@Vlad I see now. I didn't know that "restore" was different than "switch to window".
I would argue that restore and switch to window serve the exact same purpose and therefore do not need to be distinguished. as a user, I want to access a different Window, wether the Window is going to load from disk or is already loaded makes no difference from a usage perspective. The only other usage distinction that I see is what to do with the current window; keep it or close it?
Therefore. I suggest that "restore" and "switch to Window" be both renamed to just one word (eg: "open" or "view window"). and instead just add a little text after the window name to indicate if it has already loaded or not. like so:
note: (opened) and (loaded) both mean the same thing and are just examples of how we could phrase it that a tab is in not on disk
So basically in the screenshot this means that:
- the user is currently in Window 1
- Work window is saved in iCloud but isn't loaded (on disk)
- Email and Reading are already open but are not in focus
if we do that then there will be no user confusion when we add a new list entry that basically switches to the desired window but also close the current one.
Vlad To match Safari it would need to somehow "hide" the window, while keeping it in RAM. This way if the user switches back, context of the tabs is preserved.
If I'm not mistaken, Safari doesn't keep the "hidden" window in RAM forever. I can confirm this if it makes a difference. I clearly remember safari re-loading every tab from a saved tab group because I hadn't opened it in a while, so my understanding is that after some inactivity interval Safari just dumps the "hidden" Window to prevent using resources unnecessarily.
if you're concerned about losing form data when a saved Window is closed (and it's a very valid criticism of safari tab groups) but are also concerned about keeping Orion as fast and lightweight as possible, then this solution might work: basically we'll have an dropdown option in Orions preferences under Browsing
that says:
Preserve Window Tabs:
- auto (recommended)
- preserve tabs context
- destroy after window close (less resource heavy)
the auto option will preserve tab context (aka: save in RAM) for 15 minutes of inactivity only if the Window is closed using the "switch and close current window (whatever it will be called)" button. But if the user closes the window with the red x
button or cmd-w
then we don't preserve the context (expected intuitive behavior).
PS: some parts might be rough around the edge, please feel free to clarfy any part
This is turning into a big feature suggestion, what a refinement 😄