I've been subscribed to the etoile-dev mailing list for some time but usually only observe the discussions here.
On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:14 +0100, "Quentin Mathé" <qma...@gmail.com> wrote: > Among the other important stuff to do: > - Finishing ProjectManager, it's the basis of the WM that is supposed > to supercede Azalea and implement the project-orientation ideas. This > one is not currently listed on the Open Projects page. You need to > know/learn XCB though This one sounded interesting to me. I've tried reading some of the Etoile "vision" and "UI mockup" pages on the web site, which I think I understand a bit. Is someone able to explain what sort of components are involved in this piece of the project? >From what I can work out: * ProjectManager is cross between a workspace and window manager. It manages a set of user-defined projects. * It has a window manager. * There is a way to tag documents or objects to a project, both custom tags and automatically derived ones (such as e.g. file creation date or who created it) * Each project has a set of documents/objects in it. * There is a shelf for storing objects that aren't necessarily tied to a particular project or have meaning outside of the projects they appear in. I had more questions though: * How does a user create a new document? Is it a prototyping model, where they goto a toolbox and drag down a copy of a prototype? Maybe they take an existing document and copy it using some UI action? Maybe its simple like the Microsoft "New" context menu in Explorer? I got the impression that an application model, where the user starts up the application and selects "New Document", is (from what I've been reading on the web site) something you guys were trying to avoid)? * Is there a distinction between objects and documents or are documents just a type of object (like a "person" or an "email")? * Does the object model have a way of linking an object to its representation" in the UI i.e. given an object, how does ProjectManager know how to represent it on the screen as an icon or if it isn't open? * Are projects just layed out on the screen as icons? Can a user organise a project hierarchically or in groups? * Can projects be worked on collaboratively between users? * There didn't appear to be a space for something that represents stateful objects, like the list of online or offline buddies in the system or that new mail has arrived (I did notice the "People" tag though). Perhaps projects can have "notification objects" that don't necessarily store state but are like lists that match objects meeting certain criteria e.g. a list of all mail (new and read) that contains a keyword belonging to the project? Any enlightenment about these questions would be appreciated, even if its just to clarify about the "vision" for Etoile. Thanks Chris -- Christopher Armstrong carmstrong ^^AT^ fastmail dOT com /Dot/ au _______________________________________________ Etoile-dev mailing list Etoile-dev@gna.org https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/etoile-dev
