Scale usability enhancement suggestions

[_jz]

First of all, congratulations for all the great work done on compiz-fusion. it feels like a mature application, and i bet it required lots of humble and intelligent decisions for both teams to merge. another proof of maturity !

I love using the scale plugin, and especially the 2nd button to zoom and see what's happening on a window, without having to switch to it. (is this download over ? is there any new mail in my mailer? etc.)

what i think would be great would be to integrate the behaviour it had in beryl with the "accept input"option, in that specific mode. maybe by enabling it in the config, but imagine:

- you get into scale
- you right-click a window to zoom it
- any key you press are redirected directly to that window.

then you can change tracks in your media player, launch a command in a console or recall previous command, accept something on a dialog, etc...and then go back to what you were doing. what would you think ?

plus, the current mode "hold the scale button then release it to go to normal" is good, but what about giving the possibility to have "click the scale button to enter scale mode, then click it again to exit" ? for people working constantly with the zoom feature, requiring to click an additional button, (or who don't like to hold buttons pushed ;) maybe with that "input enabled mode", it could be more handy ?

[delfick]

this has been a feature wanted for soooooooo long :D (back since compiz-quinnstorm days)

when we finally get input redirection (which apparently will be soon)

this will happen :D

[Deciare]

I wonder if input redirection is really necessary to implement what _jz requested? Since he was talking about interacting with windows in zoomed-in mode (i.e. after right-clicking on them) (or am I mistaken?), there's no input that needs to be redirected... A window in zoomed in mode looks exactly as it does normally, and isn't transformed in any way.

The window could temporarily be (really) moved into the centre of the screen, where users can do what they will with it. Then upon exiting Scale mode or un-zooming the window, move the window back to where it was prior to entering Scale mode.


With regard to the odd behaviour when entering or exiting Scale mode with key/mouse bindings, a [url=https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11331:4f98a]bug report[/url:4f98a] has been submitted to Bugzilla at freedesktop.org, but no one is working on it yet.

[delfick]

I wonder if input redirection is really necessary to implement what _jz requested? Since he was talking about interacting with windows in zoomed-in mode (i.e. after right-clicking on them) (or am I mistaken?), there's no input that needs to be redirected... A window in zoomed in mode looks exactly as it does normally, and isn't transformed in any way.

The window could temporarily be (really) moved into the centre of the screen, where users can do what they will with it. Then upon exiting Scale mode or un-zooming the window, move the window back to where it was prior to entering Scale mode.


With regard to the odd behaviour when entering or exiting Scale mode with key/mouse bindings, a [url=https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11331:f49e0]bug report[/url:f49e0] has been submitted to Bugzilla at freedesktop.org, but no one is working on it yet.


they could, just like they did with keyboard support during scaling in beryl, but afaik, the devs don't want to do stuff with that untill they can do it properly........please correct me if i'm wrong :D

[Deciare]

I don't understand how using input redirection to work with windows that aren't transformed is the "proper" way. It seems rather like unnecessary overhead. If we wanted to work with windows that were Scaled but not zoomed in, that would be a more proper application for input redirection.

[jug]

[quote:f44bc]I don't understand how using input redirection to work with windows that aren't transformed is the "proper" way.[/quote:f44bc]
Don't hit me if that explanation is wrong...
I think that's because of the nature of compiz and the way scale works. The X-window-system is responsible for input/output etc. So every window hat a position in the X environment (on the Desktop) and every click is redirected to the application that occupies that area. In Compiz every window is stored as a texture and that texture is used to create all the fancy effects. That means that if you see the Windows in scale they don't actually move to these coordinates - but the textures move. The x-server doesn't know about all this, there is no "physical" representation of the window there, just a fullscreen overlay of scale. So to redirect your clicks -in the scale-overlay- to the correct window/application, we need input redirexction in Xorg.
I'm not sure about all the technical details but that is what I think how it's done. It seems plausible for me ;)

[drdaz]

As the OP says, congratulations on a great job.

I'd just like to add that I think the option of being able to use the Scale plugin as it was in beryl (ie not having to hold the full shortcut combo down to remain in it) is a must. I like using Ctrl+Alt+Button6 as my shortcut to the Window Picker for all windows, and holding button 6 down while finding a window is rather troublesome.

In fact, if the behavior for the 'Button' shortcut could be similar to the 'Key' shortcut, it would work fine too - using the Key shortcut, you can release the specified key (by default Up), and as long as you hold down the first buttons in the combo (by default Ctrl+Shift), you remain in Window Picker mode.

Thanks again,
/drdaz

[gimmic]

Would there be a way to set a hotspot that scales in all windows of a specific title / application on all deskops?

Example: I work in a lot of terminals and I'm wanting to use lowerleft to scale ALL current terminals at once.

I currently use ALL window scale in lower right.

[maniac]

Would there be a way to set a hotspot that scales in all windows of a specific title / application on all deskops?

Example: I work in a lot of terminals and I'm wanting to use lowerleft to scale ALL current terminals at once.

I currently use ALL window scale in lower right.
You can use the scalefilter plugin for that. Initiate scale for all desktops and just start typing your terminal window title :)

[grndslm]

I agree completely with _jz's ideas. Didn't Beryl already have this feature before? I could have sworn I had this feature a while back, but not in Compiz-Fusion. Shame...

[delfick]

I agree completely with _jz's ideas. Didn't Beryl already have this feature before? I could have sworn I had this feature a while back, but not in Compiz-Fusion. Shame...

yes we could type in the windows in scale mode in beryl

but they're not gonna give back that feature untill we get input redirection

it will happen eventually, just not for a little while
(can't wait till then, so many possibilities will open up :D)