Re: new module proposal: notification-daemon+libnotify

[David Zeuthen <david fubar dk>]

On Thu, 2008-11-06 at 16:21 +0000, Calum Benson wrote:
> On 6 Nov 2008, at 15:57, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> 
> > But even if he is too busy to propose the module himself, I think it
> > is time for us to be honest about the fact that it is pretty much
> > impossible to use the desktop without notification-daemon nowadays.
> > Many components rely on the ability to notify users in this way and
> > are severely reduced in functionality if the notification service is
> > not available.
> 
> Anything that *relies* on this kind of notification is kind of broken  
> IMHO, usability-wise (and probably accessibility-wise, too).
> 
> Notification messages are really just "status bar messages for the  
> desktop".  As such, they should be there to provide useful extra  
> information if you want them to, but equally you should be able to  
> switch them off altogether without adversely affecting your ability to  
> use any applications.

But not all notifications comes from applications launched by the user.
For example

 "There is a high probability that one or more of your hard disk will
  malfunction within the next 24 hours"

 "Your laptop battery is being recalled"

 "Security updates available"

I'm not sure where we'd display stuff like this except for using icons
in the notification area. Which doesn't sound like a winning scenario
either (granted for the latter two we do have icons in the notification
area; probably not for the former (we could do that though)).

It would be good if the HIG covered this.

     David