Re: Feature proposal: combined system status menu

[Hashem Nasarat <hnasarat gmail com>]

On 04/22/2013 11:29 AM, Allan Day wrote:
> Part two of my reply. :)
>
> Alberto Ruiz <aruiz gnome org> wrote:
> ...
> > > More details are outlined on the wiki [2]. If you do look at the
> > > designs, please pay particular attention to the example scenarios -
> > > these give a clearer idea of what the menu will actually look like.
> > > The designs aren't finalised yet, so comments and ideas are welcome.
> > My main concern while looking at the wireframes is that this would
> > change the fundamental way a lot of extensions work right now,
> > specifically I'm thinking about the MPRIS2 extension in the sound menu
> > that allows a very handy change of track or pause of your music which
> > would be a pain if done through the activities overview or the system
> > tray.
> Extension authors can still add their own menus. They could even
> relocate the volume sliders to a standalone sound menu if they wanted.
There are many great extensions which add new menus MPRIS2 [1] one, but
also the Weather [2] extension. If you concede that this proposal offers
nothing better to extension authors than what they do currently, the
benefits of consolidating menus (easy to access, simple, etc.) becomes
void for users who elect to install such extensions.

I hope soon gnome-shell extensions will become first-class citizens, and
their usage story fully flushed out, but relegating to extension-users a
sub-par experience isn't the way to go.

Extension authors are using the top menu drop-downs much as GNOME uses
the notification area pop-ups; MPRIS2 and Weather extensions are much
more functionally similar to the Rhythmbox and Removable Devices pop-ups
than they are to Accessibility, Volume, Wi-Fi, etc.

Perhaps these extensions should be transformed into ever-present or
contextually present notification-area widgets, but this doesn't work
since you lose the glance-able information with Weather, for example.
Perhaps the standard for extensions should be to merely a glanceable
icon to the proposal's combined top-menu instead of adding a separate
menu (as is the standard currently). However, this leaves the question
of where to put the remaining information still unanswered.

I'm really not sure what the answer is regarding extensions, but I hope
these issues are considered more.

-Hashem

[1] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/55/media-player-indicator/
[2] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/613/weather/