Have we given up too quickly on non-overlapping window GUIs? | Hacker News Reader

Have we given up too quickly on non-overlapping window GUIs?

6 pointsamichail9 comments

Given the success of Exposé, perhaps we have given up too early on non-overlapping window GUIs?

For example, suppose you combine the automatic layout of Exposé with different zoom levels and win 7's dock. Could that provide something workable that would do away with overlapping windows?

You could provide Exposé on a per app level as well. Just click the app's icon and you will see all its open windows all on the screen at once with no overlap.

If you want to see a certain subset of windows on the screen at once, just click on all of those in the subset to zoom in to only those windows, again with no overlap.

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It sounds like you're talking about tiling windows managers.

http://awesome.naquadah.org/ http://www.nongnu.org/stumpwm/ http://xmonad.org/

or am I just confused?

Why allow window overlap at all in mac/win?

Because some people really like it. I always feel claustrophobic in tiling window managers, for example.

There is a significant geek population that likes tiling WMs. More power to 'em. But I think the general public probably like the freedom to overlap windows as they see fit.

Is there a usability advantage to overlapping windows?

My immediate response is that yes, there is, because it preserves the physical feeling that I have. That is to say, my windows go where I want them to go. That's control that I like.

The other response is that there is because you can hide things you aren't using behind other windows. Right now, the 4 windows I have open wouldn't all fit on a single screen without overlapping.

The moderm tiling WMs (DWM/awesome/xmonad) allow you to use a dinamic layout (overlapping) if you want.

I dislike the free-form overlapping windows, but tiling is still worse. Tiling could be better if windows had a 'reduced' mode: which needs minimal screen area to show status. Some examples: I like the last two lines of IM and terminal windows to show. I like to see the folder status on Thunderbird peeking out from behind other windows. I only need the smallest portion of the top left title bar to show for plain documents (they have no 'status').

Three screens help. :)

I am definitely with you on the zoom capability rather than just leaving windows all on top of eachother. If you have that, you don't necessarily need automatic window layout (Expose).

I think eventually when people have enough experience with ZUIs on phone browsers etc. all of the OS/window managers will have to provide zooming/panning (at least as an option).

I am building a ZUI javascript components / thing because I think its also useful for browsing the web.

Use a window manager that supports multiple independent workspaces. E.g., on a Mac use Spaces.

That way you can arrange your windows as you like and leave them that way.

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