Hi Matthew > Well, yes. But if 90% of configs and people have the same boolean > setting, that's probably a sign that the default is dumb :p
Not if their setting is the default! That's a sign that the default is good. (You may have survey results I don't know about?) Anyhow, the more important point is that the introduction of tabs in browsers has changed what is and isn't dumb. Firefox makes it possible to have multiple windows each with multiple tabs. I use this as part of my long term working memory (needed for an aging brain...). The NoSort default meant that I could open firefox windows in a particular order with the more transient and changing windows coming later. I currently have 13 windows, but it can go up to about 20. Some have at most three or four tabs, while others can go have a lot higher (e.g. browsing options in Amazon!). I can get fairly quickly to a desired *window* by going to the iconmanager, using the order of items. E.g. The top icon will correspond to relatively personal stuff that stays up a long time and is accessed infrequently, though I sometimes open new 'personal' tabs there temporarily (e.g. changing a subscription). The bottom few icons represent windows created fairly recently, which are needed only temporarily. If I change tabs in an open window, that (normally) changes the window title, and therefore the icon title. With the Sort default on, changing tabs can therefor move the icon up or down and that is very confusing, as I found when the default changed. Does anyone really want a window icon to move up and down in the iconmanager depending on which tab is open in that window? That's what the new default did to me recently, until I worked out how to turn it off. If I want to change the order in the iconmanager, I use the Workspace manager to move some windows temporarily to another workspace and then drag them back in the desired order. Perhaps I am the only person on the planet who does that. Ideally it should be possible to use the keyboard (e.g. Up/Down arrows) to move items in in the iconmanager up or down.) Until I switched off sorting, all my attempts to reorder windows were defeated by changing tabs. Summary: the sorted default could be useful if users label icons, whereas currently the window title, and therefore the icon label, is determined by the page being viewed, in the case of browser windows. So leaving icon order unchanged is likely to generate less confusion than moving them around according to what (often arbitrary) titles the web site designers have chosen. Idle question: do you also like tabs in a browser window to be alphabetically sorted, as opposed to either having new tabs next to the tabs from which they were opened, or having new tabs at the end? Is there any browser that sorts tabs alphabetically? If the new default is preserved, I suggest adding a warning on the Ctwm web site, informing people trying the new system for the first time, that if they don't want the iconmanager sorted alphabetically they should set the new option NoSortIconManager on. Not doing that cost me several days of confusion and unsuccessful experimentation. Anyhow, thanks again for all your efforts. Aaron
