Auto-grouping Evicted Application Windows
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often experience loss of carefully arranged application windows due to system or user activities, leading to wasted time and effort in reconfiguring them, as existing windowing systems do not effectively manage groups of windows or allow for logical manipulation.
Innovation Solution
The development of techniques for automatically forming groups of application windows, which are evicted from the display, allowing users to interact with these groups through a user interface that displays graphic indicators, enabling users to recreate the original window layout and manage them similarly to individual windows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If windowing systems allow multiple application windows to be concurrently displayed, then user productivity is improved, but user arrangement effort is wasted when windows are evicted from the display
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically detecting when application windows are evicted from the display and proactively forming groups of those windows before the user needs to restore them. The window manager monitors eviction events and creates groups in advance, so when the user needs to restore windows, the grouping is already established and ready for quick restoration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - the window manager - that acts as a mediator between the user's window arrangement efforts and the system's window management. This intermediary automatically detects evictions, forms groups, and provides restoration capabilities, thereby protecting the user's arrangement effort without requiring direct user intervention in the grouping process.
2Ease of operation
If windowing systems provide basic window management functions, then ease of operation is improved, but ability to manage groups of windows as a logical set is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by enabling the window manager to perform multiple functions: it continues to provide basic window management operations while simultaneously adding the capability to detect evictions, form groups of windows, and provide restoration functionality. The same window manager that handles individual window operations now also manages groups of windows as a logical set.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the functionality of individual window management with group management capabilities. By combining the detection of window evictions with the formation of groups and the provision of restoration operations, the patent creates a unified window management system that handles both single windows and groups of windows through integrated mechanisms.
3Speed
If application windows are evicted from the display due to system or user activity, then system responsiveness is improved, but user arrangement layout is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection and grouping actions immediately when window eviction occurs. The window manager detects the eviction event and automatically forms groups of evicted windows, preserving the arrangement layout information before the user needs to restore them. This preliminary action prevents the loss of arrangement information while maintaining system responsiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the window manager continuously monitors window eviction events and provides feedback by forming groups and making them available for restoration. This feedback loop ensures that when windows are evicted, the system not only responds quickly but also preserves and presents the arrangement layout information for easy restoration.
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are techniques for automatically forming groups of application windows. The techniques may be performed with a computing device executing a windowing system, the windowing system having a user interface element that can be interacted with by a user to manage applications executing on the computing device. Each application may correspond to a separate process and application window. It may be determined that an operation has occurred that will evict the application windows of target applications from the display, and in response an application group may be automatically formed. The application group may have indicia of the evicted target applications. The application group may be provided to the user interface element, and when the user interface element is interacted with by the user the user interface element displays user-selectable graphic application indicators for both the application group and applications other than the target applications.