RE: [Rhythmbox-devel] Rhythmbox tray icon - again

["Andrew Higginbottom" <Andrew Higginbottom ehireconsulting com au>]

> From: Michael Gratton
> 
> Colin Walters wrote:
> > 1) Is this feature total crack or not? 
> 
> IMHO not total crack, no.

Agree, there are certain apps where this functionality would be useful.
These are apps that provide background functions - music, messaging etc
and need to be instantly accessible from any workspace.

As previously mentioned it would be ideal if there were a consistent
standard for this across gnome.

In keeping with the spirit of "let the user decide", how about providing
a standard button available for this task in ALL APPS, allowing the user
manage their tasks as they desire.

Like so: http://home.iprimus.com.au/ahigg/minimizetotray.png

Of course this would encourage the "notification area bloat" that the
usability experts are all terrified of, but maybe that's the way users
want to work? Something feels wrong (to me) with "background" apps, like
rhyhtmbox - when providing music to work to - occupying the same space in 
my taskbar as the 1-2 documents I am really working on in the foreground.

What would the notification area icon do if all apps could be minimized 
to tray? That would depend on the app. Rhythmbox could, for !example!, 
provide the main function - pause/play - on single-click, and restore 
the main window on double click. Other apps that support multiple 
documents could provide window grouping and restore functionality.

The beauty of this is that it allows flexibility that suits the way you
are choosing to use the app. If you are frequently accessing functions
in the full interface - forward, back, edit tags, etc you could use the
standard Minimize button, but if you want the app to "hide" you could
minimize it to the notification area.

I realise this is not something that developers can not just go adding 
to the window manager interface, just an idea at this stage.

Andrew Higginbottom
ahiggATiprimusDOTcomDOTau



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