Application window geometry specifier

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 11:53 AM Python <python at bladeshadow.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 10:07:23AM +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 10:02 AM Igor Korot <ikorot01 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > But for my dialogs (especially for dialogs where I need to ask for
> > > credentials) - I don't think I want
> > > WM to do my job.
> > >
> > > Again - we are talking positioning here and not size/client size.
> > >
> >
> > And I don't think I want you to do the WM's job.
> >
> > You're welcome to keep going to great effort to do the wrong thing,
> > but be aware that nobody will appreciate the work you're doing, and in
> > fact are more likely to curse you for it. Just save yourself a LOT of
> > hassle and let the WM do its job. It knows the user's wishes better
> > than you do.
>
> I think this is quite very, very far from true.  It's been a while
> since I've used such tools, but I believe it is or was quite common
> for large, integrated applications like DAWs, graphical design
> software, etc. to remember where you placed your various floating
> toolbars and add-ons (and even much more detailed state about how
> you'd set the various widgets in them), and that users of such
> applications expect that.
>

Have you actually done any research by (a) asking people what they
actually prefer, and better still (b) silently watching over someone's
shoulder and seeing which one makes people more productive?

The results will differ based on whether the user in question has
basically just one primary application (an IDE, or some gigantic app
like Adobe PhotoShop) that they spend all their time in, or if they're
using myriad different applications. Especially in the latter case, it
is far FAR better to put control in the user's hands than to try to
make the monopoly position work. Of course, if you are a big enough
name (like Apple, especially), you can do whatever you like, and
people just have to accept it. That's a monopoly for you, and there's
no evidence that it's better, just that people learn to live with it.

ChrisA