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Fluid windows
- zobzu 15y agoOn most Linux WM buttons are left and right hehe.
- francoisdevlin 15y agoVery, very cool. Would love to see this implemented somehow. Would save me from lots of "mouse goofs"
- mrschwabe 15y agoQuick, patent this!
- arianvp 15y agoactually the best reply so far because it's sadly true
- markokocic 15y agoYou can't. This page would count as prior art.
- xenonite 15y agohow can you be so sure
- cookingrobot 15y agoNot prior art, but public disclosure.
- bajsejohannes 15y agoSo what if I remake it before he patents it? Is my implementation then prior art? If you're right, the patent system is yet again more broken then I thought.
- prewett 15y agoNo, he has 1 year from public disclosure to file for a patent (in the US, as of 2006 when I took my IP law class [IANAL, btw]). You could not file for a patent because his public disclosure would count as prior art for you, unless you could prove that you had the idea before his publication.
- markokocic 15y agoYou are right. You cannot patent something that has already been published elsewhere.
- mhd 15y agoI remember some X11 window manager that used BeOS like tabs doing something similar (either one of the twm hacks/successors, or a wm that allowed you to merge tabs)…
- hmottestad 15y agoThat is really smart. Though I don't think anyone is going to implement it (except maybe gnome) because the world of UI is shifting to mobile, even if the "desktop" computer will stay with us for many years to come. Had you thought of this 10 years ago ;)
- georgemcbay 15y agoThis would be awesome though on Windows (don't have much experience programming Mac UI, so maybe there too) it would break programs that make assumptions about how the non-client area of a window operates. Quite a few programs do custom rendering up there in a way that would make it difficult to retrofit this in a universally compatible way. These programs would at a minimum need to get events to know that the various elements have moved which would require code changes in the programs to listen for and react to those events. Given how much Microsoft bends over backwards to maintain Win32 compatibility (less than in the past, but still far more than average), I doubt they'd put something like this in unless it was a wholesale interface change (similar to Metro... which avoids this issue altogether by just not having title bars).
- nknight 15y agoThe habit of Windows apps to have entirely custom UIs is relatively unknown on Macs. It's not impossible, just (thankfully) much more rare.
- kevindication 15y agoProbably one of the initial barriers to porting Steam to the Mac.
- zerovox 15y agoI really don't think that is true at all.
- getsat 15y agoAgreed. It probably had more to do with the fact that their store, game details, etc. views were pretty complex. They seem to have solved a lot of that crossplatform pain by implementing most of that stuff using Webkit.
- eridius 15y agoIt's not a technical limitation, it's a culture limitation. Mac apps care far more about providing a consistent UI than Windows and Linux apps (although I believe those platforms have improved in this regard in recent years). It's certainly possible for a Mac app to muck about with the non-"app" parts of the window, it's just far less common.
- huhtenberg 15y agoI would rather have the button block simply jump to the other side of the window (instead of being pushed there by the window edge). IMO your version is just too fancy for the routine day-to-day use.
- jasonkolb 15y agoUm, I have no idea if this is cool or not, because I'm sitting in a doctor's office on my iPhone. Is it really too much to ask to implement swipe gestures in JavaScript? The world is mobile now. Whether this is actually cool or not I shall never know, it has disqualified itself from my web browsing time.
- zackzackzack 15y agoThe idea itself isn't meant for a mobile environment. The GUI moves when you drag the windows around. This sort of interaction doesn't really play nice with mobile usage.
- milkmiruku 15y agoSlight pipedream aside; a tiling window manager with multiple real and virtual desktops plus gesture control would be nice. Anon or authed zeroconf wireless networking and would allow one to place/dock a mobile device to the side of your desktop/tv/other mobile and drag/sync apps and/or items between the two. Anyone know of a system or so that could do the likes of that?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- lubutu 15y agoThe Haiku window manager does exactly this, but it also resizes the viewport such that the scrollbars are always visible. I've always thought it would be a great feature in other stacking window managers.
- DHowett 15y agoThe BeOS (and therefore Haiku) window managers were well beyond their time. The tab style is still my favourite windowing paradigm.
- achy 15y agoI have never used Haiku myself, but that is exactly what I was thinking while playing with this example. Did Haiku 'remember' the original size so that it bounced back as you dragged it away from the edge?
- lubutu 15y agoYes it does. As you drag it back from the edge it returns to its 'desired size' (the user's last explicit resize).
- dgeb 15y agoI approve! One of the most annoying aspects of OS X (pre-Lion) was hunting for the lower right corner to resize windows. Thankfully, all sides of a window can now be used for resizing. This is a good vision for extending ease-of-resizing further. It would also force the priority of responsive design. Now that we all work at so many different resolutions, apps and sites should adapt seamlessly to resizing.
- joejohnson 15y agoI keep accidentally losing the window by dragging past the bottom of the "screen" and letting go.
- georgemcbay 15y agoWindows 7 allows you to do something similar. The window layout manager is smart enough not to let you push the window totally off the screen, but if you grab a window and pull it down under the taskbar (assuming the taskbar is in the default bottom position and does not autohide) in Windows 7, you're somewhat boned because while the window is still there, the taskbar's zorder makes it impossible to click on it to recover it. You can fix this situation by unlocking the taskbar (if it is locked) and moving it or by setting it to autohide, but neither of these things is a particularly intuitive move for the average user, I'd guess.
- dmn001 15y agoPressing alt-space, m followed by the arrow keys usually worked when I was using XP. On Windows 7 this is not an issue as the windows snap to the sides and top, and if you drag towards the bottom of the screen there are several pixels on the titlebar where you can only resize the window and not move it, it is really difficult to lose a window by dragging it as shown on the website.
- georgemcbay 15y agoIt is an issue in Windows 7, at least with default settings. As mentioned in the grantparent post, if you have a default taskbar setup (at the bottom, no autohide) you can very easily drag a window below the taskbar (because the taskbar is larger than the entire window titlebar), which might as well be off the screen because the zorder of the taskbar is greater than that of the window, so you can't interact with the window via the mouse until you move the taskbar or set it to auto-hide.
- dmn001 15y agoI just tried with the taskbar on the bottom, and I could not drag the mouse cursor below the top edge of the taskbar.
- jjcm 15y agoI work for Microsoft as a UX prototyper. This is actually not only cool, but useful. I'll forward this around internally.
- samstave 15y agoPlease do so. I also have this problem a lot (windows 7); Ill have Chrome or Acrobat open on my second display when docked at work. I sleep the machine, undock and head home. When I open it up, chrome or acrobat still maximizes to the now disconnnected second screen. I have no way to get it back. FN+F8 for projector control does nothing. neither does resleep or hibernate. Closing chrome doesnt work because it re-opens in the same place as last time. Only a reboot fixes this problem. I hate rebooting my machine. I go many weeks without rebooting and this always pisses me off. It would be better if you could right-click an app on the task bar and say "send to primary screen" or "send to secondary screen" there used to be this option, but only some-times, and I don't know why/where to find it.
- kooshball 15y agoyou can use win+shift+left or win+shift+right so move windows across monitors. it also works with win+left/right to move things to the left/right of one monitor and then again to jump across to another.
- samstave 15y agoPerfect - Thanks! Ill try that.
- lifeformed 15y agoIf you're not in Windows 7, you can also do this: Select the window with Alt-tab, press alt, up, left, M (not at the same time). Then use the arrow keys to move the window around as you choose. It doesn't work with a Chrome window though, since it seems to override those options.
- tonyarkles 15y ago
- brianpan 15y agoThis is a very cool idea and I definitely see the problem that it solves, but it also has the downside of not being a metaphor for something physical. It's a little strange to see these controls which are currently very anchored in the corner of the window to be moving and sliding around, especially when the view inside the window is scrolling off the screen. I could see people running into trouble when they've somehow moved the window partially obscuring controls. But if the controls are off the screen, I think it reinforces the idea that this "box" is a window into an application. It doesn't resize unless you grab an edge. (1) I don't mind making the tradeoff towards beginners understanding the computer when there are keyboard shortcuts for advanced users. (1) This is now worse in OS X from a metaphor perspective. Before you could only resize from the bottom-right where there was a gripper. Now you can resize from any outside edge and there are no grippers/indicators. http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars/4 http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.a...
- samstave 15y ago>...but it also has the downside of not being a metaphor for something physical. Sometimes though we need it to be a metaphor for what we intend or imply Rather than simply mirroring physical constraints in an unconstrained environment.
- fabricode 15y agoThis may not fail the metaphor test. Take a real folder in your hands and try to stuff in it a drawer which is too small. Your corner tab will stay in the corner while the rest gets "smushed". If anything, this makes it a bit more intuitive for the user as it avoids the confusion of losing controls because of an errant mouse drag.
- jsz0 15y agoOne possible solution to that problem is to animate the window squishing as it hits the side of the screen and contracts.
- jrockway 15y agoI solved this problem by not having window decorations and not allowing windows to be partially off-screen.
- ndcrandall 15y agoThis is really cool and I'd love to use it! The one thing I'd like to see is some more gap on the windows side when it is dragged all the way to the right. With some gap I wouldn't click close or minimize when trying to move it back. The mac has enough gap with the title.
- Jach 15y agoI'm not a fan, also I don't like the name--I was expecting something like Wobbly Windows, but more fluid-y instead of rubbery. (Someone should at least edit the HN title to the original title of Fluid Corners.) For the Windows version, dragging it pretty far to the right leaves essentially just the close button group left. So what if I want to drag it back? I'm incredibly more likely to accidentally click one of those buttons instead of correctly grab the tiny sliver of space to redrag. (Because when I drag things off-screen, I usually bring them back eventually, not to close them, but to use them.) This seems like a solution ot a non-problem. Do most people really close/minimize/maximize windows immediately after dragging them back fully on-screen?
- waxjar 15y agoI think the OS X version is a bit confusing, to be honest. There are too many elements sliding around and resizing. The problem it aims to fix is also still partially unsolved when the screen is dragged 'too far' (http://i.imgur.com/Q4Ktw.png http://i.imgur.com/Q4Ktw.png). The Windows version isn't confusing at all though (in its current implementation). I think this would be a really nice feature on Windows.
- kleiba 15y agoIt doesn't work for me, what is supposed to happen?
- sa1f 15y agoHere's a quick and dirty screencast http://screenr.com/QrB8 http://screenr.com/QrB8 Basically, parts of the UI that would be hidden when the window is off-screen, get moved inwards.
- jakeonthemove 15y agoI don't see how this could be useful - why would I drag a window outside of the viewable area? If I do, it's probably because I want it easily accessible but not obstructing other windows, so these buttons would make it harder to drag it back. For multiple monitors - the controls are dragged to the other monitor as well...
- jakeonthemove 15y agoI don't usually reply to myself, but when I do, I have a good reason :-). In this case, can anyone tell me how this fluid window could be useful, instead of just downvoting me? Thank you!
- mariusmg 15y agoThere are some little things called hotkeys........
- Derbasti 15y agoThat is a great idea! Even greater would be to extend this to a consistent way to manage windows whose title bar is above to upper screen edge. Both Windows and Mac OS try pretty hard to avoid this, but with two monitors it happens every now and then--especially when unpluggin/plugging the secondary monitor. Without the title bar, it can be really hard to get the window back on the screen. Usually involves, if possible, resizing the window so it shows on both screens or unplugging/re-plugging the secondary monitor.
- x3c 15y agoIn windows, it's easy. Press alt+<space> and then 'm' and then arrow keys till the window is in frame and finally 'enter' when you are done. Even easier is to use Win+<arrow keys> to get window to a particular boundary of the screen, but when you restore the frame, it will still be in the 'half out of screen' position.
- prewett 15y agoI really miss Linux's Alt-drag to move a window, which would fix this problem. I also wish MacOS and Windows actually let you move a window's titlebar offscreen.
- staunch 15y agoFYI: Someone did alt-dragging (and resizing) for Windows http://code.google.com/p/altdrag/ http://code.google.com/p/altdrag/
- sbmassey 15y agoWith the Mac, a lot of people (i.e. me) will have the Dock in the way when you drag off screen: keeping the window buttons onscreen wouldn't help much, since they'd be behind the Dock, and sliding the buttons to keep outside the Dock area would probably be too weird-looking.
- tcarnell 15y agogreat!
- tcarnell 15y agoI am amazed at how poorly modern keyboards support our highly visual modern user interfaces. Wouldn't the following keyboard buttons be generally REALLY useful: - Open - Close/Exit - Save - Copy - Paste - Menu (to list available context options) - Help (to show context help) - Maximize/Restore (toggle mode) - Info And the potentially very useful directional arrows keys are almost completely useless except when editing text (although game developers use them meaningfully) The keyboard is also littered with buttons whose function are designed specifically for text editing, not necesarily a bad thing, but when was the last time anybody actually reviewed the efficiency of the modern keyboard to discover if it is doing a good job or not!?!?!
- tcarnell 15y agoIf keyboards had these button by default, this would actually allow the user interfaces to be cleaned up and have a lot of these 'non-metaphorical' UI componentes removed - "closing a window", what is this a metaphor of? When I close a real window, it doesn't vanish, it just stops air getting inside!
- lusr 15y agoI always wondered this too. But I have a keyboard with these buttons (really just the Fn keys and an "alternative Fn" function lock key that sends the appropriate shortcuts to Windows) and I never use them. As a touch typist I find it too much of a distraction to move my fingers off the home row and end up sticking with the shortcuts. I'm not sure where else you could really put them without the same problem occurring. Maybe its time to cut our alphabet down to 19 letters and replace the bottom row of alphas with these functions.
- tcarnell 15y agoI have also used keyboards that have extra buttons for things like this, but somehow I have felt reluctant to make the effort to use them because they are not standard and most other keyboards dont have them, which would frustrate me more! Who is in charge of keyboard standards? If there isn't anybody, could we start a new keyboard layout organization!?!?
- rooofl 15y agoA not serious idea for a visual feedback http://cl.ly/2K2Z313C0d2C110F2c3q http://cl.ly/2K2Z313C0d2C110F2c3q