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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Pooling task bar buttons.
From:       Julien Olivier <julo () altern ! org>
Date:       2002-02-08 16:14:43
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Hi

I'm new to this mailing list so I might repeat some ideas already heard or 
ignore infos already given. Please forgive me by advance.

I think the good way is to allow only one instance of each application (like 
WindowMaker). Before sending my email to the trash, please read further.
Of course my idea is not to limit web surfers to one URL or C++ coders to 
edit only one file at a time.
My idea is that KDE should support tabbing in its core. I mean that when you 
open konqueror a second time, KDE should look for an existant konqueror 
processus and, if there's one, add a tab in the current konqueror window. I 
even think it shouldn't need any application rewrite: every KDE app should be 
provided a tabbar and kde core should manage tabbing. This way of managing 
windows would have the advantage to free space in the taskbar and to speed 
KDE up: once you've opened konqueror once, every new window opens way faster.

However, I'd like to add that, concerning konqueror - the all-in-one 
application - there should be differences between the different profiles. I 
mean that I don't think it's good to mix file management and web surfing. In 
fact, I think it's already one of the problems with current task grouping.

The problem is that some apps (GIMP, Kmail) use several windows which don't 
have the same hierarchical level... For example, it wouldn't be very logic to 
have a "New message" window tabbed into kmail at the same level as the main 
window. But that concerns apps that launch windows themselves (like konqueror 
does when using javascript:window.open for example). So I think that knowing 
who launches the window (the user by clicking on the app icon OR the 
application when the user clicks on a button into the app) could enable the 
system to make the difference. So, I would introduce the idea of a second 
tabbar into the app. Hold your breath :)
While apps themselves get tabbed, let's say, in the top tabbar, a bottom 
tabbar (still into the app itself) could manage the children of each app 
present in the top tabbar.

For example:

I open konqueror in web surfing profile
 -> a new window appears with my default web page.  it's WINDOW 1
 -> a new task appears in main the taskbar

I open konqueror in file management profile
 -> a new window appears with ~/  it's WINDOW 2
 -> a new task appears in main the taskbar

I open konqueror in web surfing profile
 -> a new TAB appears into the top tabbar of konqueror WINDOW 1
 -> the new tab gets the focus
 -> no new task in the main task bar

I open konqueror in file management profile
 -> a new TAB appears into the top tabbar of konqueror WINDOW 2
 -> the new tab gets the focus
 -> no new task in the main task bar

I click on a "javascript:window.open(...)" link in WINDOW 1 / TAB 2
 -> a new TAB appears into the bottom tabbar of konqueror WINDOW 1 / TAB 2
 -> the new window gets focus and has the size specified in the JS function.
 -> no new task in the main task bar

Well, I hope it helps.

--
Julien Olivier

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