How can I contribute a dock that can launch apps with Super + 1 ... N?

Thoughts & Feedback
#1

Hi everyone,

Mate is THE desktop environment, but it AFAIK it lacks a productivity feature: The ability to toggle between open windows with Super + 1, super + 2... etc. Sometimes I have many windows opened and sifting through them with ALT + TAB is very much annoying and unproductive.
Both Ubuntu and Kubuntu have said feature: If you have pinned say firefox to the first position of the dock, then Super + 1 will always jump to that app (and scroll through them if there are many opened instances).

I looked for that in Ubuntu but couldn't find it. Best I could do is assign a hotkey Super + 1 to Firefox browser, but it if you press it repeteadly it will keep launching new windows.

So two questions: Does this feature exist within Ubuntu Mate 20.04 somehow?
If it doesn't, is someone working on adding it? Can I help? Could someone point me to where to start?

Many thanks!

#2

You have the same target than i got some years back.
I don't think there is a existing solutions now.
However,
if i can advise you, give a try to workspace switcher (i'm using it and it do exactly what i wanted).
On Ubuntu Mate :
Add this applet to your panel :
image

Configure it :
image

You can give them names also :
image

I'm running 3x2 layout on my 10inch private PC and 3x4 on my professional PC.
I'm opening my windows on this workspaces, all the time at the same ones, and I"m switching between them with Ctrl + arrows.

It's not a solution for your issue, but a nice workaround :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks a lot for the workaround! I use the WS switcher for grouping apps like work/personal, etc. I haven't considered using them as you suggest.
It is a cool workaround indeed!

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