On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Andrew Cowie <and...@operationaldynamics.com> wrote: > What is the current correct behaviour for window titles? > > I'm working in something right now that manipulates documents; I could > do: > > blah.xml > blah.xml - Program > Chapter Title > Chapter Title - Program > > When I researched the HIG on this (some years ago, admittedly), the > advice boiled down to what I wrote in our API documentation for Window's > setTitle(), > http://java-gnome.sourceforge.net/4.0/doc/api/org/gnome/gtk/Window.html#setTitle(java.lang.String) > > However, > > Judging by this screenshot I took of the window selector applet's popup > list, we're all over the map at the moment (which is to say people are > still doing their own thing, and whatever GNOME's policy is, it's not > being enforced very well), > http://research.operationaldynamics.com/files/andrew/WindowTitles_Screenshot.png
It's never really been standardized, even the API docs above seem more like a hint than a requirement. > It's also obvious that we're still getting dealing with the hangover > from when someone thought it would be cool to have programs called "Web > Browser" instead of Epiphany, etc — so we see some programs calling > themselves "Sound Reorder", some saying a document title / email subject > (only), some saying "path/to/filename.ext - Application", "Inbox (1849 > total) - Evolution", and permutations thereon. I think it makes most sense if document-driven apps (abiword, gnumeric, file-roller etc.) just show the document name while task-centric apps (evolution, transmission) show their purpose followed by a short summary ("e-mail - 25 unread"). Evolution's current behavior makes it a moving target. The window constantly renames itself each time you switch folders. IMHO it should only change the first part of the title when you switch from e-mail to calendar or address book. > I must admit I'm worryingly tempted to do "Document Title - > Application". But I also know there was once a push to have only the > shorter form along with the icons to identify application. But given the > kill-the-icons meme that's suddenly turned up around here, it no longer > seems a good idea to be de-emphasizing one's application's name. Only purely decorative icons were dropped, app icons and document icons are here to stay. -- Patryk Zawadzki _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list