Re: "Autoip" - icon

[Jason Martens <me jasonmartens com>]

On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 09:46 -0500, Robert Love wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 09:41 +0100, Martin Vidner wrote:
> 
> Hey, Martin.
> 
> > How about a small superimposed "1:1" or "2" to hint that this kind
> > of connection is only useful for an ad-hoc connection of two
> > computers?
> 
> There are also "Apple-style" networks without a DHCP server (or anything
> else) where there might be more than two machines.
> 
> But your fundamental point is spot on: We should somehow show graphical
> that a Zeroconf IP is in use.
> 

This would certainly be progress, but I think it doesn't go far enough.
If apps rely on n-m to tell them when they are connected, having a
different icon will notify the user, but will essentially "break" any
application that relies on this information, and cause it to do The
Wrong Thing (tm), which is contrary to the goals of n-m and gnome in
general.  

I have personally observed great confusion from users when autoip on
windows kicks in, and I have to agree that in the majority of cases it
causes more problems than it solves.

What about having n-m configure two IPs? If it can't contact a DHCP
server, then it will configure an autoip, but not show the connection as
active unless it can find another device using autoip?  In which case,
then it would be in "limited access" mode, and the icon would reflect
this condition.

Jason Martens