Re: Outline of Caliban, a Pane Based Window Manager

On Thu, May 27, 2004 at 10:32:25PM +1000, Karl O'Keeffe wrote:

> I've updated the wiki with a (very) brief outline of my ideas for a Y 
> Window Manager.
> http://y-win-wiki.jciteassist.org/y-win-wiki/PaneBasedWindowManager
> 
> The main (and probably most controversial) point is that windows are 
> all displayed full screen by default, and that there will be no 
> minimise/maximise/move/resize commands needed.

Didn't you say it should all work with existing apps?
Can't work with spatial Nautilus or the GIMP. And even one of the few 
apps I ever use full screen, OpenOffice, still has palettes (floating 
windows).

 
> To enable comparisons between documents, a system whereby the screen 
> can be split into two or four panes is used.

Overlapping windows is not only about comparing docs, but also 
drag'n'drop and fast switching between windows (you know, Fitt's law).


But you should take a look at Blender (3d app).
It has something like it's own windowing system,
whereby what is called a Window in Blender is rather like
Panes in other environments.
You can split windows verticaly and horizontaly and resize every
window by dragging the borders. Every window (usualy) has a
header (even though these can be at the bottom) wich can hold
buttons and menus. But the first control in every header is
for selecting the windowtype (3d view, file-browser, schematic
view, ...).
Setups of these windows can be saved as Screens. Shortcuts
allow to switch through Screens, or to maximize the window
the mouse is over to full-screen (or minimize afterwards).
All this allows to adapt Blender to one's own workflow
or current task at hand.

Screenshots:
http://wrstud.urz.uni-wuppertal.de/~ka0394/forum/04-04-10_blender_1.png
http://wrstud.urz.uni-wuppertal.de/~ka0394/forum/04-04-10_blender_2.png 


I think it might be worth trying to combine overplapping/floating 
windows, tiling and tabing on WM level.


---
Thorsten Wilms