Re: [Usability] Splash screens and startup notification

[Stefan Kost <ensonic hora-obscura de>]

Hi,

karderio wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if there was any sort of dogma concerning splash screens
> for GNOME applications.
>
> Seeing as there are virtually no GNOME apps that use splash screens, I
> would guess that they are not necessarily recommended. The only purpose
> I can see them serving is showing feedback for application startup, for
> applications that take some time to start (I'm thinking openoffice).
>
> Is there any way that startup feedback could be presented to the user
> other than with a splash screen ? For example, when you have an
> applicationX starting, instead of the "Starting applicationX" in the
> window list, could you not have "Starting applicationX - Step Y" and
> change this as the startup progresses ?
>
> Love, Karderio 

This indee sounds good. I don't like it when splsh screen covering my screen 
space. What about having a progressbar inside the window list. Thus immediately 
after starting the app, the window-list entry would appear with a progressbar 
inside.

From the technical pov, we would need a spalsh api, so that we could show a 
uniformous splash dialog, if there is no window list or the embeded startup 
status if there is. This also fits nicely with the feature that after an 
application has lauched the window list entry flashes softly.
It probably needs extensions to the window manager specs, as what we want is an 
invisible window (so that an entry appears in the window list) and a property to 
carry the progress. I have no idea if that all is easy to be solved, still I 
like it from the conceptual pov.

Stefan