The Need for "Single Window Mode" 3247

ZnU

Small amounts of time are often masked by mental context switches (which take time). This would not be one of the tasks that benefit from that exploit. Ever known people to enjoy reading long documents on a computer?

It's a *very* bad solution for picking from among groups of similar-looking windows. Especially if you have more than 6-8 large windows. It's fine if you're just trying to switch between windows with distinct graphical differences (say, a terminal window and a web browser).

Your brain understands spatial organization because you have already been trained to process things in a spatial manner. Infants being surprised by the 'peak-a-boo' game is an example of spatial relationships being learned rather than instinctual.

I'm not talking about using 3d interfaces--I'm saying that it's a mistake to try to adapt a 3d workspace (a physical desktop) to an inherently 2d environment (your virtual desktop). Despite the fact that desktops are flat, there still exists a third dimension for motion--something that is poorly emulated on a 2d display with a 2d input device.

This seems even less productive than a single window model, and was not at all what I was advocating. All you do is increase the virtual distance between objects, and make organization even harder.

Two pointing devices would work just as well. Better yet, just use a digitizer that detects fingers (touch sensitive interface).

Multi-button mice could emulate a full hand, though I'm not sure why you would want to do this. The virtual environment does not follow the laws of physics--you can grab things with 'one finger' in such an environment.