Show window list when hovering on launcher icon

[David Prieto]

Unity's approach of showing apps in the launcher (as opposed of showing windows) simplifies the launcher's looks, but it brings some shortcomings to the table:

- You can't use the launcher to minimize a focused window, which you could with the old taskbar.
- You can't open a specific window from an unfocused app with just one click, which you could with the old taskbar: now you have to click the launcher icon to focus that app, click again to launch a spread and then again to choose the right window.
- You can't close an unfocused window without first focusing it, which you also could before.
- You can't drag content to an unfocused window for one-click drag and drop, which you could do too.
- You can't open a new window for an active app. You couldn't do this with the taskbar either, but then again it wasn't called "launcher".

My proposal is: for apps that can have multiple windows (e.g. firefox or nautilus, as opposed to single-window apps such as totem or banshee) when you hover the cursor over the launcher icon, instead of getting the app's name, you get a list of open windows. From there, you can:

- Just click the launcher icon to get the current behaviour (once to show the most recent window, again to launch a spread).
- Right-click the launcher icon to get the quicklist, same as now.
- Click on the focused window (which should highlighted somehow) to minimize it.
- Click on an unfocused window to focus it.
- Click on the "+" button to the right to open a new window.
- Right-click a window to get several window-specific options: minimize, maximize, close, move, send to workspace...

You could also drag content from a window (e.g. a nautilus window) to the launcher, then to one of the specific windows in order to focus that window and be able to drop the content inside.

[David Prieto (frandavid100-gmail)]

I'm attaching a second mockup, showing what would happen when you right-click a specific window from the first mockup.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Hi David

We won't show the window list in this way. A click-and-hold should show
a spread of the app windows, and I agree with you it should be possible
to close or focus any of them directly from that spread.

We could also consider showing the spread on right-click, but for the
moment we'd prefer just to show the quicklist for that.

For the moment, I'm going to mark this wontfix. We'll review once we
have the implementation further a long, and can test variations.

 status wontfix

Mark

[David Prieto (frandavid100-gmail)]

Hi Mark,

Honestly, I think reaching those options by press+spread is both more visually tiring and much less discoverable than reaching them by hover+list, especially when we already have an element popping up when launcher icons are hovered on. I really don't think it's a step in the right direction.

Nevertheless, I'm grateful for your considering the idea and only hope you review it again at some point in the future.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

We did have a spread on hover, initially. It felt a little jerky, and
occasionally caused problems because the mouse would accidentally get
left on the left of the screen.

[David Prieto (frandavid100-gmail)]

Indeed! Spread looks beautiful but has to be used sparingly, in my opinion. It literally takes the window you were working on away from you, and therefore shouldn't be allowed to happen by accident, ever. However, as I said, I don't think making it more difficult to happen is the right answer because you're also making it more difficult to trigger on purpose. Instead, it would be better to use something else equally easy to trigger and that wouldn't get in your way when triggered accedentally.

The window list would allow you to do the same things as the spread (and then some more, e.g. launch a new window) and wouldn't get in the way. It could be given some degree of transparency (ala notifications) and even disappear by itself after a couple seconds if it doesn't register any actions (i.e. if it detects that the cursor was just left there, not taken there on purpose). It would also save you clicks and time, because it wouldn't force you to press and wait, and would be much discoverable - everybody is going to hover their mouse over a launcher at a point, but I bet a good amount of people will never click-and-hold a launcher.

I really do think there are a few reasons there to use the list instead of the spread, and can't see any to use the spread instead. Are there any?

[manny (estelar57)]

http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/03/dynamic-window-quicklist-for-unity.html