GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 597320
Open new application window with middle click on icon in well.
Last modified: 2012-08-23 18:03:09 UTC
Created attachment 144718 [details] [review] very quick and dirty proof-of-concept patch Opening a new window for an already running application is a fairly cumbersome operation under gnome-shell, especially in comparison to the current GNOME setup. Adding the ability to quickly open a new window using the middle button would vastly improve the workflow for this common operation (and it maps well to existing middle button semantics in many apps, i.e. do something in a new tab/window, as opposed to do something in the current tab/window). I've included an initial proof-of-concept patch, but it's obviously not doing things quite correctly, since the behaviour is a little weird. Specifically, when used with firefox, nothing happens and the error: Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed. is reported in the gnome-shell terminal.
bug 591645 suggests using middle-click for "open on new workspace" instead
Comment on attachment 144718 [details] [review] very quick and dirty proof-of-concept patch (In reply to comment #1) > bug 591645 suggests using middle-click for "open on new workspace" instead This way makes more sense to me. Marking the patch as needs-work.
middle-click opening a new window makes more sense to me. If you want to open on new workspace you can drag icon to "add workspace" button in bottom right corner.
Created attachment 150334 [details] [review] open new window on middle click working patch
Comment on attachment 150334 [details] [review] open new window on middle click Hmm, not sure if it did it previously, but right now, control-click opens a new copy of the application. I don't see much point in having two ways of doing the same thing. This patch has a couple of problems too: - It doesn't leave the overview - It doesn't handle activating applications from search I'm going to reject this patch and reopen the other one, though it's not necessarily true that middle click has to do *something*.
Str+leftclick indeed opens the application in a new window. The problem with this approach is that it is hard to discover (and the bug-report is just evidence for this). My guess is that any new User (think about your aunt/grandmother) will not be able to open for example a second File-manager/Internet Browser. Most of the people will at least try to right-click (in expectation of a context menu with the entry: "Open in a new window" My suggestion is actually to put something like the following: "Open in a new window Str+Click" Where the Str+Clock should be a hint to the shortcut. If hints to shortcuts are not possible it would be nice if an option in the right-click (context) menu could be added.
(In reply to comment #6) > Str+leftclick indeed opens the application in a new window. > > The problem with this approach is that it is hard to discover (and the > bug-report is just evidence for this). > > My guess is that any new User (think about your aunt/grandmother) will not be > able to open for example a second File-manager/Internet Browser. > Most of the people will at least try to right-click (in expectation of a > context menu with the entry: "Open in a new window" > > My suggestion is actually to put something like the following: > "Open in a new window Str+Click" > Where the Str+Clock should be a hint to the shortcut. > > If hints to shortcuts are not possible it would be nice if an option in the > right-click (context) menu could be added. Well, note that there *is an option in the right-click menu*. Idea of showing an accelerator label there might make sense, though it's also quite a bit of visual clutter.
I would further suggest users have the ability to middle-mouse-click a window-preview from within the WINDOW-PICKER to close the window. Similar to a TAB in a web browser where users can middle-click the tab to close it or click the X in the right corner with the mouse.
I second Ctrl-click for opening a new window. I tend to use Alt-f2 because I know no way of opening new window from application view. Then it occurs to me that if Ctrl-click opens a new window, why does not Ctrl-Enter do the same?
Middle-click is already taken, and there's Ctrl-click for the action at hand.