Re: [Usability]Re: Notification area (was: Music player UI)

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Sean Middleditch">

> > > Depending on your technical experience, sure.  But does it belong on
> > > the panel?
> > 
> > Where would you suggest is a better place for it? Nowhere is more
> > visually accessible than the panel.
> 
> True.  That goes back to the "is the panel really the best place to shove
> all the crap we can't figure out where else to put" thought - that's quite
> a bit what it feels like.

"Here is something that is designed to be seen" and "Let's put it on the
panel" work together very well. We can figure out where to put those things
- the panel is the right place.

> What about those "applets" that I saw for Mac OS X - where they were
> drawn as overlays, or on the desktop?

Konfabulator creates interactive 'widgets' on the desktop. The desktop isn't
a very good location for stuff like that. Why would you want something that
was out of window manager control, and underneath everything else? Makes no
sense.

> > > maybe something like quicklounge for applets would be a good idea. 
> > 
> > Come on dude, the panel itself is 'like quicklounge for applets'.
> 
> More like quicklounge for applets + launchers + notification area +
> menues, etc.  It's not organized very well.  And in the event that I
> didn't clearly state why I like more organization here (gods knwo I do
> that), its mostly because the panel has a habit of reorganizing things for
> you.  Log in on a different workstation with a different resolution, then
> back to your normal one, and the applets are moved about.  Stick both a
> notification area, several applets (say, volume control) on the right side
> of your panel, and everything gets shifted about.

So you're trying to add complexity when you really just need a bugfix?

> More like adding resizable divisions than heirarchy (or what I think of
> as heirarchy anyways - bug fugly trees).

There's not even a fine line there - they're the same thing.

> > What does 'monitoring status of *apps*' mean? When I want to monitor the
> > status of an application, I look at it.
> 
> Well, that greats if you only have one desktop or multiple monitors. 
> When I have  5 or 6 apps running on different desktops, I can't just
> look - it goes back to your wanting to see the CPU status on your panel.
> 
> Of course, I'm going to feel like an idiot now (just now, you ask?),
> since as I tried to write some examples here, I realize everythign falls
> under notification

That was the only practical example of 'monitoring the status of apps' that
I could understand. It's a separate issue to concise information displays
such as the CPU monitor.

> gaim notifying me of a buddy logging on, evolution notifying me of new
> mail, firewall apps notifying me of connection attempt... Only, they allow
> control of the app thru menues on the icon.  (launching new IM in gaim,
> opening firewall configuration dialog, etc.) Does that still fall under
> the notification area "charter"?

Nicons have menus, and can do things when clicked, so yes.

- Jeff

-- 
            o/~ we all live in a yellow subroutine o/~ - auspex