[Deskbar] opt in for history widget back on main button

["Valent Turkovic" <valent turkovic gmail com>]

Hi,
I haven't seen this being discussed in history of mailing list, if it
was please point me to old posts.

I have been using deskbar applet for over a year now on my Fedora Core
6 and I love it!
It makes my workflow much faster and enjoyable. For me it is much
faster typing a name of a program in deskbar or choosing it from
history with two mouse clicks than looking through gnome applications
menu... deskbar way is probably ten times faster.

I love deskbar and I really appreciate all the hard work you guys/gals
have put into it - that makes writing this email even harder but I
believe that constructive criticism is needed for every project - and
even more for those we users love using.

So don't take this the wrong way I love you and what you have done, I
just see space for improvement - or not :)

On Fedora Core 6 deskbar is at version 2.17.2 and the latest version
on Fedora 8 is 2.20.2

I have one big issue regarding new version of deskbar and that is the
design of the deskbar button that sits in gnome panel. Older version
has a history arrow beside the main button and that is what I used the
most, the newer version doesn't and it slows down workflow because
there is now one more click away (and you need to wait to see where
will the search widget popup this time).

I understand if you wanted s new interface for new version of deskbar
but you can still leave the option for users (in preferences) that
want to have history button beside main deskbar button.

I took screenshots to compare and then I even noticed huge difference
in how deskbar is displayed on the screen, and I find old version
much, much more nicer and usability friendly.

Let's compare them a bit, I'll show you screenshots and my opinion
will be under links of screenshots.


Search widgets for both new and old deskbar:

http://bayimg.com/JaiLIAabn
http://bayimg.com/JAilGAaBN

New widget has titlebar and close button like a window, and it can be
moved. I feel like this is not needed for a search widget. New search
widget pops up in the left cornet of desktop beneath gnome panel but
if you move it next time it pops up from the last place you closed it.
This is confusing and not needed.
Old deskbar widget just pops up under desbar button and looks and
feels more usable (look at the screenshots) and doesn't have history
list and a "clean history" button and that makes it look much cleaner
and usability friendlier.


History widget on old deskbar and on new deskbar.

http://bayimg.com/JaIljaabN
http://bayimg.com/jAILHAabn

When you want to repeat some action from history first you have to
click once on the deskbar applet button, then you have to search
around the desktop or guess where will the search widget popup, then
you have to click history list... this is much worse workflow and much
worse usability that the old deskbar applet was.
When you click on the history button it goes over everything including
gnome panels and search widget - and that looks just horrible (look at
the screenshot).
Old deskbar history widget has a much cleaner looking interface and
you need only to click one and you see it immediately, and it doesn't
draw over gnome panel.


Thank you for reading this long email and please remember that I love
deskbar and I really appreciate the hard work you have put into this
great project! I fight for it to be on by default in Fedora 9 Live
edition because I really think it is fabulous.

Valent from Croatia.

-- 
http://kernelreloaded.blog385.com/
linux, blog, anime, spirituality, windsurf, wireless
registered as user #367004 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org.
ICQ: 2125241, Skype: valent.turkovic