Re: [Usability] Mute in GNOME mixer applet does not have correct behavior

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, 20 Mar 2006, Shaun McCance wrote:

> Since mute is an orthogonal operation to the volume setting,
> perhaps the muted icon should continue to show the actual
> volume setting.  So if you mute at 80%, you'd see the icon
> maybe grayed out a bit with a red X over it, but still with
> the three lines.  You can actually still change the volume
> while muted.

> It might serve as a nice indication that unmuting may blast
> your ear drums out of your skull.  Just a thought.

Nice idea although in an application that also had a volume slider you
would already have a indication of what the volume was set at.

I'm inclined to think GStreamer (or perhaps something lower in the stack)
could fake it for sound cards which do not provide mute functionality.
Also as a safety feature to stop users blasting themselves out of it
perhaps Gstreamer might try to fade back in gradually from mute rather
than blasting users out of it (but then again maybe this would be trying
too hard to think of everything).

--
Alan H