Re: Applet infrastructure

[Evandro Fernandes Giovanini <efgiovanini gmail com>]

Em S� 2006-04-22 �18:44 -0700, Michael Frank escreveu:
> On Sat, 2006-04-22 at 09:05 +0200, Vincent Untz wrote:
> > Le samedi 22 avril 2006 �1:06 -0400, David Zeuthen a �it :
> > > Can I suggest to start a new thread here on d-d-l about the applet
> > > infrastructure [1]
> > 
> > FWIW, this is a proposed SoC project. I have lots of ideas (and other
> > people also have) that I really should write down somewhere.
> > 
> > Feel free to start a new thread here or send me mails about this. Right
> > now, the main issue is to try to do it in a cross-desktop way so we can
> > remove a good excuse for abusing the notification area :-)
> 
> what i would like is to have a notification area *and* a 'systray' (for
> lack of a better name at the moment), since i find both to be useful.  
> 
> perhaps what is now the notification area applet could become the
> systray applet, so ppl who don't like the whole systray idea could
> remove it.  next the notification area could be merged into the window
> list applet by creating a space for it (roughly the size of the show
> desktop button) for it at the right end of the window list.  when there
> is a notification, this area lights up/flashes, maybe shows a
> notification balloon, etc.  there would be a need for some sort of
> notification queuing, but that eliminates expanding and contracting the
> notification area.
> 
> i would like a systray similar to newer versions of windows, i.e. with
> some provision for collapsing the systray area by hiding some of the
> icons according to a user defined policy.
> 
> other thoughts, comments?
> 
> -Michael
> 

I don't see how hiding some icons would be useful, since the default
panel layout is not crowded like the 1-panel layout on Windows.

I'm a bigger fan of the NeXT/GNUstep dock myself (I was a WindowMaker
user for some time). For example, GNOME could have an applet for
launchers, like quick-lounge-applet, that would also have icons for the
hidden running applications.

For example, two applications that are useful to hide are IM and the
music player. When I want to bring up the music-player I have to look
for it in:
1) the tasklist;
2) the notifications area / systray;
3) and finally, the launcher.

In GNUstep you would just double click the music-player icon, which
you'll always find in the same place in the dock.

I think the systray/notification area is useful for things the user
doesn't really care about. For example, nobody buys a laptop to monitor
the battery status or other hardware related functions. They do it to
run applications (like IM and music-player), and so I think it's a good
idea to keep these things separated.

The "quick-lounge"-like applet I mentioned could be useful for other
things. For example, instead of launching Evolution to check for new
mail the icon launcher would always display if I have new messages or
not. This would save people a lot of time.

Unfortunately I don't think this is exactly easy to implement. :( 

Cheers,
Evandro