Fast-user-switch-applet not on panel by default

[Tristan Wibberley]

On Thu, 2007-10-04 at 19:20 +1300, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> On Oct 4, 2007, at 2:08 AM, Vincent Untz wrote:

> > This can be extremly confusing. Someone will add the applet and see
> > nothing. Then adds it again. Again. Again. Creates a user. And finally
> > sees 4 applets...
> > ...
> 
> That's a symptom of another problem: to "add the applet", or any 
> applet, to your panel makes sense only if you already understand 
> applets as an idea. (And calling them "items" in the GUI doesn't fix 
> this problem.) "Add to Panel" assumes that people will be bored one day 
> and decide to fill their "panel" with "items", selecting whatever items 
> look interesting at the time. Ptui.
> 
> I think many, many more people would find the panel items useful if 
> they were configured from the relevant window -- for example, if the 
> "Users & Groups" window had a checkbox labelled something like "Show 
> menu for fast account switching". That checkbox was disabled if there 
> is only one user account, and it would be much more obvious why it was 
> disabled if it was here than if it was a zillion miles away in the "Add 
> to Panel" window.

I agree.

> Similarly, the clock could be configured in a tab in the "Time & Date" 
> window, the "Tomboy Notes" item could be a checkbox in Tomboy's 
> preferences, the presence of the "Trash" item could be a checkbox in 
> Nautilus's preferences, the presence of the "Show Desktop" and "Window 
> List" items could be checkboxes in the "Windows" preferences, and so 
> on.

I think the difference between launcher, applet, and status notification
needs to be more obvious and some sanitising wouldn't go amiss.

For example, GAIM uses a status notification icon to access the
application whilst it's running - so I can't move it anywhere unless I
move all my notifications. It also doesn't make sense for the icon to be
something that shows after going to Applications->Internet->Gaim...
rather Gaim should just be an applet. The Evolution contact list could
offer to give you Gaim (from an address card with a handle on a
supported service) as well as gnome-open when opening an irc: uri, etc.

Similarly for Tomboy. Why does the use case for an adhoc note-keeper
involve starting a search program/recently used list before I can just
add a damned note ? Tomboy should be a launcher or applet (doesn't much
matter which in this case since it isn't doing anything between clicks
and keypresses).

The status notification area should be for transitive elements,
Launchers for duplicative first actions (essentially a mere applet
optimisation), and applets for dynamic first actions - as well as
triggered UI and dynamic display. 

It would be nice to stick the Evolution contact list on as a launcher by
default too.

-- 
Tristan Wibberley

Any opinion expressed is mine (or else I'm playing devils advocate for
the sake of a good argument). My employer had nothing to do with this
communication.