Re: Window manager interaction

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 16 Oct 2009, at 19:16, Wolfgang Lux wrote:

> IMHO Richard's proposal is much too complicated. I'd suggest something
> radically simpler: If an application does not have an appicon the hide
> command should just minimize all application windows. As far as I
> understand this also was the solution used by Apple in OpenStep 4.2  
> for
> Windows. See, e.g., http://support.apple.com/kb/TA45871 and search for
> the term "hide" (with quotation marks) in that document. This can be
> implemented trivially with the three-line patch below in  
> NSApplication.m.

Good idea, but unfortunately that approach does not really work and is  
not really that simple:

1. the app is not properly hidden ... there are potentially loads of  
miniwindows left visible
2. the app is potentially 'lost' (as at present) if it has no windows  
(and hence no miniwindows)
3. there is no consideration of unhiding ... allowing for that would  
require a lot more code (to track which windows were miniaturised as  
part of the hide process, and automatically deminiaturise them when  
you click on any of the miniwindows of the 'hidden' app).

Problem (2) is the problem we currently have ... so this approach  
actually adds an issue (1) without solving the original issue.