V2 AD docking 3 columns of panels

[Gear maker]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

That is exactly what I expect to happen -- after all, if it is sized to the full screen size & it was over the toolbars & panels, how could you access them?

Then are you saying that in non-Separated mode the full screen is not acting correct?  I know you aren't it's just that it's not useable in Separated mode.  There were several other things that were awkward in Separated mode, but I've learned to live with them, because unlike loukash I still like Separated mode so much more than non-Separated mode so I stuck with it.  Being able to easily go out and sample the color from something outside AD was so handy.  Being able to have 3 columns of panels that went all the way to the top of the screen was handy.  Resizing the canvas as needed was handy.  I bet I resize the canvas area a few times every day for one reason or another.  I just find non-Separated mode feels restrictive.  Having it being missing from V2 will possibly stop me from going to V2.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Gear maker said:

Then are you saying that in non-Separated mode the full screen is not acting correct? 

Nope, just that in Separated Mode it does exactly what the tooltip says it does, which is to open the document to the full screen size. I believe that is the intended behavior because otherwise it would cover the panels & toolbars if it opened in front of them, making them impossible to access.

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, loukash said:

The point is that the document window zoom should respect the toolbars and panels, and expand only in the free area. 

But what if I actually want the window to go to completely fill the screen? As it is, I can move the toolbars & panels if I need to, but usually I just scroll around and/or resize the document in the window, then go back to non-separated mode when I want.

[lacerto]

7 hours ago, loukash said:

That could even be a patent issue. I vaguely remember many years ago Adobe sueing someone over dockable palettes.

If they ever did, I bet they lost the case. It seems a bad guy is needed, and if Microsoft is not available then Adobe will do. Once Apple sued Microsoft on windows (even if windowed UI, as is well known, never was an Apple invention), and of course lost, because Microsoft showed that Windows is all about windows, each and every control is a window with full message and event handling addressable from anywhere [which was unique and different from Apple windowing; the rest being either legally licensed or independent implementations of ideas that cannot be copyrighted]. Perhaps that explains why this is so handless still in macOS versions of Affinity apps. And it just got worse with v2: not being able to detach the main document window is just incomprehensible, it makes the whole idea of detached windows more or less useless, especially combined with restrictions on window sizes. It is not great on Windows (in Windows standards), either, but totally useable [e.g., any number of studio panels can be attached both left and right, all document windows can be detached and much more freely sized than on macOS, and studio presets simply just work, and have conveniently well working default shortcuts].

As a reference, just see how lousy windowing and docking is in CorelDRAW macOS version compared to the Windows version, which is of course a mature product, but docking has been there for ages -- since version 8, in 1997, the same year Illustrator 7 was released, and just having a look on the screenshots, it does not appear that Corel had to learn anything from Adobe in creating a UI:

Anyway, this is how it is on Windows (this is from the latest version on Windows 11 but it has been like this probably for a decade or so):

And this is how it is on macOS Ventura. The app is a native slick M1 app, but pretty austere otherwise, much like e.g. Pages. I am sure it meets Apple Human Interface Guidelines:

As can be seen from the Windows version clip, most of the controls are dockable/detachable, and when docked, can be dynamically sized; all docks are expandable/collapsible, can be placed within any docking frame, workspaces can be saved (imported and exported), you can have any number of dockable controls attached to all four sides of the main window. In addition, actual document windows can be detached or docked but still tiled to share the available workspace dynamically, or just detach e.g. a single window while keeping the other document windows docked and tiled and dynamically resizable. Toolbars are fully customizable, as are palettes, etc. etc. Corel certainly knows how to create a customizable workspace, but it must be very hard on macOS, even if doable as can be seen not only from Adobe apps but e.g. from apps like FontLab 8.

I do not think that anyone creating a customizable UI with dockable dynamical controls needs to be afraid of being sued of what they have achieved… On Windows, at least, these kinds of features and UI automation are in-built, and available both natively and within frameworks. It is just a question of being able to use them.