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Bug 645853 - Moving a window to another workspace should also move all transient utility / tool windows with it
Moving a window to another workspace should also move all transient utility /...
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: gnome-shell
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.6.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: gnome-shell-maint
gnome-shell-maint
: 660298 687894 692976 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2011-03-27 19:05 UTC by Timur Kristóf
Modified: 2021-07-05 14:41 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Timur Kristóf 2011-03-27 19:05:33 UTC
If I open an application that has tool windows (like GIMP), and I want to relocate this application to another workspace, it is hard to move its tool windows.

- The tool windows are not visible on the Activities overview
- They don't show up in the small workspace boxes at the right either
- They don't move when I move the main window to another workspace

The only way to move them is by right-clicking their title bar.

My recommendation would be to automatically move tool windows with their main windows if that has been moved to another workspace.
Comment 1 graeme roberts 2011-04-07 16:30:37 UTC
Quite true.
I realise this is because of the Application Based design principle.
The solution proposed by Timur is quite probably for the best.
ps. they can be moved with the 'Move window to workspace X' keybindings, too.
Comment 2 Florian Müllner 2011-04-07 16:53:20 UTC
The proposal sounds reasonable to me, but we should get a designer's opinion anyway.
Comment 3 Paul Burnham 2011-04-16 01:44:48 UTC
totally agree here, utility windows should be considered "roomates" to the application that created them, and always remain on the same desktop.
Comment 4 Olivier Crête 2011-06-24 19:14:25 UTC
Maybe in the Activities window they should be also be present together with the main window as a "Group" ?
Comment 5 Florian Müllner 2011-09-27 22:03:08 UTC
*** Bug 660298 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Florian Müllner 2012-11-08 07:34:14 UTC
*** Bug 687894 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 Florian Müllner 2013-02-01 00:09:19 UTC
*** Bug 692976 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 Jakub Steiner 2013-02-03 19:33:52 UTC
The proposed solution of moving associated utility windows along with the main app window seems like a reasonable way forward.
Comment 9 Jean-François Fortin Tam 2013-02-04 15:43:25 UTC
Pro Tip: retitle your bug reports with more buzzwords so that they are searchable. Otherwise I'm gonna keep filing duplicates because I can't find this one (and thus forget about its existence :)
Comment 10 Allan Day 2013-08-26 18:39:33 UTC
I'm not really sure how this would work in practice. If a dialog isn't attached, it doesn't have a parent window, does it?
Comment 11 Florian Müllner 2013-08-26 18:48:27 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> I'm not really sure how this would work in practice. If a dialog isn't
> attached, it doesn't have a parent window, does it?

It may. We attach modal dialogs to their parent, non-modal dialogs can still have a parent. (In the case of utility windows, making them modal doesn't make much sense actually - think (multi-window)-GIMP's tool palette)
Comment 12 Allan Day 2013-08-26 18:58:05 UTC
If you have multiple image windows in the GIMP, and you move one to another workspace, what would we do?

Moving child windows along with a utility/tool window might make sense. It isn't clear to me whether we can logically do it the other way around though.

Either way, these kind of multi-window apps don't make much sense in the modern world. They will never be a nice fit in GNOME 3, and our time would be better spent working with 3rd party app developers to help them adopt different interface design patterns.
Comment 13 Florian Müllner 2013-08-26 19:09:30 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> If you have multiple image windows in the GIMP, and you move one to another
> workspace, what would we do?

Good point, but ...


> Moving child windows along with a utility/tool window might make sense. It
> isn't clear to me whether we can logically do it the other way around though.

... the other way around doesn't work well, as we don't show utility windows in the overview (e.g. there's no obvious way to move them to another workspace).


> Either way, these kind of multi-window apps don't make much sense in the modern
> world. They will never be a nice fit in GNOME 3, and our time would be better
> spent working with 3rd party app developers to help them adopt different
> interface design patterns.

So do we expect all secondary windows to be modal? "True" multi-window apps like GIMP are clearly not a good fit for GNOME 3, but many applications (including GNOME ones, e.g. nautilus) use non-modal transient windows for stuff like preferences ...
Comment 14 Timur Kristóf 2013-08-26 20:02:29 UTC
Hi,

Here's my opinion: it would be awesome if you could find a better design patter for GIMP and other apps. But until then, I suggest implementing the original idea (moving tool windows along with main ones) - that would greatly increase usability of GIMP and other similar apps.

Thanks,
Timur
Comment 15 GNOME Infrastructure Team 2021-07-05 14:41:08 UTC
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of  gitlab.gnome.org.
As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org
which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately
quite limited so not every ticket can get handled).

If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent
and supported software version, then please follow
  https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines
and create a new ticket at
  https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/

Thank you for your understanding and your help.