Re: Gnome shell suggestions after a bit of usage

["Jasper St. Pierre" <jstpierre mecheye net>]

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 9:19 AM, Aurélien Naldi <aurelien naldi gmail com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 2:24 PM, Florian Max <florian muellner gmail com> wrote:
>> The "specific API" used by GNOME Shell is called libnotify, which was
>> already used in GNOME 2. Ubuntu uses it for its notify-osd, and apparently
>> it is also supported in KDE[0]. The support for status icons is considered
>> legacy, its use is highly discouraged (and so would be the use of the
>> KDE/Canonical replacement if support is added) - the message tray is a place
>> to notify users about a particular event, not a taskbar replacement for
>> applications.
>
> As far as I know, libnotify supports only notifications (and does it
> well). They can vanish after a while or require acknowledgement, but
> they can not be truly persistent. The notification area was used both
> for such notifications and to provide a way to interact with
> "background" applications.

We added persistent notification capability, and given that we created
and control the UI that makes notifications, we can make it scrub if
we want.

> I do like the notification part in gnome-shell (beside the integrated
> chat stealing focus, but all it needs is tweaking), I was talking
> about the "interact with background application" part: I thought
> gnome-shell also had an API for this as the indicators proposed by
> canonical have been rejected. From a user point of view, the system
> area in gnome-shell is very similar. What I do not know is wether it
> is it limited to the shell and extensions, or if any application can
> add something as well.

Right now, we're limiting it to the Shell. Why? Because that's system
status. Extensions are random pieces of code, and can add things there
if they want to. Additionally, we thought it would be better to make
native menus and widgets that fit our designs without trying to
shuttle them over a protocol in DBus.

> If it can be extended, which protocol does it use?
> If it can not be extended, does it mean that some other solution
> exists (now or as plan) or that the shell will NOT allow this?
>
> Maybe the notification tray is not the right place for this, but the
> protocol used for the indicators is just a protocol, the shell can the
> choose where these things are placed, hide some of them, show them in
> the overview or whatever feels right to the designers. Maybe the
> protocol should be extended to add hints allowing better placement
>
> I do think that canonical did a nice work trying to build generic GUI
> for common use case (instant messaging and music players) and allow
> any application to make its own actions available in a flexible and
> themable manner. It is true that many applications abuse this, and I
> think unity should show many of them into jumplists in the dock, but
> this is not an option for gnome-shell which does not have a taskbar at
> all.

As far as I know, we are looking to support jumplists in the overview
on dash icons.

> Note: I do not want to open a gnome-shell vs unity flamewar, I love
> and hate them both, I would just like to see more cross-desktop work,
> which gnome has always been very good at. Obviously, this requires
> time and open discussions. Canonical has not been good enough on this
> side, and the existing protocol may need a lot more work before it can
> be seriously considered in gnome, but it does solve existing problem
> for me.

These are not where open design discussions should take place.
#gnome-design is the place.

> Regards.
>
> --
> Aurélien Naldi
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>



-- 
 Jasper