Re: [patch] add remove right-click menu item.

[David Zeuthen <davidz redhat com>]

On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 05:03 +0200, Tomislav Vujec wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-06-21 at 13:43 -0400, David Zeuthen wrote:
> > I think that the way it works today we always want the icon available.
> > Otherwise, how would I go about turning of the radio of my wireless card
> > (just before boarding a flight) if there is nowhere to click? 
> > 
> > Of course, for the rare cases like when there is no possible network
> > connection (e.g. only wired card and there is no link) we *could* hide
> > the icon but I doubt this is worth the effort..
> 
> At least skype and gaim use notification icons which are never hidden,
> except when not used at all. I am not sure about this, since I only use
> GNOME, but isn't it true that nm-applet as a notification icon also
> works on KDE (and possibly other systems implementing this
> freedesktop.org standard)? 

Yeah, notification icons works well.

> Are GNOME panel applets compatible with KDE
> now days?

Applets are, as far as I know, not compatible with KDE unless you run
gnome-panel which would be slightly odd but with all these choices and
options around one never really knows :-)

> Further more, I am a bit worried about the whole menu idea. It already
> gets pretty big if you use your computer in a busy neighborhood. Add
> extensions for other network types, like ppp, isdn, gprs, umts,
> bluetooth, ... together with configuration, it will become huge, and
> definitely not "stetic" (think scrollbar in the menu).

I'd suggest to only keep the primary options we'd except modern users to
use [1] in the primary menu:

 NotifIcon
 +-----------------------------------------+
 | [ ]  Wired Network                      |
 |            Wireless Networks            |
 |       ben          [+-----------------] |
 |       bk45g        [+++---------------] |
 | *     davidznet    [++++++++++++++----] |
 |       linksys      [++++--------------] |
 |   [L] private_net  [+++++++-----------] |
 | --------------------------------------- |
 |   More Connections                    > |
 | --------------------------------------- |
 |   Connect To Other Wireless Network...  |
 |   Create A New Wireless Network...      |
 +-----------------------------------------+

and secondary items in the "More Connections" sub menu. This is,
perhaps, a little harder for novice users to grasp but they don't really
need these options and if they do (e.g. "Connection Properties") some
help desk will guide them through it through the telephone

 +---------------------------------+
 | Connection Properties...        |  # rlove got a patch! take it!
 | ------------------------------- |
 | Dial-up Connections           > |  # <-- doesn't exist yet!
 | VPN Connections               > |
 | ------------------------------- |
 | Stop All Wireless Devices       |
 | Wireless Network Discovery    > |
 | ------------------------------- |
 | Share Internet Connection...    |  # <-- doesn't exist yet!
 | Configure Networking Devices... |  # <-- doesn't exist yet!
 | ------------------------------- |
 | Help...                         |
 | About...                        |
 +---------------------------------+

where I'd put some more options (options! options! options!) as, I think
we need (even though I'd like to avoid them as much as the next guy).
Either way, I think this is pretty important to get right [2], so we
might as well get it right to start with.

(yes, the name "More Connections" is a bit misleading since we put other
stuff there too but I couldn't do any better. Sorry.)

[1] : which is IMO only switching wireless networks; connecting to VPN,
dial-up is probably something that should automatically happen (hence,
it's not in the primary menu) through prompting the user (dialog or
notification bubble) but that is another story.

[2] : since, guys, we need more than wired and wireless connections for
NM to work well, and suggestions to "just use a 3rd party dialer", "just
use other software" won't work since technical reasons exists for the
need for this to be tightly integrated into NetworkManager. Because
otherwise, how would you share your connection or run VPN on top of it?

> All other notification icons I currently have (7 to be precise), show
> some kind of dialog box / application window when left clicked, and they
> offer a menu when right clicked. Regular applets are not that different,
> except they either perform immediate action or show some kind of
> information on left click.

For each and every applet I've got I always end up clicking the wrong
button. Maybe it's just me :-). I think that NM should show the same
menu no matter what button you press.

> 
> Finally, the configuration, if any, should really be done by the
> separate capplet, or a dialog started from the right click menu.

Yeah.

Sorry if this came off as a rant, btw.

    David