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

["Iain *" <iaingnome gmail com>]

> 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.

It might be useful to allow apps to define which category they are in,
and then their location when being added is changed.
With the notification area at the right hand side of panel
                                                                      
          [a][2][2][2][b][1][1][1][1]

[1] is an icon using case 1
[2] is an icon using case 2
[a] is where icons using case 2 are added because they appear and
disappear all the time, we don't want them to adjust the location of
the [1] icons
[b] is where icons using case 1 are added, because they are there for
a long time and people want to find them, so it'd be nice if they were
in a more permanent position and can't be moved around by the [2]s

<talking-crap>
I think it could be possible to turn all applets into [1]s which bring
up a window when clicked. If we could do away with the concept of
applets then we'd have an entire panel to play with for notification
icons...Pager and window list applets are special though...but yeah,
I'm talking crap here.
</talking-crap>

iain