[ubuntu-art] next meeting

Sat Feb 9 01:28:48 GMT 2008

(Should have changed topic title when we had the chance...)

A little applet I have been working on (very slowly) is designed to separate
the idea of a window and the process that creates it, as the two concepts
should be. It is effectively a fancy window switcher, but the magic is with
an idea that each window is grouped with its parent process. This means we
can get the one (and only) intuitive behaviour that people see with MacOS's
unified menu bar (where Preferences, Quit, etc. are all under a menu for the
*program*). It also encourages an idea of keeping processes running even
when windows are closed, which is really the only feature necessary to be as
"intutive" as the OSX dock.

Launchers, in this case, are irrelevent -- especially when we consider the
very stable nature of the ideal Linux system, which certainly does not
necessitate restarting the computer very often. The idea is that processes
can keep running quietly, providing services (for example fancy d-bus
stuff!) without intruding, and without their presence being invisible to the
user. In this way, one *needn't *navigate the menu to open Epiphany the
hundredth time in a session, because the browser provides some little
callbacks for its process icon in the new application list applet as one of
its functions not tied to windows. (One callback being to the left click
function, which triggers it to open a new window!).

Bye,
--Dylan McCall

On Fri, Feb 8, 2008 at 11:45 AM, Álvaro Medina Ballester <
xlasttrainhomex at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thinking about the idea of merging window selector and app launcher...
> imagine that theoric bar (let's call it uBar), you have firefox, evolution,
> mplayer and vlc running. Firefox is your most used browser, evolution _is
> not_ your most used mail client and vlc is your most used video player. If
> you click on browser, mail or video section, that bar _should not_ open
> another window, should execute Exposé (on Mac OS X, I think it's window
> selector on compiz-fusion) but just showing windows of the category you've
> clicked on.
>
> So we have one click app launcher and one click window selector. And you
> don't have to look in a lot of windows because you show windows depending on
> the category. I think that this would solve that problems with simplicity in
> a user-friendly intuitive way and we can make it eye candy too!
>
> 2008/2/8, Álvaro Medina Ballester <xlasttrainhomex at gmail.com>:
>
> > Hi everybody!
> >
> > I was wondering how could be that app launcher and this is my point of
> > view:
> >
> > First of all, I think that having a KDE/Windows menu is unusable. Why?
> > you need several clicks to open recent apps so if you use an aplication
> > frequently it slows your workflow. Mac OS X bar is a good approach, but it
> > still can be optimized. How? instead of having icons with apps we can have
> > sections (browsers, file managers, media players...) and one icon
> > representing each section. One click in that icon (for example, internet
> > browsers) would open the most used browser and holding click into that
> > section would show something like Leopard stacks with all the browsers. Then
> > if you release the mouse button over any browser it should be opened.
> >
> > I'm sure that this idea can be improved, but what do you think about it?
> > it think that it would provide a great way to open/browse your applications.
> >
> >
> > Cheers.
> >
> > 2008/2/8, Andrew Laignel <a.laignel at ukdotcafe.com>:
> > >
> > > Sumit Chandra Agarwal wrote:
> > > > I do like this idea very much, but I think there would be a lot of
> > > > resistance to it as I think people like having their desktop as a
> > > junk
> > > > store.
> > > > Or maybe they're just too used to the idea.
> > > > But it gets a thumbs-up from me! Its mildly annoying to me that
> > > > Firefox/etc don't use the home folder or home/downloads as the
> > > default
> > > > save to.
> > > >
> > > If you think about it files should go in /home/ and nowhere else.
> > > Storing them on the desktop is about as sensible as storing them in
> > > the
> > > system tray.  It's only the colossal weight of history behind the
> > > whole
> > > 'save to your desktop' thing.  It just means you have more places to
> > > check when looking for things.
> > >
> > > A solution may be to treat the desktop as /home/ - so it is the same
> > > place - only by default do not show any icons or folders.  Clicking
> > > the
> > > Home Folder Icon will display in the gap to the RHS a box with the
> > > files/folders that is navigable.  If it loses focus, or you click the
> > > icon again, it would disappear.  Dropping files on the desktop would
> > > copy them to /home/
> > >
> > > While on the subject someone mentioned splitting files and folders
> > > distinctly, IE put the rows of folders at the top of the window, a
> > > small
> > > gap, then the files.  This would help people differentiate between
> > > whats
> > > in a folder, and other folders.
> > >
> > > Webmaster, Jhnet.co.uk <http://jhnet.co.uk/> wrote:
> > > > The proposition of a new menu is a good idea however I do not like
> > > the
> > > > menus that people are coming out with that work like the
> > > > SuSE/KDE4/Vista menus - how is it possibly a good idea to 1) Have a
> > > > programs list that *SCROLLS*, 2) Have all the programs at the top of
> > > > the menu (when you open the menu by clicking something underneath
> > > it).
> > > I think the main menu bar needs to go at the bottom, otherwise it
> > > makes
> > > it harder to deal with the full screen windows.  I don't think
> > > inversely
> > > sorting it is a good idea either so that little extra mouse movement I
> > > think may be unavoidable.  :)
> > > > Sure we need a better system but whatever is invented should not be
> > > a
> > > > traditional pop up menu. What would probably be a very good idea is
> > > a
> > > > task bar widget that displays your most frequently used/last used
> > > > programs as shortcut icons next to the traditional menus. This means
> > > > that it is accessible to newcomers because they don't need to
> > > actively
> > > > do something to put the icons there, adds the functionality of a
> > > > recently used list (which KDE has had for eons), but most
> > > importantly
> > > > it gives *single click* access to programs!
> > > That may work.  Firefox + Thunderbird are 'pinned' - maybe pinned
> > > software should display as icons on the quicklaunch - so anything you
> > > use regularly = 1 click.  Say the top 5 items on the recent list
> > > display
> > > as icons in the quicklaunch.  This may confuse people as they would
> > > change without user intervention so maybe pinned only is best?
> > >
> > > Travis Watkins wrote:
> > > > Actually, the desktop effectively does not exist exactly because it
> > > is
> > > > covered almost all the time. This is probably why people don't worry
> > > > about using it as a junk store, they never see it unless they're
> > > > diving in there to get something anyway. Kind of like the junk
> > > drawer
> > > > on your real desk. :)
> > > >
> > > It's more like leaving junk on your desk when you should put it in
> > > your
> > > drawer, to the point your desk just becomes another storage area (bad)
> > > instead of a useful place for doing tasks (good).  Can't find you
> > > phone
> > > because of all the crap on your desk?  It's the same thing.
> > >
> > > My point is that the desktop should be used more as a form of UI, not
> > > as
> > > yet another place to store files. By mixing app launchers, shortcuts
> > > and
> > > files on the desktop you confuse people about what does
> > > what.  Generally
> > > if someone has a desktop covered with crap its because they don't
> > > understand the computer well enough to know that they should keep it
> > > in
> > > /home/.  Forcing good practice isn't really a bad idea.
> > >
> > > --
> > > ubuntu-art mailing list
> > > ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> > > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Álvaro.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Álvaro.
> --
> ubuntu-art mailing list
> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
>
>
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