[Usability] Re: Panels and Usability

[michael chang <thenewme91 gmail com>]

On 10/25/05, usability-request gnome org <usability-request gnome org> wrote:
> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:35:36 +0200
> From: Estradin Solaris <estradin gmail com>
> Subject: [Usability] Panels and Usability
> To: usability gnome org
> Message-ID:
>         <9f3b0b250510250835t55cd3027lfffb4502196a2b6a mail gmail com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi,
>  I've been thinking a lot about the gnome panel lately. I think the top
> panel is impeccable: it has two different areas, top left for system-wide
> apps & applets and top right for system-wide information. That's cool. Now,
> the bottom panel is quite a mess in my opinion. Being a sort of Dock-Taskbar
> hybrid it is neither here nor there. It may be deformation from using OS X,

Not necessairily a bad thing.

> but when i want to focus an application I tend to click the launcher icon,
> and not the taskbar button. Why? Because having the launcher there after
> having launched the application is redundant. Why would i want to run seven
> different instances of Evolution? I only want one. Having the launcher icon
> transform into a proxy for "bring focus to all the windows of this
> application" after the app is running would be quite useful, and I think
> more intuitive.

Problem: taskbar memnotic from IceWM, KDE and Windows, plus the info
displayed there (e.g. username, current page in firefox, current
document in Abiword/OOo, etc.).  Also, programs like MSN Messenger
deritatives and messenger deritaves have a launcher (shortcut), a task
bar entry (maybe reading "IMApp - username site com"), AND a icon in
the top right.  I can imagine you want to merge the icon in the top
right and the taskbar, but that seems to be a problem that would have
to be resolved, both in the application level and the WM level.

>  Another possible use of this 'proxy status' would be when Firefox has only
> the downloads window open. How do I open a new window from there? I have to
> relaunch Firefox. Firefox on OS X, on the other hand, reacts to clicking in
> the dock icon by opening a new browser window. It is probably what you were
> expecting when you clicked there, so in my opinion it's flawless behavior.

Sounds good for a single user system, but what If I'm running a XDMCP
server serving 25 people at the same time?  How the heck do I keep
track of which Firefox I'm using?  What about if I want to use two
profiles at the same time?  What if Firefox gets killed by the kernel
memory manager, or something else, and doesn't get cleaned up?  Do I
need to reboot, and disconnect the other 24 users, in order to start
firefox again?  (Ditto with other programs, e.g. IM, Profiled Office
programs, etc.).

>  Now again, I'm not saying the taskbar is useless. On the contrary, it is
> quite useful, but i think it would be a lot more useful when used together
> with the proxy-enabled launchers, functioning as a complement: when i want
> to choose a particular window, and not bring all of the application to the
> front.

Very true, although I want to know how you plan to deal with something
like a program that has twenty maximised windows; which do you bring
to the front?

>  This proxy-enabled launcher would pose a quite difficult question. Should
> it take this approach a step further and represent in the launcher part of
> the panel proxy icons for those applications that are running but are not in
> the launcher? I would like it, certainly, but that's most likely because I
> am a mac user. Trying to think without bias, i think no. But I am not sure.
>  What do you think?

Concept sounds pretty nice.  Implementation sounds like it'd need a
reworking of some protocols, obseleting all the programs already out
there.  You may as well develop for OS X and start from there.  Also,
while interesting, I can't imagine how you'd keep track of processes,
and I don't know about how much you'd alienate users from Windows
systems (which, unfortunately, comprise a great majority of the
population).

Note, this is all _my_ opinion; and I'm sure someone has a better
opinion than my own.  Take with a grain of salt or ten.

--
~Mike
 - Just my two cents
 - No man is an island, and no man is unable.