Re: View modes: more precision on fullscreen

On Nov 9, 2009, at 16:41 , Marcos Caceres wrote:
>>> That would be 'application', but not maximized.
>>
>> Uh, but those can be two different windowing modes, with the chrome
>> subtly different and different behaviour (e.g. the window can't be
>> dragged if maximised).
>
> That's UA/OS dependent.

How it is implemented is UA/OS/UI dependent, but it doesn't mean that  
there isn't a semantic difference. The differences are:

   - show me alongside other apps (windowed mode)
   - show me, no other app, but keep the OS UI (maximised)
   - show me, and nothing else (fullscreen)

I'm happy for implementers to map the values we list to whatever makes  
sense on their platform, but we need to at least have a vocabulary  
that covers the more common modes. All versions of Windows in recent  
memory as well as most Linux windowing managers support the three  
levels above, only OSX believes that it's a good idea to annoy people  
who are two pixels off in clicking on the scrollbar. Without the three  
levels above, we can't capture the most usual windowing semantics.

>> Or are you thinking about this in terms of the broken OSX UI that  
>> can't
>> tell the difference? If so, I strongly object — it's a usability  
>> nightmare.
>
> Exactly, so stop imposing your dirty Vi command-line view of the  
> world on the rest of us, Robin! :)

Actually, I'm thinking of usable click-and-drool UIs as my primary use  
case.

> But seriously, I don't think we need to get to the level where we  
> are specifying behavior.

No, but we do need a level of semantic description that matches  
typical UIs.

-- 
Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/

Received on Monday, 9 November 2009 16:48:49 UTC