Re: window list applet

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

On Sun, 2003-10-26 at 12:28, Kjartan Maraas wrote:
> Please put the patches in bugzilla.gnome.org. The window list lives in
> the gnome-panel product under the component "Window List Applet"
> 

Ideally attach the patches in bugzilla in plain text, uncompressed.

We will need a usability analysis of the various modes. Quoting from
comments on bug #81222:
        
        ------- Additional Comments From Havoc Pennington 2003-04-09 23:32 -------
        
        More detail on what this bug is blocking on, I sent someone 
        the following in private mail:
        
        My comment in bugzilla is:
                                                                             
                                          
          I think someone needs to step back and sort out the various ways the
          window list can be used and decide which make sense and adjust the
          prefs accordingly. I don't feel like I have a good grasp of it.
                                                                             
                                          
        What I mean by that is:
                                                                             
                                          
          If we add more toggle buttons to the prefs, so we have N toggle
          buttons, then we have 2^N or something combinations of settings.
                                                                             
                                          
          What I want to know is, which of those combinations are useful.
                                                                             
                                          
          In other words, how many big picture different "usage modes"
          are there for the task list.
                                                                             
                                          
          This is an essential step to understanding how we could simplify or
          make more useful the settings, and to understanding why each usage
          mode is useful and whether we could create a usage mode combining
          the best of all worlds.
                                                                             
                                          
          It also allows us to understand whether the usage modes have
          interactions with other desktop GUI decisions (if so, then
          the usage modes are potentially going to cause problems,
          because then you have to make those other GUI decisions configurable
          also, and you get cascading combinatoric preferences hell).
                                                                             
                                          
          So basically, I would like someone to list:
            - all the settings that exist now
            - the various settings that have been proposed
            - enumerate each combination of those (possibly lumping
              some combinations together)
            - write down which combinations are useful "modes," and why,
              and which combinations are useless
            - from this see which settings are "standalone" and which
              interact to create "modes" of tasklist usage
        
        If we do this, I think we will understand the problem a bit better,
        and be in a position to guess at the pros and cons of adding each
        setting. I would not be surprised if it turns out that some of the
        settings we don't have are more useful than some of the ones we do
        have.
                                                                           
        
I think doing this homework is a prerequisite to applying patches to add
more behavior modes to the window list.

Havoc