GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 342696
Windows list in the task bar should be sorted according to virtual desktops
Last modified: 2007-07-02 15:28:46 UTC
When setting window list to show windows from all desktops, the window list should be sorted first by virtual desktops, and only then by age. Currently, If I want to go to a window that I know is in - lets say - desktop 4, then I have to visualy scan the entire window list - which when there are many windows (which is the only situation I actually need to use the window list) can take a lot of time and can be an error prone process due to limited title size. The only other option is to first go desktop 4 and then alt-tab cycle through the windows, which kind of beats the purpose of having the window list show windows from all desktops. The KDE task bar - for example - sorts the items according to the virtual desktop they are in, so if I want to find items in the 4th desktop, I know about where to look, and if I want then to go to an application on the 3th desktop I know that I need to look only to the left of the very visibly pushed button in the window list. Another issue that can be solved by this feature, is that currently if I have two windows, on two different desktops, with different logical functions but due to shortcomings of the application have the same icon and title (imagine if you will, two text editor windows - both with the same icon and title "editor" but one has a grocery list on the "personal desktop" and one has a list of ingridients for an atom bomb on the "super spy desktop") then without remembering the order they were created (which might have been days ago) it is currently impossible to decide which is the one I want.
See also bug #171804
*** Bug 171793 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
See also bug 150703 for a somewhat related (though still separate) issue that affects the selector. Also, I was almost certain this exact bug had been filed before, but I couldn't find it in a couple quick searches.
To be honest, I don't think this is useful enough: if you have one application in workspace 4 and one in workspace 5 with the same name, it doesn't help in any way. Also, this means changing workspace changes the order of the windows there, which is less useful than keeping the order across all workspaces (that's better for the user's memory). Your specific use case seems to be solved with the window selector that has been much improved in 2.19. Closing as WONTFIX.
Of all the sorting requests suggested, this was the only one I think I agreed with (and thus I dislike the WONTFIX but Vincent is far more active and can override me and keep it that way if he wants). Rationale: I think user memory for workspaces is better than for opening order, and it concretely connects to another user visible feature (workspaces in the pager). Usability folks seem to agree as well (see bug 86185, and bug 52225 comment 8 and the comment after). I would like the tasklist should gain some thick separators to denote separation of window lists between workspaces (potentially leaving blank spots in each workspace if the tasklist has two or more rows), and then for our sorting to be by workspace first and then by mapping order.
Thinking a bit more about it, I'd agree with you now. Adding a comment to bug 452350.
It would be nice if you could mark this bug as duplicate of bug 452350 - if you think that when going ahead and implementing configurable task list ordering you'd add "by workspace".