Brian Cameron ??: > > What is the accessibility impact of this new mechanism of accessing > "applet like things"? Does this "just work" with accessibility? If > not, what is our plan to make it accessible?
AWN is used to manage the running task, and some applets. We can use Ctl+Alt+Tab to access the running task, it should be accessibility support. For the applets in AWN, no way to access them through keyboard by now. > > Also, how does this relate to gDesklets? Although giving users choice > to customize their desktop is a good thing, I hope we aren't going to > end up with a mish-mash of random eyecandy that doesn't work well or > integrate together. There is no confliction between gDesklets and AWN, gDesklets used to place the applets to desktop, AWN will run applets in its dock. The applets is different, for gDesklets, using .display file, while AWN need .desktop file in the applet package. > >> 2.1. Project Description: >> Avant Window Navigator (AWN/Awn) is a dock-like >> navigation bar for the >> desktop. >> >> 2.2. Risks and Assumptions: >> 1. Through the preferences of AWN, AWN manager, user can add >> new applets, which is developed by third-party or someone, but >> they are not stable or missing some dependencies required to >> run , so may cause some error. So if user like to add new >> applets, should go to Applet Gallery, and install the >> stable ones. > > Do users need to compile code to install a new applet, or are the > applets interpreted (e.g. Python code) so that users can just install an > applet and it will just work without needing to do extra complicated > things like compile code? Yes, for Python applet, user can use awn-manager to install directly, no compile needed. For C, need to build and install. > >> If someone develop the applet for AWN, should follow Applet >> Submission at http://wiki.awn-project.org/Awn_Extras:Applet_Submission > > Could you give some examples of what sorts of applets are available for > this framework? See http://wiki.awn-project.org/Applets:DevelopmentGuidelines, where list the detailed guideline on what the applet should be. You also can download awn-extras, there are some stable example. >What applets are installed by default and what do they do? Currently from what I can see, there is only 1 applet installed by default, it is Launch/Taskmanager, in order to add some other, have to use awn-extras. >How active are third parties or individuals at creating applets? It really depend on the individual who like to contribute his applet to AWN, from what I can see, there definitely are quite some new applets provided by some developers. > > I notice the Applet Gallery you describe is here: > > http://wiki.awn-project.org/Applet_Gallery > > Which ones will we be shipping, if any? Most of the applets listed in Gallery are just in awn-extra, also there are some applets contributed by some developers, awn-extras is another different project, I tried to build it, failed, because all of applets are in this package, some applet need different dependencies, some of them are missing on Solaris, e.g. python-alsaaudio. > >> Avant Window Navigator (AWN/Awn) is a dock-like navigation bar >> for the linux desktop that positions itself at the bottom of >> the screen. It can be used to keep track of open windows and >> behaves like a normal window list, you can also add a place or >> location (home folder or a drive for >> example) to the dock. So to make you have control of your >> computer just >> from the dock. > > Although it does look cool, I worry that it will confuse users if we > provide another interface that works very similar to gnome-panel. I > would appreciate more information about what our future plans are. Will > avant-window-navigator replace gnome-panel, will it be used together > with gnome-panel, or is it expected that users will pick one or the > other to use? Perhaps you could explain a bit how you expect users > would actually use this in relation to gnome-panel. Yes, It's a big concern now, we have gnome-panel, should we ship AWN? At the moment, AWN can't replace gnome-panel, reason below: 1, AWN need compositing support, it means before run AWN, you have to make Compiz start, then AWN can run, so in the non-Compiz environment, we can only use gnome-panel. 2, There is no launch menu by default in AWN, and the AWN menu can't updates when applications are installed. 3, Trash in AWN is not stable enough now. 4, maybe something others I did not dig out.. > > If they are intended to be used together, then is it likely that users > be confused by having two sets of interfaces that do very similar > things? Yes, this issue also bother me, so I'd say AWN can provide some different experience which gnome-panel can't provide, e.g. 3D.. So if user like to taste, he can download and use it. > > If the intention is that users would use one or the other, then how > do users pick which one to use? By now, we can't remove gnome-panel and use AWN only, the reason listed above, so user need to run both of them. In GNOME we already support two window > managers (metacity and compiz). Users can easily manage switching > between the two because the GNOME configuration dialogs allows users to > pick which one they will use. This way users are prevented from > possibly trying to run both at the same time, making a more sane user > experience. Is switching back and forth between gnome-panel and > avant-window-navigator managed in a similar simple fashion? by now it's impossible to switch between them, because we can't remove gnome-panel. > >> AWN is a dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of you screen, >> allowing you to launch and control applications. Also has the >> ability to embed external applets. Look and feel are fully >> customisable, and theming support is also available. >> >> AWN ships with only the Launcher/Taskmanager applet. Many other >> applets, >> such as the Main Menu, "Stacks", CPU meter, and GMail notifier >> applets can be found in Awn Extras. Once you have installed >> some applets, you can add them to the dock via awn-manager, in >> the "Applets" section. >> >> User also can develop plugin for AWN, which allow >> already-existing applications to interact with AWN. Awn Extras >> is a project focusing on providing a number of important >> applets (not unlike the panel applets for Gnome and Xfce) in a >> single package, along with a number of plugins that allow >> applications to better interface with Awn's task manager. >> These applets range from a Trash applet to fancy workspace >> switcher. To obtain them, follow the Awn Extras download >> instructions. You will find the plugins in >> /awn-extras/awn-plugins. > > Will we be integrating any of these Extra plugins with this case, or a > separate case? Or are you just informing us that end users can install > additional applets if they wish? They should be in awn-extras, it's another project, we may consider to deliver it separately. > > If we aren't shipping any plugins with this case, how useful is > avant-window-navigator? In other words, do users need to install any > extra plugins for it to be really usable? No, they are optional... > >> The applets included into the core distribution of AWN >> >> 4.4. Out of Scope: >> >> Applets developed by third party developers. > > It is not clear to me if this refers to the "Extra plugins" or not. It means the applets developed by some contributor themselves and the ones in awn-extras which is another project and not in core distribution > > Brian
