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[Ayatana] Instant-messaging as an indicator menu
We've been talking a bit about the advanced capabilities a volume-control indicator menu could have, and that's got me thinking a bit about how the empathy contact list works...
We go to the indicator to open the contact list. We select items there, and interact a bit. Then (if you're like me) you close the contact list window so it's out of the way until you want it again.
This sounds a lot like the behavior of a menu.
What if opening an 'IM' indicator opened as a menu that you could interact with, that would show the contacts, their status (with icons) and options to interact with it (start conversations, voip sessions, add/remove contacts, join conferences, etc).
This would do a couple really interesting things in my mind:
1) I used to like the 'systray' behavior for empathy, because it gave me one location on the panel where I could show/hide the empathy window. With a menu-like approach, all the open/close behavior for the contact-list dialog becomes unified at one location again.
2) The 'close' vs 'hide' debate over what the big 'X' on the contact list window's titlebar becomes irrelevant... there's never a real window any more.
If you're like me, the 'contact list' window is usually long and narrow (like a menu), with a long vertical list of entries to interact with (like a menu).
This would also play nicely with the other IM/social-networking interfaces that go into indicator menus, like the status-setting UI.
Thoughts?