Brian Cameron schrieb: > > Emmanuele: > >> we've been changing the platform gradually over the years, mostly by >> deprecating stuff and including new functionality. nevertheless, I >> haven't heard a single justification for the continued existence of >> "applets". > > I wonder how this fits in with the gdesklets project, if at all. I > know Calum Benson, UI engineer at Sun, has suggested that it would be > nicer from a UI perspective if there were just one desklet/applet > type interface. Perhaps moving to a gdesklets model would be nicer? > Or do we need to reinvent the wheel here? > > Also, does the avant-window-manager fit into plans at all. In terms > of providing a nice interface for keeping track of running applications > and providing desktop shortcuts, it seems a nice alternative to > consider. > > Perhaps I missed the discussion where such alternative designs are > being considered, so please forgive if I'm asking a stupid question. > > Brian
one major difference between desktop applets and panel applets is that windows don't cover the panels. I brought a 24" screen for a good reason. On such a setup I can easily spare 24 pixels here and there for the desktop. This way I can easily see on gnome system monitor when my build is done and I don't need to minimize windows to see how late it is. Stefan > > >> what do applets provide, nowadays, and are they even remotely useful? >> what can deskbar-applet provide that cannot be implemented with >> something that does not sit inside a 24x24 icon on the most valued piece >> of screen real estate? isn't a gnome-do approach equivalent to the >> deskbar-applet? why tomboy-applet is so special? it's basically a >> launcher with a custom context menu. also, starting up deskbar-applet >> *and* tomboy as applets on my panel causes my desktop more to start up >> on login; not great turn ons, especially when there are developers out >> there trying to get the boot-to-UI process down in the seconds range. >> >> any default GNOME installation on basically every modern distribution >> comes with: >> >> - menu applet >> - notification area >> - clock (+ weather) >> - audio volume applet >> - window list applet >> >> and not only I have yet to see any regular user change the contents of >> the panel (because it's mostly undiscoverable and because most people >> *just don't care*) but I also haven't heard any justification for >> allowing this in the first place. gnome-shell moves away from the menu >> and the window list applets; it embeds the notification area and the >> clock; and the volume is now becoming a notification area icon since >> basically everyone has media keys on their keyboard and don't need an >> on-screen slider anymore. >> >> yes, it was all good with GNOME 1.x, but even for 2.x the amount of >> applets has been steadily decreasing - also because writing an applet is >> not trivial (as it involves dealing with some of the most obscure and >> less documented parts of our development platform). people have been >> abusing the system notification area with all sorts of crap (beagle, >> tomboy, etc.) because writing an applet is *boring* (server files >> anyone?) and *hard* (weird build changes, hard to debug uses, completely >> different APIs for handling the menus), and it really doesn't provide >> you with much functionality (wow, an icon and a context menu!). >> >> so, please: saying "it would be a mistake" without providing reasons why >> it would be good to have applets support in the first place it's not >> going to convince me that we should keep them. >> >> ciao, >> Emmanuele. >> > > _______________________________________________ > desktop-devel-list mailing list > desktop-devel-list@gnome.org > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
