Ayatana-like notifications for Plasma

[Sebastian Kügler]

Hey,

I've had a look at the code, and found some issues with it, I also have some 
questions left. (I only did a quick/lazy review, and didn't actually compile and run 
the code.)

On Tuesday 01 September 2009 18:12:15 Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
> In case you want to have a look at the code, I uploaded the patch here:
> 
> http://people.canonical.com/~agateau/plasma-ayatana-notifications/

You don't need to remove the notifications from the systray by patching it, you can 
just turn it off with the config option (which you're apparently also removing). This 
only makes it harder to switch between those two.

Looking at the code, I see that you're basically not using the (QGraphicsView) 
canvas-based system Plasma uses. The Timeline stuff in there should probably use 
Plasma::Animator, so the notify-osd stuff respect desktop-wide settings for 
animations (you can switch them off in a central place, and have animations in 
different UI elements synced with each other). Also, hardcoding animation duration 
seems clunky -- again, no syncing of the animations with other animations, no way to 
switch it off in a central place. The bordering and spacing is also hard-coded, so it 
won't be the same as other elements in the desktop. Consistency across the desktop is 
IMO pretty important here.

Adding a small applet (small as in visible size) and have that let handle the 
notification visualization using the QGraphics* and Plasma classes that are supposed 
to handle these things smoothly. That way you don't need to cripple existing code, 
and get better integration for free. On top of that, you just flip one switch in the 
config and add a custom notification applet, no need to replace complete packages. 

Another pretty fundamental thing is the location of the popup. Putting it top right 
is a bit of a strange decision -- if understandable for those running GNOME (GNOME 
has more of those notification / systray type stuff in the top panel, KDE doesn't). 
Something to take up with the Ayatana team I guess. This way, it seems to be out of 
place to me.

BTW, what do you do with apps that have actions on their notifications? I haven't 
read the code closely enough to find out. I understand that passive notifications go 
top-right, the rest bottom left? How does this work with the removed extender stuff 
in your patch? Does this keep the active ones fully intact?

(from another email)
>> 4.  Is a vehicle to feed information back upstream to KDE to help them improve.
> I hope Plasma developers will like this and would be willing to 
> integrate this change upstream, but of course there is no way to know 
> how it will be received.

In its current implementation, technical and integration issues alone mean that it's 
not mergeable at this point. There are interesting bits in it, however (queueing 
being the one that I personally would like to see upstream rather sooner than later).

As to offering this as an option for Kubuntu in karmic, I would recommend against it. 
There are too many rough edges right now to make it look and feel really good. I 
think those that will try might end up rather disappointed, which in turn reflects 
badly on your work and Ayatana's in extension to that.

Cheers,
-- 
sebas

 http://www.kde.org | http://vizZzion.org |  GPG Key ID: 9119 0EF9 
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