Re: 2.3 Proposed Features

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Wed, 2003-02-05 at 23:45, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> Hey Jeff,
> 	Here's a list of some of the things I expect to get done in the panel
> for 2.4:
> 
> 	* New toplevel panel widget:
> 	    + No more panel types, just a single panel which you can
> 	      configure to the same effect as the old panel types.
> 	    + Resize the panel to any width by dragging on the edge.
> 	    + Groovy autohide into the corner for edge panels.
> 	    + Move, resize, hide the panel using the keyboard.
> 	    + No shadow at the screen edge to help Fitt's Law
> 	      compliance.
> 	    + Descriptive panel titles/names to aid navigation between
> 	      panels
> 
> 	* Cleanup of the panel's gconf mess. Easier to change the
> 	  default panel setup, sensible panel/applet ids, descriptions
> 	  for all keys etc.
> 	* The panel will respond to gconf notifications.
> 
> 	* Will either expose the idea of panel "profiles" in the UI
> 	  or possibly dump it altogether.
> 
> 	* Applications/Actions menu bar and window menu from the old
> 	  menu panel will be standalone applets.
> 	* Calendar on the clock applet.
> 
> 	There's probably other stuff, but these are the things I'm looking at
> getting done in fairly short order, depending on whether I have the time
> or not of course :-)

Getting right-aligned, or auto-realigning, panel applets would be cool,
too.  if you have multiple resizing applets (say, a tasklist and a
notification area), they end up moving all over the place, pushing other
applets around.  Allowing a user to select an applet to align to the
right (resize to left) would make it easier to somewhat fix the problem,
but that would a) require a lot of work from a user to setup a panel to
behave how it should to be begin with, and b) doesn't help when resizing
applets push other applets around.

My proposal would be for applets to remember where the user put them. 
If they get pushed aside (from, say, resizing), then they act like they
do now.  However, when space frees up (applet shrinks), the applets will
move back as close as they can to their original location.  So, if it
gets pushed aside, it'll move back when it can.

Another possibility would be to make growing applets be a bit more
aggressive.  Say I have a tasklist, then some launchers, then a
notification area right-aligned to the edge of a panel.  If the
notification area grows, the launchers are pushed left, and the tasklist
is forced to shrink.  With the re-aligning solution, when the
notification area shrinks (icon leaevs it), the launchers go, "hey, we
can move right!" and do so, then the tasklist grows.  However, if I move
those launchers around after the notification area grows, they will now
remember where I placed them, and not move right when space frees up. 
If the tasklist pushed them right (by being more aggressive) this might
be fixed...

Of course, I'd also be interested to see launchers on the panels just up
and removed, and replaced with QuickLaunch (with a better more
user-friendly name), since that solves half the problems without
removing any major functionality.


> 
> Good Luck,
> Mark.
> 
> On Mon, 2003-02-03 at 01:06, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> > Hey gang,
> > 
> > Time to start thinking about proposed features for the GNOME 2.3 development
> > series... please let us know what you're working on!
> > 
> > I will add them to the 2.3 start page on gnome.org, so we can track the
> > proposals through to feature freeze (anything not 'finished' by that date
> > will be shifted off to the 2.5 start page for next time).
> > 
> > I'm assuming for the moment that fontilus and nautilus-cd-burner will be
> > proposed for inclusion in the desktop release. Please note that this is a
> > call for ALL NEW FEATURES, not just new modules -> let's pimp our next
> > release well ahead of time. :-)
> > 
> > I for one am itching to get 'back to the future'! :-)
> > 
> > - Jeff
> > 
> > -- 
> >    "The ability to procrastinate is what separates us from the machines."   
> >                      - Chris Gregory, Desktop Magazine                      
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> 
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