| | 1 | = Evolution of the Desktop = |
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| | 3 | Here, a simple schema about thoughts and ideas which drove the actual Synapse design for the "desktop" management. This is just an informative page, doesn't describe any technical and formal detail, it is just for occasional users. |
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| | 5 | Everything began with our classic desktop (here: the one from KDE4, but due any environment is just a re-implementation of the same concept any difference exists with Gnome, or even Aqua and Windows). |
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| | 7 | [[Image(htdocs:synapse/desktop_evolution/step_1.jpg)]] |
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| | 9 | As we can see a lot of screen space is wasted, due windows of all applications (which often are not maximized to fill all the empty space) and tools to switch from a window to the other. |
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| | 11 | We met the first obvious constraint (and silent paradox) of modern interfaces: at any moment only one window is visible, and used by the user, and we might consider the whole concept of "window management" as a compromise between multi-programmed systems and third party applications, each contained in its own graphical rectangle. |
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| | 13 | Perhaps we can hide all those stuffs and focus on a single window environment. |
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| | 15 | [[Image(htdocs:synapse/desktop_evolution/step_2.jpg)]] |
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| | 17 | Given the assumption of working on a single window at any time, a lot of space is freed and no longer occupied for classic pagers, taskbars, and all other desktop related on-screen tools. This is one of the (more radical) fundaments on which Synapse layout is designed, and its apply has strong implications on the whole interaction model. More details are available in [wiki:Dejavu] page. |
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| | 19 | Now we have half of the monitor empty: let's fill it maximizing our single window. |
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| | 21 | [[Image(htdocs:synapse/desktop_evolution/step_3.jpg)]] |
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| | 23 | Finally, most of the screen has been populated by usefull contents. |
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| | 25 | But some space is unused yet (for example, the top bar of the window: useless since it have no sense to minimize or move it), and only little opportunity to switch application are available. Lets enrich the screenshots with some artificious component. |
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| | 27 | [[Image(htdocs:synapse/desktop_evolution/step_4.jpg)]] |
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