Exploring Modal Locking in Window Manipulation: Why Programmers Should Stash, Duplicate, Split, and Link Composite Views

Abstract

Window manipulation plays a vital role in multi-tool user interaction, especially for programmers exploring software artifacts, gathering information for better understanding. However, today’s window managers offer only limited means to organize screen contents, which increases cognitive efforts for both tool builders and users. Builders must account for live integration of composite views; users might have to work around disruptive mode errors when actual tasks conflict with a tool’s design. We follow a pattern-finding approach and present four new verbs for direct window manipulation, which we consolidated from existing tools and systems. If window managers would offer to stash, duplicate, split, and link views, we believe that programmers could better maintain flow during exploration activities.