[Tfug] Speaking of desktops (little 'd')...

[Bexley Hall]

--- On Mon, 11/10/08, Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com> wrote:

> > What are the "inexcusable sins" encountered in current
> > "user interfaces" (sorry for the imprecision but intend that
> > to encompass all sorts of interactive devices).
> >
> > E.g., highest on my Piss List is "never steal the focus".
> > *I* should decide what I am interacting with, not "the
> > machine".
> 
> Well the one thing that drives me bonkers in Gnome is that
> changes in resolution (either by running a lower-res game or
> running an external
> screen) cause the toolbar items to get all scrambled up.

OK, but that just sounds like a *bug*, right?  I.e., it wasn't
*designed* to misbehave like this?  

On the other hand:

> When you're at the lower resolution, they can crowd
> each other clean off to a point where some (often the
> Application/Places/System menus!) are unusable - literally
> they've been shrunk to nothing.

This sounds like a consequence of the design itself.  I.e., *trying*
to make everything fit when it obviously *can't* (?)

> But then even when you go back to higher res, they're
> not in the order OR place they started.

Yet another "bug"?

> That is just SO wrong.
> 
> On the plus side, I agree with you that stealing focus is a
> crime, but I do find that Gnome does it a lot less than XP or
> His Noodly One

ROTF!  I'll have to remember that one...

> help us VISTA.  Vista doesn't just steal focus, it
> repeatedly drags it into a dark alley and beats the crap out of it.

<frown>

Is there *ever* a case (short of a panic()) when the "system"
should "grab (X) server"?

And, if so, why shouldn't it *also* prevent switching to
alternate consoles at that same time?  I know why you/I
would groan at this "back door" being taken away from us.
But, my question is:  "What could possibly be *so* serious
that you (the system) would force me to deal with *whatever*
message/dialog that you want to FORCE on me... yet, not also
prevent me from accessing the system through other means?

(I guess I can see how The One doesn't necessarily follow
The Other -- but, I can't understand a need for The One in
the first place!  :< )