-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Davyd McColl wrote on 23/04/10 15:02: >... > 1) Already we have the case of apps which don't "play nicely" with the > user notification applet such as Pidgin and Skype (both probably out of > portability concerns). Now, personally, I don't want to use 2 different > IM clients (home, Linux; work, Windows), so cross-platform for me, and > some others, is a win. It's also a nice way to make people comfortable > when they cross over from another platform to Ubuntu. In other words, I > don't want to use Empathy -- and I don't see why I should *have* to. > Now we're adding another mechanism to make development for > cross-platform apps more difficult? I expect some fall-out here, and > the user is the one who will get the bad end of it, when devs don't get > around to or can't be bothered to support this "no notification area" > concept.
Yes, this will be a test of our API design, documentation, and evangelism skills. Some cross-platform applications, such as Dropbox and Transmission, have already switched. > 2) Whilst I like the floating click-through notification concept, it > doesn't help for being able to tell, after being away from the desktop, > when, for example, I've missed an IM. I really hope no-one expects that > the user should have to scan all open applications for updates in lieu > of a "systray". No. That kind of notification can be achieved by the window requesting attention. >... > 3) I've had a look at the spec at > http://design.canonical.com/2010/04/notification-area/ for the "menu" > concept, and I have to ask: what, apart from the fact that moving the > mouse will open another app's menu (which may actually confuse new > users who don't expect that) is the difference between this concept and > the current notification area with clickable icons? It doesn't seem all > that abstracted to me... The main difference is that every item will behave like a menu, whereas in the notification area items could do anything they liked. > Point (3) brings me to wanting to support the idea of a notification > area bridge, since the spec just currently creates more work for > application developers who already have a notification area icon in > place -- and more effort for people who have abstracted notification > icons for cross-platform development. I don't understand how that would work. Let's say your application has a notification area icon that opens a simple menu on left click, a complex menu on right click, and a window on double-click. (Quite a few notification area items on Windows work like this.) How would the bridge handle them? >... > Also, I can see how the notification area applet will probably never > die, but the users who still want it will have to install it on top of > the default installation to handle all the apps which haven't moved > over to align themselves with Ubuntuism. Once it is removed, it will not be possible to re-add the notification area applet (or any other applet) to the Unity panel. >... > On a side note, the Win7 handling of notification icons is great here: > you see what you want; icons which have something to say appear for a > short while and are hidden again and choosing what to see is a simple > drag-n-drop operation -- quite well done from the company we all love > to hate, to be honest. >... I think I explained pretty well what's wrong with the Windows 7 system. Cheers - -- Matthew Paul Thomas http://mpt.net.nz/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkwQweEACgkQ6PUxNfU6ecpO2wCgsfNlhr/z1yFuJohJ3MvmZ036 ZroAnifIae5j2Or6b2RxwCS8Cv7ha/Jq =YpLp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
