Re: some more questions on the control center shell, etc

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 13:03 -0500, Nathaniel McCallum wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 17:43 +0000, Thomas Wood wrote:
> > Calum Benson wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 14:23 +0100, Rodrigo Moya wrote:
> > >> On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 08:05 -0500, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> > > 
> > >>> I don't think this needs to be removed. We probably just need to complete
> > >>> the classification of the capplets, and work on the real control center
> > >>> problem, which is "too many capplets".
> > >>>
> > >> this is #1 priority for 2.19/2.20 development, so if you have any idea,
> > >> please bring it to us.
> > > 
> > > Of course if we'd tackled that problem first, we might not have needed
> > > to switch back to a shell at all :/
> > 
> > Change back? I thought people had agreed that in the long run the menus 
> > were not a good idea, and that a usable shell was much nicer?
> > 
> > The current shell is not perfect and it still has issues that need to be 
> > ironed out, but I don't think that any blocker issues cannot be resolved 
> > before release. Are we suggesting that even if we had a perfect shell, 
> > it would still not be more usable and accessible as using a menu?
> 
> I have two disappointments with the shell.  The first is the increased
> length of time it takes for me to load a capplet.  For instance, when I
> switch networks, I have to load the shell (which takes its dear sweet
> time) and then find the proxy icon and then load the capplet. I've timed
> it and it takes between 10-12 seconds including my time hunting down the
> icon.  The menu takes about 2 seconds.  This is on a 2GHz Core Duo with
> 2GB memory.
> 
yeah, we need to improve the speed. Please file a bug with any debugging
information that might help in finding the slowness

> Granted, the real problem with this scenario is that my proxy doesn't
> just switch automatically with my network.  And yes, I can cut down the
> time to about 5 seconds if I search for "proxy" when the shell loads.
> But still, a 2.5x to 6x slowdown is a regression in my book.  I think it
> would be far better to just trim down the number of capplets.
> 
as I said, even if we trim down the number of capplets, its number will
be continue growing overtime, if we tell vendors that's the way they
should show their apps' preferences.

So really, the menu sucked and will continue to suck unless we get to
just 10 capplets (which is impossible given the 3rd party capplets that
are expected to appear)

> My second disappointment is much less tangible than speed: I no longer
> have the ability to easily distinguish between preferences or settings.
> Which of these utilities affects users other than myself?  I liked that
> separation in the old menu.  Of course, that is just my personal
> opinion.
> 
now the separation is between tasks: Personal, Network... and System
(that's the old settings thing)
-- 
Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>