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by oneeyedpigeon 3732 days ago
> Tab group tiling - I can have 2 websites open side by side in 1 browser Window

I feel like window-management is pretty much broken at this point. I can now have multiple windows, containing multiple tabs, containing multiple ... what would you call those things? Mini-windows? Pages? Panes? Anyway, we also have tiling window managers, OSX's very limited equivalent, full-screen modes that are very slightly different from maximised windows, Chrome doing its own weird UI for ripping a tab out of its window and merging it back again, Firefox's tab groups, one ordering for app-cycling, another order for window-cycling, one-or-the-other order for tab-cycling... It's all getting a bit too much.
1 comments
ponyous 3732 days ago
This is why you pick and use one browser. I like the difference and choice to pick whichever functionality (browser) I want.

> I feel like window-management is pretty much broken at this point. I can now have multiple windows, containing multiple tabs, containing multiple ... what would you call those things?

Are you saying that we should do all "window" management on OS level? I want to maximise screen estate, having 2 windows side by side with vertical tabs will just take way too much space on a laptop screen.

Compare the following and tell me which one do you prefer:

http://imgur.com/4rxsF3G http://imgur.com/X4FsuAB

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oneeyedpigeon 3732 days ago
I totally take your point (yes, the 2nd image is 'better' for the most part), and it's one I considered when I wrote my comment. I think it's interesting to compare it with OSX and its global menubar.

I'd like to see a windowing system that totally revamps how we think about screens, apps, windows, tabs; menus, toolbars, etc. When should a menu be linked to an app and when should it be linked to a tab? How can we meaningfully manage all these things together? Do we really need a 5th level in this hierarchy? Is it really a hierarchy, or should an 'app' be able to overlap more than one screen? Does it ever make sense for a tab (image a 'naked' pane displaying an image) to be available to more than one app? etc.

I feel like, yes, we need to solve these issues at a higher-than-app level, because every app doing its own thing will just be incredibly confusing.

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ponyous 3732 days ago
Is there any incentive you know that tries to standardise how desktop apps should behave?

Just my observations & opinions: I don't think we will reach a point anytime soon where desktop apps have standardised UIs much more than now. The most effort in this space is done on iOS. Apple pushed UX Guidelines quite hard, most of the apps are mainstream consumer oriented and are not even that complex so Tab bar on the bottom + screens above works well. Desktop apps are generally much more complex and therefore harder to standardise I guess.

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