inconsistent identification regarding full-screen "sessions"

[Eben Eliason]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 6:49 PM, Mikus Grinbergs <mikus at bga.com> wrote:

> FYI - I am not writing a ticket at this time (until I can reproduce
> consistent misbehavior).  G1G1.  Joyride manually updated to 2216.
>

Fair enough.  It sounds like we need to tease it apart a bit first; there
might be 3 or 4 separate tickets lurking here...


>
> My biggest confusion arises because I __cannot visually tell__ which
> icon in the Frame top bar is associated with which running task.
>
> --------
>
> I did not want to tie up a whole Terminal session to a job which can
> peacefully run in the background -- so I normally start such a job
> (from Terminal) by appending '&' to the command.  Afterwards, I can
> enter other (foreground) commands using that same Terminal session.
>

So, first things first:  Is it appropriate to represent each process started
from a Terminal session as a separate "activity" in the Frame?  There are
definitely pros and cons. On one hand, they clearly aren't "activities" (or,
perhaps if they have GUI representations, they are?), and therefore don't
really belong as separate icons in the Frame, which are meant to represent a
unique virtual "place" which can be reached through the UI.  On the other
hand, having them appear there serves as a fairly nice task manager of sorts
(assuming, of course, we actually handle them in a logical and consistent
way such that they can be distinguished and stopped.


> Happened to call up Frame.  Noticed in the top bar a NUMBER of small
> dark circle icons.  Turned out that when I clicked on one of these
> small dark icons, the "frame top bar highlight" shifted to that icon
> (and a drop-down palette was shown, offering 'Resume' and 'Stop' --
> but not identifying what session/task that icon was for).
>
> Not wanting to have these small dark circle icons in my Frame top
> bar, I clicked on 'Stop' in the palette in several of them.  Did NOT
> see any of the small dark circle icons go away.  [But afterwards, I
> found out that my background job had received a signal 11.]
>

You mention that the 'Stop' action did terminate the process, but that
wasn't reflected (that's likely worth a ticket).  This is likely because
they didn't map to windows which could be closed (but I don't know any
details here).  What happens if you instead press 'Resume'?  Nothing?  Or do
you wind up back in the initial Terminal session?  If we choose to support
such processes in this manner, could 'Resume' be clever enough to reveal the
Terminal and fg the process? Would you want it to?

Speculation:  After I have started the background job, I start a
> full-screen (ported Linux) application from that same Terminal
> session.  If I now enter a sequence of alt-tab presses, sometimes I
> see just the full-screen application (in its proper place in the
> sequence of session screens being shown), but sometimes I see
> __BOTH__ the full-screen application and (on a SEPARATE screen in
> the sequence of screens) the Terminal session from which I launched
> the full-screen application.  I think it likely that when two
> screens get thus shown for what was just a single Terminal session,
> the "extra" screen (is it the 'full-screen'?  I don't know) gets
> represented in the Frame top bar as a small dark circle icon.


Could you clarify this a bit for me?  At what point do multiple screens
arise?  Do you mean: "sometimes when I launch multiple processes from a
Terminal session I get multiple icons in the Frame" or "sometimes, after I
launch multiple processes from a Terminal session, alt-tabbing /reveals/
multiple icons in the Frame"?

If my speculation happens to be true, then I see 3 inconsistencies:
>
>  -  If the full-screen application sometimes shows up as an "extra"
>     screen, and as an "extra" icon within the Frame top bar, it
>     should *always* show up that way.
>

Agreed.  Consistency is needed.  Either we support it, or we don't.  If we
do, we need to support the available actions ('Stop', 'Resume', etc.) or
remove them completely.

>
>  -  If running a full-screen application can cause an "extra" icon
>     on the Frame top bar, then when the full-screen application is
>     exited (goes away), its "extra" icon in the Frame top bar should
>     'go away" as well.  [Today my Frame top bar had a considerable
>     number of small dark circle icons, presumably created on earlier
>     occasions when I started (and stopped) that full-screen
>     application.  Yet at any one time I had run only a single
>     instance of the full-screen application, plus the one background
>     job.]
>

Yup.

>
>  -  If running a full-screen application can cause an "extra" icon
>     on the Frame top bar, then that icon should be *labeled* with
>     the name of the command that started that application.  [Also,
>     I normally have two Terminal sessions active -- but I have
>     filled in the "label" in the Application top bar to distinguish
>     between them.  Yet when I hover over the icons in the Frame top
>     bar, both say 'Terminal Activity' instead of using my labels.
>

Yeah, something like that would be ideal.  I'd also like to add that we
should probably come up with a better default icon for these cases, though
I'm not sure what that might be.  (That's definitely a ticket) Suggestions?

- Eben
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