Deduplicate multitasking views in Gala

[cassidyjames]

Gala is our window manager for elementary OS; it is responsible for placing windows, handling workspaces, and providing the multitasking features like tiling and alt+tab switching. While we are happy with the fundamental design of multitasking in elementary OS, there are some areas we've long wanted to address.

Multitasking Views

Right now we have the standard Multitasking View (Super+S or Super+Down) plus a window spread (Super+W). These are largely duplicated both interaction-wise and code-wise, with each having slightly different features.

We should standardize on the Multitasking View since it's just as fast but more useful, showing the window spread and workspaces, plus supporting keyboard navigation. Importantly, merging these interactions would reduce complexity and duplication in the codebase.

This issue is filed in detail at elementary/gala#798

Outcome

• A more featureful Multitasking View, especially for multi-display use cases
• Reduced complexity in Gala's separate multitasking views

Skills

A student tackling this will need to be comfortable developing on Linux with a comprehensive developer guide, or willing to learn quickly. They will also need to be able to learn how to modify an existing Vala codebase with help from our community of developers. Experience with Clutter or similar drawing code would be a huge help.

Access to multiple displays (e.g. a laptop + external monitor) is required.

[cassidyjames]

I would be happy to mentor this project. I've thought a lot about this problem and could help guide a student in the right direction.

[danirabbit]

I don't have a ton of Clutter knowledge, but I could help mentor this project as well and point the student in the right direction if something is outside my area of expertise :)