Re: To answer your question about the upcoming Style-Guide...

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Sat, Jul 25, 1998 at 10:48:23AM +0200, Tom Vogt wrote:
> > >> or to bring up all apps of a given category.
> > >nothing stops us from allowing dynamic icons to start apps or open folders,
> > >does it? cde has a few examples of this (clicking on the clock/calender
> > >opens the calender app. now THAT is intuitive, isn't it?).
> > 
> > In general we don't have situations like this.
> 
> no, but the point was that dynamic information and folders aren't exclusive.

no these situations arise most often and this is an area that needs
improvement ... hopefully this will come with corba ... just a simple
starting of an app is not enough ... for example a mail applet should start
a reader or direct an already running one to go the new mail if the applet
is clicked on ... a calendar app should point a running calendar (or start
one) on the date that's on the panel clock ... dragging a file on the clock
might also do nice things such as putting that file in the calendar (if it's
text) ... dragging a file onto the mail applet should start the mailreader
with a "new message" dialog and that file added as an attachment ... why
should I have both a launcher and a new mail icon on the panel anyway ...
so it's good to combine ... same with the clock/date ... and printer
icon could start up a printer properties app ...

this is OO interface ... so the dynamic applets SHOULD do this ...

ok .. to make this discussion shorter I will excercise my coder privilages
...

1) the icons WILL stay the same size
2) by default there will be a plain look (maybe with launchers such as gmc
and help added, but not more)
3) There will be one menu on startup, multiple entry system is up to the
person as it is impossible for the initial config to get this right
anyhow
4) dynamic applets WILL contain a lot of interaction with applications
including startup

there are points I'm open on .. but the above are pretty set in stone
... unless someone can give a convincing argument for a SPECIFIC change
in the panel ... or provide a patch that I like ... the discussion
doesn't make that much sense ...

I would concentrate on howto make dnd and launchers play nice and
intuitive not just with a simple start a program with a file
interface ... for example a program might allow several ways of
passing a filename to it .. each of which would have a different
behaviour

George

-- 
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George Lebl <jirka@5z.com> http://www.5z.com/jirka/
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