GNOME 3.0 - shell and applets

[Toms <toms baugis gmail com>]

Hello gentlemen, hamster applet[0] speaking!

Could not decide to which mail i should reply in the applet part[1] of
GNOME 3 thread, so i thought will give a shot to a new thread.

I have an initial proposal to revise applets and try to figure out
what is actually going on. After that, i believe we will be able to
draw more specific conclusions.
As  maintainer of hamster applet, i am not really too worried about
whatever amount of code it will take to get it in the revamped UI, or
in which shape we will end up, because i don't think GNOME will ship
without us anyway, ehehehe.

Ok, here is my take on the applet business - i ran through the list i
have in "add to panel" dialog, and tried to split them up in following
sections:

1) System tray - applets that could end up in system tray, most
probably contextually - like, when they are needed or make sense. Or,
sometimes per user request in preferences (something like a "show in
system tray" checkbox for those marginal "nobody knows" cases). As
pointed out[2], KDE has some specs worth considering on the case.

* Brightness applet
* Battery charge monitor
* CPU Frequency scaling monitor
* Invest
* Keyboard layout indicator
* Modem monitor (to be merged in system monitor?)
* Network monitor (to be merged in system monitor?)
* Notification area
* Pilot Applet
* System monitor
* Volume control
* Accessibility:
   * Keyboard accessibility status
   * Pointer capture
   * Indicator applet
   * Dwell click

2) Actions - applets that should be transformed into actions and
should be taken care by the next generation desktop
* Connect to server
* Address book search
* Clock
* Dictionary lookup
* Disk mounter
* Force quit
* Lock screen
* Log out
* Remote desktop viewer
* Run application
* Search for files
* Show desktop
* Shut down
* Terminal server client applet
* Trash
* User switcher

3) Looking for a new place - applets that maybe should be rethought in
other shapes and applets that will be absorbed in core desktop
experience.
* Main menu
* Menu bar
* Hamster - now, we are too large for the classical systemtray, but it
would be nice to keep it where user sees it
* Tomboy - as pointed out before.
* Weather report
* Window list
* window selector
* Workspace switcher
* Deskbar
* Eyes, Fish - now, as charming as the first gegl icon (the goat with
5 legs), i would not want to get rid of these two little monstrosities

4) Unsorted
Character palette
Clipboard text encryption
Inhibit applet
Drawer
Separator -> there should be nothing to separate
Sticky notes -> deprecated, i guess


Let's keep the discussion constructive - whatever we are looking for,
is not obvious on the first sight, otherwise we would be discussing
the next iteration of that
Also, i'd suggest to have all the opinions laid out in PNG's - more on
that see [3]!

Lastly, i'd like to express my gratitude to everybody who has been and
still is working on the panel - it is a fine piece of software, that
does it's job well, and only through panel we can look in the future.

Toms
([ponies=1][rainbows=1])

[0] http://projecthamster.wordpress.com/
[1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2009-April/msg00243.html
[2] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2009-April/msg00256.html
[3] http://www.mmiworks.net/eng/publications/2007/09/making-of-gimp-ui-brainstorm.html