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List:       kwin
Subject:    Re: [Review Request] Maximizing windows on screen edge
From:       Thomas =?iso-8859-15?q?L=FCbking?= <thomas.luebking () web ! de>
Date:       2009-08-30 21:23:28
Message-ID: 200908302323.28374.thomas.luebking () web ! de
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I do not oppose the patch as it just adds another border behaviour, but I 
doub't it's usability.

(I'll first bash MS a bit and in the end advert a different solution)
==
In general I'd consider electric borders (currently) a "pro" feature (Joe User 
is rather irritated when his windows do freaky things when moved "aside")
Aero snap will in some way hit the traditional electric borders.
E.g. even if you allow "snap first, then switch" and "moveResizesSnapped" 
windows will distressingly resize (what can be an expensive operation) twice - 
so you'll rather drop one, and from my personal experience the "pros" are 
rather interested in virtual desktops and a mltimonitor setup then in 
perfectly tiled windows. (And i won't discuss the sense of the "maximize when 
hitting top border" nonsense)

To me the MS problem seems to be that they trained their clients to be 
fullscreen users and now got a problem with the ever wider getting monitors.
This is reflected in the inflexibility of the feature (as MS provides) - you 
can have fullscreen, left-fullscreen and right-fullscreen, but there's no easy 
way to eg. setup the "| |---|" UI of a typical mailclient.

The next problem is the relation lack of action (move window) and effect 
(window jumps to a static size and position)
==

If we however want some "easy tiling" in kwin, i'd propse to handle a modifier 
on moveResize (ctrl?) and let the window snap to 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 1/1 
of the screen width/height*.
As border snapping is supported anyway, this can be used to tile your windows 
in a flexible way, preserving the current electric borders and prevent windows 
from being annoying.
The drawback is the "hidden" attitude of this feature - but so is the "alt+" 
moveResize and still ppl. use it <shrug/>

My 2¢,
Thomas

*As the tiling issue came up before, i implemented such feature into the 
maximize button of Bespin (JustForFun and i hardly ever used it or felt the 
need to do... try scrolling the max button, press "ctrl" for horizontal 
impact)
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