On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:41 AM, Christopher Armstrong <carmstr...@fastmail.com.au> wrote: > > 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)?
yes -- we'd like to be document-centric. Start a document, put things onto it. Some things don't work that well with a document-centric model (think iTunes -- basically when you want to do a task that doesn't involve creating something) but for those kind of tasks we can have dedicated applications/components. > * Is there a distinction between objects and documents or are documents > just a type of object (like a "person" or an "email")? There shouldn't be a distinction. > * 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? not entirely sure how to answer -- it will depends on how we write this :) > * Are projects just layed out on the screen as icons? Can a user > organise a project hierarchically or in groups? projects are basically "environments". If you know squeak, think about something similar. > * Can projects be worked on collaboratively between users? that's one of the goal. > * 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? yes, I think we may need something more than pure documents -- some things are not really documents per se, more like infos panels. Other things are just tasks-driven, etc. -- Nicolas Roard "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -- Douglas Adams _______________________________________________ Etoile-dev mailing list Etoile-dev@gna.org https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/etoile-dev
