I was thinking about an old idea, for a very simple screen manager... and it is becoming even a bit more complete. So I would like to share it with you... because I think it would be a nice fit for Genode.
So at first I was thinking a very simple model... -Almost all the screen for one application -a bar at the bottom with: -- one left button at the left -- one right button at the right -- a title in the middle (of the application) Left, and right would navigate through the open applications
Then the idea that screens are large enough for two windows wide came to my mind. Second model (at first): -Almost all the screen for one application -a bar at the bottom with: -- one left button at the left -- one right button at the right -- a title in the middle -- a 1 button -- a 2 button -- a pin button So like before, but the 1 button is activated at the beginning.
If you click the 2 button, the screen divide in 2 windows So now you got: -left button in bottom left -right button in bottom right -the left window for application 1 -- bottom-right title info for application 1 -- bottom-left1 the 1 2 buttons (2 is activated) -- bottom-left2 the pin button -the right window for application 2 -- bottom-left title info for application 2 -- bottom-right1 the 1 and 2 buttons (2 is activated) -- bottom-right2 the pin button
So the idea, is that under each application you got: -the pin button, that when activated, the application don't change when doing right and left button So if one of the side is pinned, right and left buttons affect only the other side. If none is pinned, pressing left (right goes to left, and right is filled with next open application). If none is pinned, pressing right (left goes to right, and left is filled with previous open application). (my guess is that if the right and the left applications are pinned, the left and right buttons are deactivated) - the 1 button, that return to the single application screen, with the current application
And then, I realized we need the some more info... So I would add a upper-bar with: -a menu button for the applications to launch -clock -Quit button -mixer button -network button - etc.
Does it seems a good idea?
Hello Paul,
your concept sounds pretty lean and also somewhat handy when thinking about interfaces without precise input devices like mice and keyboards (speak small touchscreens with clumsy fingers like mine). On the other hand, such concepts cannot be evaluated without a demo. So, I'd suggest you prototype your idea using a widget library of your choice. I used Qt5 in the past, which is fairly easy to learn and does not stand in the way. The prototype work can be done on any OS like Linux, Genode, or even Windows with a fullscreen application and some mock widgets. You may also use a browser-based prototyping environment, which gives anybody the chance to easily test your proposal by loading an URL...
When reading your proposal, I'd suggest you should thrive for generalizing the tiling idea beyond 2 visible apps. My current desktop screen is 2560x1080 which is 21.3:9 and I love to have 3 to 4 columns in some work contexts. If the vertical tiling is also generalized, the "sepcial" bars are just tiles any user may move to the region most liked.
Greets Christian
On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 01:35:48 CEST, Paul Dufresne via users wrote:
I was thinking about an old idea, for a very simple screen manager... and it is becoming even a bit more complete. So I would like to share it with you... because I think it would be a nice fit for Genode.
So at first I was thinking a very simple model... -Almost all the screen for one application -a bar at the bottom with: -- one left button at the left -- one right button at the right -- a title in the middle (of the application) Left, and right would navigate through the open applications
Then the idea that screens are large enough for two windows wide came to my mind. Second model (at first): -Almost all the screen for one application -a bar at the bottom with: -- one left button at the left -- one right button at the right -- a title in the middle -- a 1 button -- a 2 button -- a pin button So like before, but the 1 button is activated at the beginning.
If you click the 2 button, the screen divide in 2 windows So now you got: -left button in bottom left -right button in bottom right -the left window for application 1 -- bottom-right title info for application 1 -- bottom-left1 the 1 2 buttons (2 is activated) -- bottom-left2 the pin button -the right window for application 2 -- bottom-left title info for application 2 -- bottom-right1 the 1 and 2 buttons (2 is activated) -- bottom-right2 the pin button
So the idea, is that under each application you got: -the pin button, that when activated, the application don't change when doing right and left button So if one of the side is pinned, right and left buttons affect only the other side. If none is pinned, pressing left (right goes to left, and right is filled with next open application). If none is pinned, pressing right (left goes to right, and left is filled with previous open application). (my guess is that if the right and the left applications are pinned, the left and right buttons are deactivated)
- the 1 button, that return to the single application screen, with the
current application
And then, I realized we need the some more info... So I would add a upper-bar with: -a menu button for the applications to launch -clock -Quit button -mixer button -network button
- etc.
Does it seems a good idea?
Genode users mailing list users@lists.genode.org https://lists.genode.org/listinfo/users
Hi Paul,
So the idea, is that under each application you got: -the pin button, that when activated, the application don't change when doing right and left button So if one of the side is pinned, right and left buttons affect only the other side. If none is pinned, pressing left (right goes to left, and right is filled with next open application). If none is pinned, pressing right (left goes to right, and left is filled with previous open application). (my guess is that if the right and the left applications are pinned, the left and right buttons are deactivated)
- the 1 button, that return to the single application screen, with the
current application
And then, I realized we need the some more info... So I would add a upper-bar with: -a menu button for the applications to launch -clock -Quit button -mixer button -network button
- etc.
Does it seems a good idea?
I like the idea of moving the view of the user towards left/right.
Do you intend to use the pinning feature also as a way to reorder the applications? E.g., to swap the order of App1 (shown on the left side) and App2 (shown on the right side), one could pin App1, press left (App2 is no longer visible because it is now of the left of the pinned App1), unpin App1, press right. So now App1 would be shown to the right of App2.
The simplicity of this model is very nice. Would love to play around with it! ;-)
Cheers Norman
-
Christian Helmuth -
Norman Feske -
Paul Dufresne