[Fwd: Re: Your final comments on gswitchit in 2.4...]

["Sergey V. Oudaltsov" <sergey oudaltsov clients ie>]

-----Пересланное сообщение-----
From: Sergey V. Oudaltsov <sergey.oudaltsov@clients.ie>
To: Murray.Cumming@Comneon.com
Cc: jdub@perkypants.org, jrb@redhat.com, jody@gnome.org, release-team@gnome.org
Subject: Re: Your final comments on gswitchit in 2.4...
Date: 23 Jun 2003 17:27:35 +0100

> OK, but I think the terms "primary" and "secondary" layouts are not very
> clear. What are they meant to do exactly? Why does Murray need a secondary
> layout but Bob needs a primary layout?
Because Murray (which uses German occationally) can afford mouse 
moving/clicking in order to get German layout. Bob would love just to 
press "RCtrl" or "Alt-Shift" to access German quickly whenever he wants 
(well, I assume that he switches often - not that he uses English before 
his lunch and German after it). And there are users who use USA/Russian 
layouts on 49%/49% basis and _occationally_ want to input one or 2 
German symbols. They asked me to introduce secondary layouts (and 
actually it was backed up by KDE lad who asked me to move this feature 
from gswitchit to libxklavier so he could use it as well). This is 
really necessary feature. The word "secondary" is really misleading. And 
I seriosly would be greateful for any better wording.

> What is an "indicator" here? Is it just an icon telling me what layout I am
> using in the window?
NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock on your keyboard (if you have them) and 
their corresponding funtionality as well.

>>per-window (that's 
>>only possible with the applet on panel).
> Yes, I can see how that might be useful, but it might not be essential
> functionality.
It is _essential_. Remove it - and you lose, ... 2/3 or Russian 
gswitchit users - I do not know about other countries but I think they 
should be for it as well. Actually, I use this mode myself. But I would 
not enforce it - some people may be confused.

>>- Configurable pixmaps for the applet
> Why is this necessary?
I wrote before - so people want to have their own flags. But probably 
this can be replaced with just "use layout name as flag" checkbox (did 
you see the way standard Windows keyboard indicator works?). I can 
consider this change.

> Again, why is this necessary?
Not necessary at all. That is why no GUI for it. But some people asked 
me for the screen blinking (thanging gamma for a fraction of second). I 
gave them this feature - so now they can launch whatever they want (I 
laughed at them and offered to send email to manager "Bill switched to 
Russian!" - "Bill switched to English!":)

> I think it is sensible to start with basic functionality and add features
> when people make a good case for them, instead of starting with everything
> and then dealing with the complaints when you remove them.
Well, currently gswitchit covers 99% of user requests I ever had (not 
always directly, like with command execution). But if I start removing 
features now - people will eat me alive (they will travel from Russia to 
Ireland to do it:)

Actually, the feature list which _good_ keyboard switching tool can 
offer can be taken from Window's predecessor - switchit (there is a 
reference on gswitchit home page). Have a look at it (well, if you have 
any Windows around - otherwise just look at screenshots) - you'll see 
what I mean. People in Russia find it exciting - because it gives much 
more control than standard Windows control center tool. One feature from 
switchit is missing in gswitchit - customizable sound on switch. Do not 
worry, I am not going to implement it any time soon (because it is 
covered by "any command on switch" feature") :) - probably not at all.

Also, there is another feature people ask - configurable "initial group" 
per-app. For example, in terminal it would be "USA", in AbiWord it would 
be "Russian". Not now, but probably at some point (probably only in 
GConf directly - without GUI - at least initially).

Well, you can say all this is bloat - but if users really want it, why 
cannot we give it to them (and if users want it - probably it is not 
really bloat)? The questions (well, for me) are actually:
1. How much of configuration should have UI
2. What would be the best way to build UI in order not to confuse user.

Cheers,

Sergey
-- 
Sergey

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