be
> random and left to window manager.
Hope, you don't literally mean random. As a user, I just want behavior to be intuitive and comfortable, I believe the variant I have described above is. If I was GTD developer, I would implement it o proof that window manager do it by itself. At least, I beleive I would.

> Gusakov, I can see a problem with pressing a "New Task" button many times in row. It would open all windows of new tasks in
> the same position. If it open in position which is not shown to user (e.g. another turned-off monitor), pressing the button
> many times in a row would have absolutely no effect. Can you understand my point of view?
I think I can. Though it's another and much more specific case.

Anyway, I gave up using GTD and have replied here just for sake of initial intention to make it a bit better.
I represent my point of view and apparently can't add anything valuable to discussion. Now it's for developers to decide what to do.
Good luck!