Deprioritize minimized windows in app switcher

[ur5us]

Budgie version

10.9.1

Use-cases

This feature request is based on the following Matrix discussion providing context:

Using Budgie on Solus, it used to be such that when you minimize/hide a window it’d go to the end of the list when switching between apps using Alt + Tab. That’s no longer the case and it’s annoying to no end. Is there a way to restore the previous behaviour?

@JoshStrobl:

The filtering is based on window activation times. The old implementation was similar, it putting minimized apps at the end was very much not an intended "feature" of it.
I could in theory implement as part of the sorting an option to deprioritize minimized windows, I'd consider that to be an acceptable feature request if you want to file it.

Proposal

Minimized windows should be placed at the end of the app switcher list when switching between apps via keyboard (e.g. Alt+Tab). Ideally, the icon is also greyed out or de-saturated to hint at its minimized state.

Justification: windows are usually minimized with the intent to get them out of the way (though I appreciate that there’s some nuance in the intent, s. next paragraph). At the moment, the window is minimized and the next window in the list is activated. Invoking the tab switcher tabbing once will un-minimize the previous window and activate it, somewhat defeating the purpose of minimizing it in the first place. One could have switched apps without minimizing with the same effect, i.e. activate the next window.

As mentioned, there’s some nuance in the intent which becomes evident when there’s a mix of maximized and un-maximized windows. In such a scenario, one probably wants to minimize a maximized window to de-clutter the screen when focuing/activating the next window in the list (assuming all other windows are minimized also). When all windows are maximized though, there’s no value in minimizing a window compared to just (tab) switching to it as it’ll take up all screen estate anyway.

References

As per the above quotes, this is how Budgie used to behave, unintentionally. It’s been a while that I’ve used it but I believe that’s how macOS’ app switcher works, also. IIRC, it supports both minimizing and hiding a window.