Re: Preferences, System Tools

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 11:36, Jody Goldberg wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 04, 2004 at 03:01:30PM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> > 
> > Jody points out that the current litmus test is "does it require a root
> > password?" - this is backward. The litmus test should be "does a desktop
> > user need to do it?" - and then if it requires a root password even
> > though a user needs to do it, we fix the root password problem. D-BUS is
> > one way to do that (by having a root process ask the user session for a
> > setting).
> 
> Agreed the current approach is purely a resource saving measure
> based on shuffling existing tools rather than changing the set of
> tools.

I guess the main thing for me is to be sure we don't institutionalize
the current approach in the control-center vs. system-tools module
boundary.

> >       * Sound volume
> >         (may additionally have a panel presence) 
> Someone is going to bring up a capplet to adjust their volume ?
> Ick. 

Note that we have some stuff here already: gstreamer-properties,
gnome-volume-control. It's just not in the control center module ;-)

Which points to one of the issues, ensuring we coordinate all this
top-down even though multiple modules are involved. Seth's list is kind
of the toplevel start on that, then each item has to be fleshed out in
terms of where it lives and what it looks like...

> > "What to use?"
> Do we want a tool to configure mime handlers or just assume it is
> part of nautilus ?

"Part of nautilus" is what I've heard people saying so far.

> Many of these are not pure accessibility features.  Most of them
> seem more like 'Usability'. 

Well a11y here is taken pretty broadly - adapting the system to people
with different motor skills, visual acuity, etc. There's a whole
gradient between someone who just has a touch of arthritis to
quadriplegic.

If everyone were the same you could just pick a good drag threshold, and
not need to make it configurable.

Maybe think of the "a11y" category as "adapt to physical differences
among people"

Havoc