Re: [Deskbar] new deskbar UI

["Colin Walters" <walters redhat com>]

Before I reply inline here - I realized my last mail was kind of excessively negative.  Or maybe un-positive.  Anyways I just wanted to say that the work on the latest deskbar is very cool.  I don't think the app/quicksilver style approach is wrong, but it's different and leads to a different program.

Also after looking at Nigel's post I realized I should have read the blog...most of this came up before. Sorry for rehashing =/

On 8/29/07, Sebastian Pölsterl <
marduk k-d-w org> wrote:

AFAIK, you can enter a complete command, like you would enter it in a
terminal, into the Alt-F2 dialog and execute it. This is currently not
possible with Deskbar.

True...though I doubt many people pass arguments. 

You could of course remove the applet. But I think it's more difficult
to discover when you have to press Alt+F3 to bring up Deskbar when
there's no sign (the icon on the panel) that something like that exists.

I think for most normal computer users, pretty much all icons are impossible to understand.  Not just the deskbar one, but even like the Reload button in the web browser.  How did we learn to click it?  I think a lot of the time it's having someone else tell us what they do.  Or, you build the association between the website from software you installed. 

So I guess I could imagine one person saying to another "Hey, this icon shows a search dialog".  But even then - you don't actually want people to click anything to start searching, because it's kind of awkward.  First, the icon is not a large target.  Second, once you do click, you have to move your hand from the mouse to the keyboard to start typing.

Try it now!  Pretend you're someone new to computers and forget you know about the Alt-F3 keybinding.  Use deskbar only by clicking the applet icon.

What if instead of being an applet, a "Quick launch..." menu entry was in the "Places" menu in GNOME?

> So, are there any plans to keep the ability to have a visible search box?
>
There are no plans to bring back the old UIs. However, as you can see
the entry is still there, but not in the panel. As I already told you I
would help to make it as easy as possible for big-board to make use of
the new deskbar. I already wrote a very rough sketch how that might look
like (see attachment). You can then place the entry, the list of matches
and the list of actions wherever you want. If that's not want you want,
just tell me. I'm sure we find a solution.

Ah, interesting!  I'll have a look at this when I get into work.  Thanks!