Honestly, my usual idea is to kill SystemWindows.  :)  They should be
regular morphs, and not privilaged.  All morphs have delete, menu, and
minimize options nowadays.  All morphs have a title nowadays.  So why do
we have SystemWindows?

In addition to being unnecessary, they have some annoying problems:

	1. Click-to-raise is currently buggy, and of questionably value IMHO. 
Why not just have click-to-pickup as normal?

	2. The fact that system windows don't embed properly is
counterintuitive and IMHO unelegant.  A better solution to this problem
is to disallow drops into a PasteUpMorph unless the dropped item's
bounds fit entirely in the PUM's inner bounds.  This tweak is intuitive,
simple, and extends to other large morphs, too.


Furthermore, I don't really like the feel of any of the existing lists
plus text-box system windows, anyway.  They make sense in MVC, but in
Morphic we can do much better.  In Celeste, for example, it is very
frustrating that I can only have one browsing context at a time.  In a
file list, the way files are spawned off is odd -- again, why can't I
just tear off a file, instead of hunting through a menu or remembering
alt-o?  System Browsers have several variations, that are spawned with
various menu items; it's okay, but it can be better.

In all of these cases, it would work to have a list plus a display area
to the side of the list.  When you select an item, a morph pops up in
the display area to show what the item looks like.  If you select a
different item, the display area is cleared and another morph is added. 
If you drag the morph from the display area, then you have effectively
made a new browser for that subarea.

This is admittedly a lot of work, and so it's not going to happen soon. 
But in general, once you replace file list's, browsers, inspectors,
debuggers, and celeste's current UI, there aren't too many system
windows left to worry about, are there?


Lex


"Jim Benson" <jb at speed.net> wrote:
> Lex,
> 
> I have a couple of ideas in this area, but my guess is that you already have
> a few yourself. Could you expound a little here please?
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> > This sounds wonderful!  Have you thought about how non-SystemWindow
> > morphs will fit into your system?  Currently, SystemWindows plus
> > non-SystemWindows don't work so wonderfully together.
> >
> >
> > Lex
> >
> >