Fullscreen vs. reading mode

[Daniel]

On 2020-07-21 00:16, Pavel Sanda wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 12:01:57AM +0200, Jean-Marc Lasgouttes wrote:
>> Le 20/07/2020 ?? 22:49, Pavel Sanda a écrit :
>>> On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 09:39:35PM +0200, Daniel wrote:
>>>> Or maybe fullscreen functionality should be completely distinguished from
>>>> the read mode. So one can choose either of them separately from the menu,
>>>> e.g. one can even hide UI elements without entering fullscreen mode.
>>>>
>>>> I'd be happy to take a look at the implementation, if there are no
>>>> objections. But please object if you see things differently.
>>>
>>> I haven't yet understood what is the problem.
>>> LyX has it's own, more configurable fullscreen mode and window managers
>>> have their own generic version, e.g. my WM understand fullscreen as
>>> maximize window and kill all window decorations.
>>> Is your main issue merely that we call it fullscreen and not reading mode?
>>
>> I think we could decide to limit screen width of hide some things
>> independently from being in full screen.
> 
> Not GUI yet but IIRC you can define any command sequence with ui-toggle commands.
> My association with 'Reading mode' implies more read-only functionality than
> some specific about visibility of UI elements.
> Pavel
> 

No, my issue is not at all with terminology. I just call it that way to 
distinguish for lack of better terms. I agree that reading mode isn't 
good. How about "focus mode" instead?

I don't have Linux, so it might be that some WMs react very differently 
from macOS. So, your WM has a dedicated fullscreen function to send any 
application into fullscreen. However, it surprises me that your WM knows 
what's best to hide when you go into fullscreen. It seems strange that 
whenever you go into fullscreen elements get hidden. What if you want to 
"work as usual" but in fullscreen. Or is whether UI elements get hidden 
globally configurable in your WM? Are you using a Qt based WM? Actually, 
are you sure that your WM hides all window decorations in other 
applications or is it just in LyX? I am curious what happens if you turn 
off hiding the UI elements in the LyX preferences and enter fullscreen 
via your WM in LyX (e.g. via a your WM's fullscreen 
button/menu/shortcut) or alternatively via the LyX fullscreen menu.

Anyway, maybe what I am seeing does not affect all WMs, e.g. only macOS. 
MacOS has a dedicated fullscreen (and also splitscreen) mode that lets 
you put any application into fullscreen. However, this is just a way to 
work on different fullscreens with single applications. So, one does not 
want anything hidden but work as usual on one's documents. For example, 
if I am writing in a document and have a PDF I am reading on the side, 
then I enter splitscreen mode so that I have no overlap with other 
windows and can use the screen space effectively. But I still want to be 
able to see all the UI elements, e.g. tabs, because otherwise it gets 
hard to navigate my documents.

I know that I can just set to show those elements in the fullscreen 
preferences. It might be an option to set all those elements to not hide 
by default in LyX (at least on macOS), so one gets the expected result.

But then one loses what I call "focus mode" (formerly referred to as 
"reading mode"). So, my idea was to distinguish these two modes and be 
able to use them independently. One configurable "focus mode" and one 
fullscreen mode. The latter just sends the window into fullscreen and is 
what happens when one uses the WM's dedicated fullscreen functionality.

Yes, I think being able to limit line-width and hiding of UI elements 
(e.g. hide all toolbars at once) would be nice also in 
non-fullscreen/focus mode. However, my concern currently is just that UI 
elements should not be hidden (by default at least) in the WM's 
dedicated fullscreen mode (at least on macOS).

Daniel