Re: Applets? [was Re: Planning for GNOME 3.0]

[Dylan McCall <dylanmccall gmail com>]

I think it would be worth fleshing out some existing parts of the
design, like the application menu and launchers, before delving in to
gizmos as a separate component. In the end, if the rest is done to
cover the appropriate jobs, they may not be necessary.

One really dumb thing with gnome-panel applets today is that, in a lot
of ways, we're arbitrarily categorizing these applications differently
(because they're small) and putting them in a horrible menu that can't
be accessed through primary interactions. Instead of being in, say,
Applications›Finances, to get a cute stock ticker that's always
available you need to right click the panel, choose "Add to Panel…"
and search, and then position the applet somewhere. It's really
totally arbitrary!

Lots of smartphone OSs solve this with things like badges attached to
application launchers. That approach alone seems to work very well.
Gnome-shell, meanwhile, has a lot of pixels to play with ;)


Thanks,
Dylan