Getting a usability patch into gnome-panel package?

[Vincent Untz]

Le dimanche 10 février 2008, à 22:09 +1300, Matthew Paul Thomas a écrit :
> On Feb 7, 2008, at 9:06 AM, William Lachance wrote:
>> ...
>> A while back I fixed up a patch originally written by Novell to GNOME
>> panel, which makes it impossible to move without unlocking it first  
>> (the default setting is locked). This prevents the user from  
>> inadvertently moving the panel when (e.g.) they're just trying to open  
>> an application.
>> ...
>> This really is a serious usability problem: it's tripped up my
>> girlfriend at least once, and you can see lots of complaints in the  
>> bugs about this happening to other people as well. I'd really love to  
>> see it fixed.
>
> Unfortunately this is not a good solution to the problem, because it  
> introduces an unnecessary mode -- unlocked versus locked. Modes should  
> be avoided whenever possible, because remembering which mode you're in  
> takes extra mental effort.
>
> A better solution would be to introduce a quasimode, a temporary mode  
> based on a physical action. We already have an example of this for  
> dragging in Ubuntu: holding down the Alt key currently lets you move  
> windows by dragging anywhere, even on areas where dragging would  
> normally do something else.
>
> The panel could copy this behavior: Alt+dragging could move the panel,  
> while normal dragging does nothing. That way people would be much less  
> likely to move the panel by mistake.

FWIW, the current plan, discussed at GUADEC, is to have both solutions:
"edit mode" (where you can easily move/add/remove applets and panels)
and the alt+drag for moving applets and panels.

It just needs to be implemented :-)

Vincent

-- 
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