2.4 features to consider

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Hi,

Some random things that really need doing that maybe aren't obvious
(and that aren't already mentioned say in the GTK 2.4 plan, or already
worked on that I know of). I'm not mentioning trivial bugs/annoyances,
these are all projects rather than just bugfixes or minor feature
tweaks, though some are larger projects than others:

 - MIME system. A spec needs to be documented on xdg-list, 
   and it has to be implemented. A #1 UI issue right now.
   (Rather than calling this "MIME system" the UI-focused name 
   might be "opening the right app when you double click")

 - Lock down mode. Especially for the panel, we need to think 
   about how this works. There was a thread about it 
   I started a while back:

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-November/msg00265.html

 - Unifying/fixing "launchers." The launcher editor sucks UI-wise, and
   can't be invoked on a nautilus launcher, among other issues.
   For many people launchers are the main point of both nautilus 
   and the panel, this needs to be better.

 - Make logging in multiple times on the same machine work. 
   Right now if you have a desktop session and a VNC session, 
   nautilus etc. get confused. I believe it's bad scoping 
   of component activation (machinewide instead of per-session), 
   but who knows really. A related thing but just a bugfix
   is to make GCONF_LOCAL_LOCKS=1 the default for gconf, 
   see gconf home page, blocking on some security fixage.

 - gnome-session is (still) unacceptably flaky in the presence of
   non-GNOME SM implementations, or anything going wrong. It needs a
   lot of robustness love, or someone could whip msm into shape (see
   msm/TODO in CVS for a pretty comprehensive list of what needs
   doing). Also, gnome-session-properties sucks (and the way 
   it talks to gnome-session sucks).

 - Preferred applications spec. There should be a cross-desktop 
   way to specify your preferred web browser, etc.; ideally, this 
   would automatically adjust the default menus and panel
   configuration when appropriate.

 - Improve the notification area applet. It should support for example 
   saving icon positions, hiding/showing icons, this type of thing. 
   A UI spec for the notification area would help.

 - A "revert" or "undo" or something in prefs dialogs, see 
   http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94716
   (for sanity, may require a GTK widget that includes 
    the buttons, as some of the UI recommendations suggest 
    having them elsewhere from the usual dialog button location)

 - Preferences menu is getting all screwy again. 
   related bugs:
    http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=102873
    http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=103124

 - sort out X display configuration, including Xrandr; this one is
   almost intractable without at least thinking about systemwide
   configuration as well, so is sort of a can of worms.

 - rework the applications:/// VFS *again*, following the newer
   specification. This isn't just gratuitous, it adds a numbr of
   features such as supporting third party subdirs and allowing 
   admins to modify menus by dropping in files, instead of by
   modifying the file from the RPM or .deb

 - clipboard manager. Perhaps it doesn't need a UI, but it does need
   to be a "just works" daemon to persist clipboard contents after
   application exit. A UI to "view clipboard contents" is maybe a
   bonus. No need for this to be complicated.

 - desktop sharing. Make both use-cases (SunRay-style relocatable
   session with VNC, and "help desk controls user's desktop") work out
   of the box, with only the minimum complexity to achieve that.
   See http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-December/msg00221.html
   
 - kill off remaining occasional need to run a whole session as root
   in order to avoid the command line. e.g. an aspect of this is a way
   to launch nautilus in "root mode" (and be sure it's sane for that,
   e.g. doesn't leave metadata files in system directories). right now 
   to manage files as root graphically you have to start a root
   session. Then, configure gdm to disallow root login by default.

 - get key GTK 2 ports released and working well. evolution, epiphany, 
   some native-widgets media player such as rhythmbox.

If we did even half of the above, GNOME 2.4 would rock.  If we did
them all we will have killed a huge number of longstanding user and
developer gripes.

I know I'll think of more issues as soon as I post this. ;-)

Havoc