> I just realize that OS X Dock is almost a tabbed shelf without tab ! > First, you can dock anything on it, just like tabbed shelf. > The only difference is that it automatically adds running > application on it, > which in some way, is not a bad idea for tabbed shelf. > I always think dock as an application switcher as taskbar on X. > Now, it actually looks more like tabbed shelf. > So the question is that do we want to automatically add running > application > to our tab shelf ? > > The idea of tabbed shelf is not very clear to me. > If we have smart tab, can users still add objects into smart tab ? > If not, some application stays in static tab while running > applications > stay in another smart tab. > It is not a good UI in my own opinions. > Same applies to documents where some documents are added by users > while others may be added automatically like newly created document. > Do we force users to have "applications" tab and "document" tab > which only applications or document is allowed ? > Or any tab can mix any objects ? > If any tab can mix objects, which tab should we add the running > applications > and opened document ? The most front one ? > Then after a while, I can image everything is scattering around > the tabs. > Then users has to use our Expose-like layer to find running > application > and open documents because tabbed shelf does not provides a way to > look at all windows at once. > If users have window hidden, it will not on Expose-like layer > and they have to go through all tabbed to find it > if it is automatically added.
I see the Shelf having two types of tabs: User-managed and Smart tabs. User-managed are just like traditional folders, where users can add any items of any type to them: applications, people, documents, etc. Smart tabs are just tabs that are based on a query, and you can't manually add new items to that tab (new items could be automatically added, however, if they fit the criteria of the query, just like how Smart Playlists work in iTunes). Additionally, the same object could exist in multiple tabs, just as a certain song could be in two or more playlists in iTunes. For example, I may have 3 tabs in my Shelf: Design, Recent Apps, and Active Apps. Design is a user-managed tab, and there I have a list of all the apps I use for design, and (for the sake of this example) let's say I have Cenon in there. Recent Apps and Active are both Smart tabs, and, assuming I have Cenon running right now, it would meet the criteria for both of those Smart tabs' queries, and thus would show up under either tab. Thus, Cenon could be launched by clicking on any of the "Cenon icons" under any of my three tabs. It may be redundant, but who's to say that's a bad workflow for that user? As a default, we may start the Shelf out with only a few generic queries: Recent Apps, Recent Documents and Active Apps come to mind as good candidates. These should all be removable, if the user doesn't find them useful, or edited to something more suitable for that particular user. I would like to avoid forcing something like "all running apps show up on the first tab", as not all users would appreciate that or find it useful. I think I answered all your questions -- if any of that was confusing or if I forgot something, let me know. J. _______________________________________________ Etoile-dev mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/etoile-dev
