Ubuntu 17.10 Dock should only show windows from the current workspace

[Arash Bazrafshan]

Hi again friends

I'm sorry for having bothered you, but today I found the GSettings key
"isolate-workspaces" that does precisely what I was asking for. I still
strongly feel this should in the Ubuntu Settings app because it's a very
sought after feature.

I also discovered some very nice small touches in the way Ubuntu Dock
handles open windows; any app's panel of windows previews (opened with
Super+NR_KEY) on the dock shows the current workspace's windows first, and
then puts a small space before the other windows.

But I think a thin horizontal bar put before the other windows would make
this partitioning more obvious. The coloring of such bar should though
follow the coloring of the user chosen Gnome Shell theme.



On Sat, Oct 21, 2017 at 2:27 AM, Arash Bazrafshan <arashu at gmail.com> wrote:

> You have done a most impressive work with Ubuntu 17.10, but in this e-mail
> I hope it's OK that I raise one of my greates concerns.
>
> *To be able to focus has always been the purpose of using multiple
> workspaces* (atleast to me). When the user is in a workspace then they
> want to mainly concern themselves with the windows of that workspace and
> not be bothered by other things. Sadly the Dock breaks this purpose to a
> great extent by showing icons for *all windows from all workspaces*.
>
> Many users love to use the dock to switch between applications, because *it
> is visually instantly available*. I.e. you don't have to perform a mental
> context switch by analyzing something new that appears on the screen before
> making your choice (such as the alt+tab menu); this would add mental burden
> to the work the user is trying to use Ubuntu to accomplish, but the dock is
> always there. But it still becomes difficult to focus when using the Dock
> to choose what window to switch to because all workspaces' windows are
> shown.
>
> The Dock is also great in another way too, *namely the Super+NUMB_KEY
> shortcuts to quickly choose a window*. This is much more convenient than
> alt+tab, again because you avoid mental and visual context switch but also
> because *you don't have to repeatedly press alt+tab, tab, tab, tab ...*
> to arrive at your desired windows. But sadly this great feature is also
> hindered by the Dock making it more difficult to focus by showing all
> windows. Also since all the workspaces' total number of open apps can
> reasonably exceed nine, *the Super+NUMB_KEY shortcuts may not be usable* to
> choose the desired windows.
>
> The user's option to use the Dock to focus is further hindered *if the
> user has multiple instances of the same app open over many workspaces*.
> Say for instance the user has four Firefox windows open over four
> workspaces. Now they (the user) wants to switch to the current workspace's
> Firefox windows. But sadly clicking the Firefox icon will open a small
> panel with four Firefox windows from all workspaces; now the user must
> further discern which one of them to choose when *it's evident which one
> they wants in nearly all cases...*
>
> I'm guessing it's (relatively) easy to add a checkbox in Ubuntu Settings
> that says "Show windows from all workspaces" in the Dock's section and then
> to implement this. To enable users that favor this setting to still be able
> to see all workspaces' open windows, a new Gnome Overview mode "Show
> windows from all workspaces" should be added. The user should be able to
> assign a keyboard shortcut to this mode.
>
> Please reply to my e-mail address because I'm not a subscriber to your
> mailing list.
>
> Kind regards, Arash
>
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