Re: Notification icons hell (was Re: [gpm] Re: Gnome 2.16 Module Proposal: GNOME Power Manager)

["Iain *" <iaingnome gmail com>]

On 4/10/06, Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org> wrote:

> There are some ways to fix this:
>
>  + HIG HIG HIG
>
>  + make it possible to dynamically add an applet from a program. I'd
>    like to add the infrastructure for this during 2.16. Don't know if
>    I'll have time, but maybe someone is interested in working on
>    this? ;-)
>
>  + try to make the notification area smart and force some icons to hide.
>    This will be inherently broken.

There are two different ways of looking at the icons
+ Icon is application and any windows created belong to the icon
    The program doesn't quit when you close windows. Gaim and Tomboy are
    examples
+ Icon is used for notification and is owned by the program. If the
program window
   is closed, the icon never appears again.

I think we need to accept that both of these are going to be used
whether we like it or not, and handle them both. Currently we only
"allow" the second way, and bitch about the first, but it is clear
that applications want the first one, and there are many situations
that the first is useful.