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Bug 662835 - Bring an existing window to the current workspace when clicking on a dash icon
Bring an existing window to the current workspace when clicking on a dash icon
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 650030
Product: gnome-shell
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.2.x
Other Linux
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: gnome-shell-maint
gnome-shell-maint
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2011-10-27 09:41 UTC by Julien Olivier
Modified: 2012-02-14 11:06 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Description Julien Olivier 2011-10-27 09:41:26 UTC 
When using multiple workspaces to separate the tasks you're working on, if you click on an application launcher in the dash, and that application is already running on another workspace, you're moved to this workspace and the app window is presented to you.

If workspaces are intended to prevent you from getting distracted from your work by other tasks (other workspaces), this behaviour is bad because you might very well click on an application you need for this task (and, thus, this workspace) while this app is already opened on another workspace (because you need it too for another task). But clicking on this application doesn't mean that you want to change the task you're working on, and so there is no reason to move you away from your current workspace.

There are two possible solutions to this problem:
 1) Open a new app window if there is no window of this app in the current workspace -> bug #650030
 2) Move the already running app window from another workspace to the current one.

This bug is about implementing the second possibility instead of the current behaviour (move the user to the workspace where the app is already running).
Comment 1 Milan Bouchet-Valat 2011-10-27 09:54:38 UTC 
There's also some discussion of this problem on bug 660502.

Marking for UI review, but I strongly doubt designers will adopt your suggestion. That solution would be really messy; you workspaces would easily end up completely mixed, which breaks the whole idea.
Comment 2 Julien Olivier 2011-10-27 10:03:26 UTC 
I'm not sure myself that this is the best solution to my problem, but I know that it is better (for me) than the status quo. That's why I also proposed solution #1 (bug #650030), and even an alternative, which would be to always try to open a new window, and let mono-window applications prevent it themselves. I hope someone smarter than me will find a perfect solution that designers will love!
Comment 3 Milan Bouchet-Valat 2012-02-14 11:06:36 UTC 
Marking as duplicate, no point in having the discussion in several places.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 650030 ***