Comment 48 for bug 150690

On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 2:39 AM, allankelly <email address hidden> wrote:
> This is still present in 9.10. [...affecting...] first impressions.

Yes - depressing isn't it? However there doesn't appear to be a
clear-cut fix because of how the implementation of workspaces differs
from metacity to compiz. (oversimplifying a little but that appears to
be the gist of it; please don't take my word on this, however; take a
look at the code and make your own assessment - please!)

> This discussion has been underway for 2.5 YEARS and from a user
> perspective NOTHING has happened.

Well, I've done my best to ensure that this bug stayed open; there is
that. I've have coded a fix for it myself if I could see any light at
the end of any reasonable tunnel.

> If the tooltip is removed or amended to say how to move windows between
> desktops then the new-user damage is removed.

I personally think that approach is a bandaid as it doesn't solve the
real problem.

My take: if you can drag windows using the applet under metacity, you
should be able to do so under compiz. That end-user functionality is
darn handy, and I miss it. It deserves to work. (there, I said it.)

Compiz is simply failing to deliver on the existing workspace API that
metacity had implemented. Unlike some other interfaces that were
considered "standard" enough that they had to be implemented,
metacity's workspace API wasn't considered a "spec" that needed to be
adhered to. I believe a backwardly-compatibile interface could indeed
be implemented but no-one on the compiz team appears to be interested,
since not very much metacity code actually needs an interface to
workspaces.

One possible light at the end of a tunnel just a bit longer than I
care to traverse myself is the following. One workable solution would
be to code a brand new compiz workspace applet that ignores the
current codebase and simply uses the same gesture handling and
look-n-feel as the current applet, but interfaces with workspaces in a
fully compiz-compatible way like lots of other compiz-only components
do. (there are a myriad of effects available for workspace->workspace
transition rendering, for example)

If I was a college professor I'd have given this to a grad student as
a project some time ago. Maybe this message will do the trick, and
someone will pick up this ball and run with it?

> This is a serious reputational damage issue.

With that I agree fullheartedly. It's a UI blemish that's really
apparent to newbies and old-timers alike.

> Cheers, allan.

Thanks for your support and comments! Hopefully, ongoing dialog will
help bring a solution to bear.

Kind regards,
-Paul Reiber
Email: <email address hidden>
Web: http://bit.ly/reiber