The Need for "Single Window Mode" 3236

Dan Johnson

That's not true. Complicated tasks can be performed with simple tools, even without multiplying the number of tools used. It just requires a well-considered design. Apple's solution is one way to do it, but it certainly isn't the only method. VD spanning is another solution, as are zooming UIs.

It's not much better, it just makes the interface slightly less inconsistent.

Maximize is a really, really bad idea. That's why I remove the functionality (or at least the button to invoke it) when possible. The same goes for minimize.

You'd go to the nearby desktops the windows move to?

Right, still exists though.

It's so unintuitive that I doubt that most people people recognize its existance, and it *still* hampers the productivity of someone using that method. You have to make a number of abstract window switches to drag many objects into a window. It's especially bad if you've got multiple sources and-or multiple targets.

I picked My Computer for precisely the reason that it doesn't have enough content to fill the screen. Your response demonstrates my point--most applications do not make use of anything approaching most of the available screen real estate when run in a maximized state. Especially at the high resolutions that are becoming common today.

Most of it is still wasted, even in thumbnail view. Nautilus does a better job of providing the same effective function without wasting tons of space.

A better solution would be to *leave the windows in their smaller state*. Or use a tiled window manager.

Not while working, which is all that really matters for muscle memory.

How do you develop muscle memory for something that you must always visually target to accurately hit?

It seemed to work better, anyway.

Didn't say a foolproof one, just one that is inordinately difficult to use (harder than simply making your application zoom correctly). If you provide a *difficult* method of doing something (in this context), little interest will be invested in finding an easier way to do it. You pique much more interest by outright preventing something from occurring.