Appearance: Remove Indicator Dots from Running Apps

[lainsce]

This PR completely removes all code related to drawing the indicator dots and functions relying on them.

[pongloongyeat]

I'm sorry but what's the merit in removing the indicator dots? How would the user be able to tell if there is a running app?

[lainsce]

I'm sorry but what's the merit in removing the indicator dots? How would the user be able to tell if there is a running app?

It would make the dock become a hub for pinned applications, delegating the view of what's open or not to the little boxes of icons for each workspace in Multitasking View. It's a better UX that doesn't duplicate jobs between parts. If the Multitasking View didn't have those running app boxes, then this would be useless, indeed.

Further clarification would need the input of the @elementary/ux team.

[Blast-City]

Does this mean that the dock will be just for launching apps? What happens to the the middle scroll? Left click on an already open app?

I get the idea, but, unless it's a secret, it would be nice to get a more detailed explanation of how it works.

[lainsce]

The thing to ask is, what do you use the scroll function for that can't be done otherwise?

As for the Left Click, it stays whether the app is open or closed, since there's not differences there.

[Blast-City]

The thing to ask is, what do you use the scroll function for that can't be done otherwise?

As for the Left Click, it stays whether the app is open or closed, since there's not differences there.

Hi.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of removing the middle scroll. That shortcut only seems to work on windowed apps. I like how Unity did it or the hover to preview open windows plugin, but that doesn't seem to be the path that elementary is going.

I was just asking because I think this will completely change the way that an user acts in some situations. Just think of the following scenario:

You open a browser and you need to make a calculation. You click on the calculator dock icon. A hour goes by and you create a new workspace to work on a document. You need to do another calculation, but you don't remember that you open it before and there is no dock indicators. You reach for the dock and click on the calculator icon again. What happens?

A- Does it open a new calculator accomplishing what you want, but making it slower to use the dock to select apps on other workspaces since you have to use the multitasking view for this.

B- It switches to the first workspace and bring the calculator forward making you do an extra step by moving the calculator to the second workspace in order to use it in front of the document.

Right now, as soon as you reach for the dock you know that you have to use the right click in order to open a new window of an already running app.

Again, I'm not disagreeing, I'm just trying to understand how it will work.

[lainsce]

From what I could see of the ideas behind this (being that I'm only a volunteer), is that the dock will never show running apps, only pinneds; so you do need to use the multitasking view for finding opened apps. But it's still pre-alpha on what the UI will look like going forwards on the Multitasking View to adapt to this new mindset.

[jeremypw]

Converting to draft as it is not linked to a confirmed issue and there is no evidence that the UX team has been consulted for approval. There is not a lot of point reviewing the code in these circumstances.

[Blast-City]

Does this mean that #61 can be reopen?

[Akryum]

I hope this won't become reality, it's really nice being able to use the dock for multitasking, especially when it's always visible.

[danirabbit]

Thanks for this branch! We're doing a fresh rewrite and this pull no longer applies to the new main

[Akryum]

Did you decide to add back the opened indicator after the study?