[Ayatana] Do indicator applications need minimize?

[Luke Benstead <kazade@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is just something I've thought about...

In 10.10 we'll have two "group" indicators; the messaging and sound menus. Both of these menus allow applications to run inside them, by this I mean when the window is closed they continue to run in the background available from the indicator. So these "background" applications are Gwibber, Evolution(?), Empathy and soon Rhythmbox. There are of course others that attach to the menus.

Now, what I've experienced is a range of inconsistency outside of the default applications. For example, there is a Thunderbird plugin for the messaging menu, but closing the Thunderbird window quits the application, which is not what I expect.

I think it would be a good idea to remove the minimize button from applications that appear in the group indicators (and run in the background). For two reasons:

1. This removes the ambiguity surrounding "where did my window go". At the moment, if the Gwibber window isn't visible, it's either in your taskbar, or it's available in the indicator. If there was no minimize button then the only option would be "close" which would send it back to the indicator applet. You'd always look there for Gwibber.
2. It forces non-default applications to behave consistently. Without the possibility of minimizing, application developers would make sure that if they integrate with a group indicator they continue to run when the main window is closed.

Thoughts?

Luke.

P.S. I'm only talking about apps that run in the group indicators, not things like Transmission which have their own indicators.