Smarter window management in Docky

[Gabriel Shahzad]

Since Docky is able to indicate if more than one window is opened and since it can tell us what windows are already opened by hovering over the respective application's icon for a given amount of time, it should be able to show a little window switcher when left-clicking on this icon. The attached image I made should give you an idea of how I think this should look like.

[Samuel (samuel-ss)]

I think it's a great idea. When we have more than one window is minimized and only want to focus on just one, we have to tap the right button of mouse or they are both involved, which is a bit "boring" (I apologize for the expression).

[Lee Hyde (anubeon)]

That's an interesting idea. I would suggest however that (a) the window list be replaced with a window preview pane (a'la Windows 7's superbar) and (b) that this window preview pane appear only upon a left button hold, the current left click behaviour (i.e. toggle all of this applications windows) could then remain as it does have some utility, at least as far as I'm concerned.

I would further suggest that the window preview pane remain only so long as the left mouse button is held active, and that window selection require moving the cursor to the relevant window preview and releasing the left mouse button. In this scenario releasing the the left mouse button outside the bounds of the window preview pane would terminate said preview pane.

Of course not being a programmer myself I'm unsure whether such is even possible. I would imagine that differentiating a left click from a left 'hold' event could be problematic; ideally you wouldn't want the left click menu to flash on screen for few microseconds before docky realises that it's supposed to display a window preview pane.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

While I like your thoughts on (a) I must disagree on (b). This option would overlap with the possibility to rearrange icons inside Docky as well as removing icons from Docky by dragging them outside the dock.

[Lee Hyde (anubeon)]

I'm surprised that you disagree with (a), I think it makes more sense to represent windows as visual representations more so than it does to represent them as text alone. That's not to suggest that the window title should be omitted entirely mind. It just seems much more usable to me, especially when used in conjunction with graphics editing software, image viewers and/or browser windows.

Good catch on point (b) though, for some reason one of the most basic functionalities of the dock slipped my mind (doh!). Perhaps we could use the middle mouse button instead, either a middle click, a middle 'hold'/'release' or both; middle click could be used to toggle the window list/pane and middle 'hold'/'release' could be used for rapid recall of a window in the manor described above.

I am certainly a fan of the new windows preview/select feature in Windows 7's superbar, and I think it could (and should) be adapted in some form for multiple window management in docky. Whether it takes the form of a preview pane or textual list.

[Lee Hyde (anubeon)]

Oops, just noticed that I misread your comment; you did not disagree with (a). There really should be an edit post option for those of us who fall into the sub-human moron category. ;)

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

Middle-click for action? Not good. There are still people with a 2-Button mouse (few people, but people nonetheless) so this would reduce usability in a drastic way. It could also be possible to bring up this context-menu by just hovering over the icon for more than a second (same as in the Superbar of Windows 7) so the user would not need to make any unnecessary clicks.

[Lee Hyde (anubeon)]

Hmm, those pesky two button mice! ;)

I like the idea of hovering activating such a functionality, but timing is crucial. As it is I find myself plagued by inopportune appearances of left-hand-edge dock whenever I use GIMP (for some reason window-dodge hasn't rectified this for me), I don't need an over-eager window list/pane getting in the way.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

Timing should be editable within the Docky preferences.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

Doesnt scrolling over your window group give you sufficient behavior to select the window you are looking for? For me this is quite quick and easy, and seems like itd be even better than being given a list of windows which I then must read and might possibly all have the same prefix and thus all (due to limited menu width and truncation) be identical and thus useless anyway.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

The method you are describing is bad (usability wise) for two reasons:
(1) I have to scroll through every window that I might have opened thus involving (2) the need to maximize every window that I scroll through until I found the window I want. I then have to minimize every unnecessary window.
(I hope we were both talking about hovering over an icon in Docky and then using the scroll-wheel of the mouse.)

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

Yes, we are.

[Oleg Caraivan (turezky)]

I also think that the functionality similar to Windows 7 bar would be just great. Simply hovering over the icon of an application to see the windows' previews, in my opinion, is the best alternative on the market, no need to hold it, or use middle click (not only it is uncomfortable on some mice, it is also difficult w/ laptops and netbooks). It would be also great that there were a functionality like closing the windows without opening them.

[manishmahabir (manishmahabir)]

i pray to God that the windows 7 superbar has not be patented...i think something like that would really be great!

[Lee Hyde (anubeon)]

Another option mentioned by danrabit over at OMGUbuntu was hotseating, whereby a left click of any icon converts the dock into a control panel or window preview/selection pane. For example, if one were to click on the Firefox icon the dock would transmute into a window preview/selection pane with thumbnails of the various open windows (or tabs?) while if one were to click on Rhythmbox or Totem (etc...) the dock would transmute into a mini music/movie player interface.

I think that this is as good if not better than the superbar functionality, and it would certainly avoid any issues vis. patents. There are a few potential pitfalls though, for example with applications such as Firefox (i.e. applications with window preview/selection panes) would presumably reseat the original icon and its standard left/right click functionalities toward the left-most edge of the dock. This could be somewhat disorientating for any user seeking to toggle all of the applications open windows; currently this requires but a single click of the left mouse button, and no movement of the cursor. Furthermore there may be some unforeseen dilemmas for applications which would require/benefit from both a windows selection pane and a control hotseat. I can't imagine there would be much call for this, as applications of the likes of Totem and Rhythmbox are typically run as single instances.

[Rovanion (rovanion-luckey)]

What about rightclicking also showing the currently opened windows along with the options for the application. Putting it under rightclick would break no current functionality since you can already rightclick and hold icons to get their context menus. Attached to this comment is a SVG mockup to show what I mean.

So rightclick would bring up this menu, rightclick and hold would bring up this menu, and leftclick would bring up this menu, possibly without the context menu parts. If there is only one window running it will bring up that only window belonging to the application directly, just as in the superbar.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

While I really like your mockup, it's not practical to choose the right-click option because it involves an extra click which should not be necessary. In my opinion, hovering over an icon to trigger this event is still the best solution.

[Rovanion (rovanion-luckey)]

When I use the so called superbar of Windows 7 I never wait for the hoverdelay to trigger the windows to pop up. I always use left mouse to trigger it.
Now I suppose this would depend on what type of pointingdevice you have, e.g. mouse, touchpad, and personal preference. So of course both ways of accessing the menu should be possible, but there should be an option to change the time of the hovertrigger all the way up to never.

[Luke Morton (luke-morton)]

Please don't hijack left-click to activate. This proposal would add a second-click to every interaction with an application with more than one window.

Left-click should activate the most commonly requested feature, and right-click should show context sensitive options (as it currently does).

Hovering to show window previews seems to me the best proposal so far for maintaining existing (and expected) behaviour, while adding new functionallity.

[Rovanion (rovanion-luckey)]

Basicly this is a conflict inbetween two different behaviours of a Dock. The Apple and the Microsoft way.

The Apple way: All windows belonging to the application is brought up to the front when the application icon is clicked.

The Microsoft way: If there are more than one window belonging to the application a submenu is brought up which allows you to pick which window to focus.

Docky curretnly fallows the Apple way. I think that the Microsoft way is a better way, but I can see why you would prefer the Apple way. So if this Microsoft way as proposed would be implemented, I propose it should be toggleable.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

The Dock in OS X however provides an overview over every minimized window. A feature Docky does not provide.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

This one has just kind of been sitting for a while.

I don't think this is an issue, because there are two seperate functionalities.

left clicking shows and hides applications.

right clicking allows you to perform window management.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

The problem is, that right clicking an icon in Docky to activate basic window management functions is nowhere near as native as it could be (e.g. users usually don't right click on the windowlist in their panel). And just because the bug has been without comments for a long time doesn't mean it is no longer nagging us ;)

Please think about it carefully before choosing to set the status to invalid.

[luizfar (luizfar-gmail)]

I agree with Gabriel.

Having to click twice on the dock to maximize a window is not very nice.
I really think this should be taken in consideration, or bugs with similar requests will keep popping-up as this seems to be a quite common wish.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

Sure, there are better possible solutions, but not any that we can actually do. Unless we write a window manager that can interact with Docky better, this is a solid solution.

RIght now we have very predictable behavior.

Left clicking an icon opens and hides applications.

Right click is for window management.

If we suddenly decide that if you have multiple apps open, left click now performs window management, what happens to showing and hiding apps? Is it now reversed to right click?

We are maintaining consistency.

I will double check with Robert to make absolutely sure there is nothing we can do about interfacing with Compiz, but even then it won't work on Metacity.

[luizfar (luizfar-gmail)]

I think that showing the list of windows on hovering would be amazing already.
I mean, not showing all options available on the right click menu, just the list of windows, if there are more than one window opened for the hovered icon.

This would keep the current behavior and make it easier to select the active window. I see it as a huge improvement, but that's only my opinion of course. :)

It could show just the list of windows, or windows miniatures if Compiz is active.

[Gabriel Shahzad (bbchunkwol)]

Hiding the application should still be achieved by left-clicking on the icon in Docky. However, showing the application should be achieved by double-left-click on the icon. That way, we could have the list of available windows by a simple left-click.

I think you could do it.

[Rovanion (rovanion-luckey)]

This bug was as far as I understand it created because switching between different Windows of the same application is not as fast and as no-brain as it could be. The current way to do this is via text, the only thing that distinguishes two windows from each other on a right click is the title.

The problem from a technical perspective as I understand it is to get that image of each window. What interface can provide that information that works across all situations where Docky is deployed.

[Omri Har-Shemesh (omrihar)]

As it seems like all discussions about this suggestion stopped a few months ago, I would like to raise the topic again and voice my support of this change.

I find the current behavior quite inconvenient. I often use multiple windows of the same program and switching between them is far from optimal. I think that adding the possibility of displaying multiple icons for multiple windows can be a partial solution even though a Windows 7 Superbar behavior or any of the other above mockups would be best.

[Kheeper (kheeper)]

what is the problem to make that idea I have all time open many windows and by open all windows by clicking to the dock I getting mad. Can pleas someone do this!

[pazuzuthewise (pazuzuthewise)]

@Daniel Fore (danrabbit): What is more important: consistency or user-friendliness?
 You have just described, in post #25, a behaviour similar to that of the "window buttons" applet from xfce 4.8 panel (when the "window grouping" option is enabled), where it works almost great (it lacks app pinning/launching feature):
- if only one instance is running, then lef click toggles minimize/restore, right click opens management menu (that includes changing the window state and moving to other desktop etc.):
- if multiple instances exist, left clicking opens a special menu, showing only those instances (sadly no new instance launching), right click opens management menu, with sub-menu entries for every window from the group.
If one takes into account that left clicking is more comfortable than right clicking (at least on a dock/taskbar entry, and even more so for a windows user), and also the ergonomy for normal (non-multitouch) touchpad, where left clicking can be emulated by tapping, then the approach described above seems more user-friendly (with addition of pinning and launching).

I'm trying docky under xfce without compiz, so even if a preview function is implemented, a menu should be kept as a fallback mode, for an environmet without 3d capabilities.

Also, the greatest problem with the current approach is when multiple instances of the same application are opened on different virtual desktops. The current minimize/restore all, as in mac os, doesn't work really well in an environment with multiple virtual desktops. The hover/left click visualization/menu would permit switching to the pertinent desktop when raising a certain window.