Re: PROPOSAL: GNOME Volume Manager for GNOME 2.8

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

Pat Suwalski wrote:
> Sean Middleditch wrote:
>
> > > Havoc, I would suggest that this is one of the best control panels 
> > > out there. It is very functional, and its content is in no way 
> > > touched by any other control panel. It's not like "Keyboard" and 
> > > "Keyboard Shortcuts" and "Accessibility->Keyboard". This one actually 
> > > stands on its own, IMO.
> >
> >
> > Disagree wholeheartedly.  The capplet is just a duplicate of the MIME 
> > system and/or Prefered Applications.  It's just a capplet to configure 
> > "How does the system handle [blah]".  It isn't really different than 
> > "How does the system handle [file type]" or "How does the system 
> > handle [service]".
>
>
>  From a developer's point of view I would have to agree with you. From a 
> usability point of view, as a user, I wouldn't think to look at how my 
> system reacts to device changes in the same place I change how my PDF 
> files are opened. Even if devices are the equivalents of files in /dev, 
> there is a conceptual "real-world" separation between a file and a device.

Odd.  I'm coming from a 100% user point of view and didn't even think of 
the UNIX everything-is-a-file concept.  ;-)

To me, as a user, there isn't a real different between a document that 
happens to be stored on a specialized medium (like a DVD movie) and a 
document that is a convential file on general medium (like an MPEG on my 
hard-drive).  Both are movies, I only have/need one movie player, and I 
only need to configure it once.  And to me, it makes much more sense to 
look at the task of "playing movies" and set options like "automatically 
start playing movies on disc when inserted" than having to figure out 
which panel relates to movies in some particular context.

In short, I'm thinking task based, and the task is "watch a movie."  (Or 
"manage photos" or whatever.)  Where that movie comes from is completely 
a low-level technical detail.

> Except for the above-mentioned duplicated panels, as well as those with 
> just one widget in them, the Gnome control panel is pretty slim. There 
> really aren't that many extraneous entries. It's pretty obvious where to 
> click to get which settings. Would that be the case if "Removable 
> Storage" options got moved to "Preferred Applications" under the 
> "Advanced" subfolder no less?

"Prefered Applications" is a horrible name.  And it's a horrible UI. 
And it barely even works.  Of course it's bad to just volume 
configuration there.  The whole system regarding how user data and tasks 
are managed and configured needs a heck of a lot of work, as has been 
admitted elsewhere.

I also disagree that the current control center is anywhere near 
organized.  Three different capplets called Keyboard or some variation? 
 Four capplets regarding multimedia settings?  Several quite useless 
capplets that many <1% of users every change and even then only once, 
like the CD Database settings?  Not good.

> --Pat