Re: [Usability]Re: notification area

[Shaun ONeil <shaun dog-berry net>]

On Thu, 2003-03-13 at 10:09, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 01:17:05PM +0000, Calum Benson wrote: 
> > The balloons are triggered by events, so keyboard posting probably isn't
> > really an option unless each icon (or the notification area itself)
> > maintains some sort of event history that you could then review.  It
> > should certainly be possible to unpost them with the keyboard, though...
> > on Windoze the equivalent balloons have a Close button.
> 
> It could be kind of cute if there were an "event log" kind of window
> with a history of notification messages, though I don't know if it'd
> be *useful* in any way.
> 
> Havoc

This actually fits well with a thought I had .. rather than applications
having to put a notification icon up, worry about it's lifespan, etc ..

A single "notification buddy" kinda thing. A single icon in the tray,
which applications can send notifications to, and it handles the
bubbles, flashing, and what not.  This would allow for "previous / next"
tabbing thru notices, giving the log / history effect you speak of. 
More importantly for me, it would mean I wake up to one flashing icon,
telling me I missed 20 notices - rather than 20 new icons flashing away
(or worse, 20 bubbles fighting for screen space?).

For me, this solves the problem of a notice's lifespan, because I now
have a way to retreive missed messages.

2 cents from a curious user - not exactly sure what I'm talking about,
but I love sitting here watching my desktop getting better every day :o)

Shaun.