Major flaw with Spaces (and how well it is done in linux)

You do realise that you can simply drag a window to the edge of the screen to move it to another workspace, don't you?

I agree that it is not as convenient as a keystroke - but it is easier than holding the trackpad down while pressing a key combo!

 

The real problem is that Spaces is application-centric, not task-centric.

 

I think spaces is really still in its infancy and hopefully Apple will listen to people like yourself to add these improvements

 

I stumbled accross an app / preference pain plugin called warp...
http://www.ksuther.com/warp/
it means you can decrease the time you have to wait to switch spaces, and you can use the mouse to switch spaces.

I have to admit that spaces needs a bit of work, but it's still a great feature

 

I'm typing this on a Linux system that runs the Gnome desktop. The features you like are gnome features not Linux features. You can run Gnome on Solaris, BSD UNIX and yes even Mac OS X. May as well give due credit

Seeing as I'd been using Spaces-like virtual windows on UNIX-like systems for maybe 12 years now. I was curious to see how Apple implemented it. I wanted to see how Apple could improve on Gnome's ease of use. They didn't Gnome's virtual windows work better.

I find I use the virtual windows a lot more on my Solaris and linux systems than on the Mac

 

I was having problems with spaces today. I had 2 word documents open and wanted each to have their own space, while I had another space to do other work in. I couldn't put each separate document in its own window. I had to keep both in the same window because of it being the same program. It's just a little annoyance that I wish could be fixed.

 

Hm, I've found it easy to move applications around in Spaces just by using the click-hold on the application you want to move and pressing the keystroke for the Space you want to go to (Ctrl-1,2,3,4).

Personally, I wish there was a menu option for "Send to space 1 (or 2,3,4,5, etc.)" so it sends that particular application or window to another space without switching to that space (a feature which is in Gnome/Compiz).

 

While I generally like Spaces as a virtual desktop implementation better than the ones I've used in Linux, I agree that this is a flaw. If you'd really like to see it fixed, I suggest sending Apple your feedback:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

This is exactly the kind of positive criticism for improvement I'm sure they'd be happy to receive. You got me thinking, and I actually just sent them my own feedback on improving Spaces on this very topic, so if more people ask for this functionality, Apple will (eventually...) implement it.

Actually, this is a known bug with Word. Most applications you should be completely able to have several windows open across several, separate spaces. Try it with any fully Cocoa-compliant application. I just now put a second Safari window in Space #2 with my main Safari window in Space #1. That particular problem is Microsoft's own fault.

 

Actually, I think you'll find that this is more a feature of X11 and that you can do this with just about any window manager eg KDE, Enlightenment etc

I have been a Linux user for many years, and I think that Spaces definitely needs some serious work. It seems like most of the time was spent on the cosmetics of Spaces and not on the usability.

I actually have turned Spaces off now as I kept losing dialog boxes and palettes for Photoshop.

 

Exactly.

Until I can associate specific documents to different Spaces, it will be only of modest value.

 

It is nothing to do with X11. Each window manager or 'desktop environment' implements it themselves.

 

I'm sort of curious as to how in only one or two clicks, you can open the pane, choose which window you want, and move it to the desired space..Not saying Spaces is better the Linux alternatives; they've had more time to mature, and are quite a bit different in some cases, but, I'm just wondering how this works..I tried using the whole Beryl thing and stuff like that, and it's cool and everything, but it's kind of annoying in terms of productivity. Maybe I'm just too used to Spaces by now, but it's become quite speedy for me on my Macbook, even having to use the trackpad

 

how would a task-centric Spaces work? I can't visualize this.

 

The question is: Will this improvement be in the form of a 10.5.x update? Or a whole new operating system release. I can see the marketing now. "130 improvements, buy 10.6."

 

Spaces uses an application-centric model. You must demarcate work areas by program. So, you do Excel work in one Space, iTunes work in another Space, and Photoshop work in yet another Space. Fundamentally, this makes no sense at all and doesn't reflect how people actually work. I don't do "Excel" work. I do e.g. personal finances and Toastmasters.

Personal Finance uses Excel spreadsheets, MS Money in Parallels, and my bank's website.

Toastmasters uses Excel spreadsheets (club budget), Keynote, Pages, and some web pages for the Toastmasters.org website (club business).

While tasks generally share applications, they normally have unique documents. I use Excel for both Finance and Toastmasters, but I never open my Toastmasters club budget for personal finance. Likewise, I use Firefox for all activities, but certain websites are unique to their task. I'd never open my 401k website for Toastmasters business.

I want a system that associates individual documents with specific Spaces. I don't want to open Excel in an Excel Space. I want to open a personal finance spreadsheet and be taken to my personal finance space. And to put it together, I want a quick-launch Space system that tells it to open all commonly used Personal Finance documents for that Space -- and up comes Parallels with MS Money, my bank's website, and my personal finacen Excel spreadsheet.

Spaces is a little bit useful. But the paradigm is wrong in a basic way. Perhaps one day Apple or someone else will create a correct multi-space system.

 

Yes.

Bingo.

Here's an article (one of many) addressing the same key point.


This is precisely what makes Spaces next to useless. Virtual desktops should allow you to have multiple instances of an application open in multiple desktops, each existing independently of the other. This is how it works in Unix. This is how it works in Linux. This is how it works in Windows (with 3rd party apps like Yodm 3d, or Deskspace). However, in Spaces, applications are tied to the desktop in which they were originally opened. I don't fancy the VD manager whizzing me back and forth across desktops simply because I tried to open a fresh window in, say, Minefield. People don't work that way; it's like having all of your chairs in one room of the house, all of your computers in another, all your televisions in a third, and so on. Until Apple understands this, Spaces will remain more of a novelty than a feature most people will use.

 

I agree, that's how Spaces feels like compared to other implementations of virtual desktops. I use Spaces all the time on my MacBook (curse that small screen) and it reminds me "virtual viewports"... Long ago when Linux was still young, the display adapter could only display at low resolutions; but you could have a desktop that is larger than the displayed resolution. You would pan the viewport, i.e. the visible area, around your desktop to see everything that's on there.

Although using Spaces with Exposé makes window management a joy! Looking at thumbnails of my windows to find the window I want is so much easier than looking at text in the taskbar. Text there always seem to be truncated/joined with ellipsis. Tell me again which "Mac F...fox" do I want?

 

Spaces isn't a virtual desktop. It's actually a window management system. Killmoms was the first to point out the difference here.

 

Here's a way to make Spaces task-based, rather than app-based:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2008021122525348