Ayatana-like notifications for Plasma

[Scott Kitterman]

On Tue, 1 Sep 2009 10:09:30 -0700 "Tom M. Shaw" <firephoto at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Tuesday 01 September 2009 02:20:05 am Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
>> - Passive notifications (aka notifications without actions) would appear 
>> in the top-right corner, and would be queued: if three notifications 
>> come at the same time, they would be displayed one after the other to 
>> reduce spamming.  These notifications would be using the Plasma tooltip 
>> background so that they are well integrated in the desktop, while 
>> looking "lighter" than the regular notifications.  The notifications 
>> would smoothly fade in on start and fade out when done.  They would also 
>> fade out when moving the mouse over them.
>> 
>> - Active notifications (aka notification with actions) would remain as 
>> they are: stacked on top of the system tray applet.
>> 
>> - This feature would be disabled by default, users would have to opt-in 
>> to give it a try.  This opt-in would be part of what we called the 
>> "Ayatana session".
>> 
>
>This top right location just seems out of place on a KDE desktop. Passive 
>system notifications have always appeared at the location of the system tray 
>along with most other notifications and I think KDE users expect this 
>behavior. I also don't see the point of separating (physically) one type of 
>notification from other types but I suspect this isn't really the point but 
>more of an issue that the 'top right' is the default location of the GNOME 
>system tray.

Plasma netbook, which we are using a pre-release version of for Kubuntu Netbook Edition and is planned for KDE 4.4, has an auti-hide top panel by default.  The notifications follow near the panel and seems quite natural to me (just as at the bottom feels natural on my laptop/desktop with the panel at the bottom).

>Overall this just seems to be adding an extra layer on top of already capable 
>and working layer that exists for giving the user notifications of various 
>types and allowing it in even as an option just takes away from an already 
>existing solution that works very well. A lot of people choose KDE because it 
>it is what it is and not because it's trying hard to look or be like something 
>else.
>
This is to experiment and perhaps learn new lessons that will influence future KDE releases.  Personally, I don't feel that attracted to the Ayatana design over what KDE already has (I do think they've provided a good step forward for Gnome), but I support this concept.

As a Kubuntu developer, I'm most worried about:

1.  Is truly opt-in for people who want to explore different ways of doing things.

2.  Is not overly intrusive for people who don't care to use it.

3.  Is maintainable and doesn't introduce additional burden for those of us trying to produce Kubuntu.

4.  Is a vehicle to feed information back upstream to KDE to help them improve.

As long as those criteria are met, I'm all for it.  I'd like to see this experimental area for Ayatana to provide some really good ideas for us wwithout them being forced on users before they are fully baked.

Scott K