On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 14:58, Matthew Paul Thomas
<mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx wrote on 16/12/10 18:42:
>...
>...
>...
>>> The high level concept of Silent Mode active during a Desktop session
>>> is that the user has a simple way of enabling an disturbance-free
>>> experience in order to be able to focus on an important task, work,
>>> project, conversation, movie, audio or what have you.
>>>
>>> Has anyone started speccing this out already?
>>
>> I don't believe so. If you would like to do a spec, either work with
>> MPT or I'll review it with you until it gets approval and then it can
>> be queued for 11.10. This is LOOOONG overdue, and I appreciate your
>> offer of help.
>
> This has probably been lying around for so long, because of design
> conflicts with how the Ayatana subsystem is currently wired.
> * Presence has no local effect
> * Presence has no effect on Skype (except with Pidgin running)
> ->
https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-me/+bug/684678
> * System Sounds are not connected with notifications (perhaps with
> Dylan's patch?)
exactly, they merely contribute to the problem somehow, as you will elaborate later in your mail..
i'd like to add another issue that contributes to the problem:
We have no "connected to the internet" indicator.
The main reason is that, as you say,
> Busy aka DoNotDisturb has been around for as long as i know Presence in
> IM,
and no-one has ever gotten around the problem that (a) having to go
online with your IM account for the purpose of being interrupted *less*
often would be daft, and
I did! ;) (perhaps a mail that never left /drafts) :
* put an ON|OFF toggle for IM into the MeMenu
* always keep Presence controls active, regardless of IM¹
* remove "Available", since it is identical with the regular Presence state for IM and the Desktop Session
* remove "Offline", since it is identical to IM = OFF
* allow checking and unchecking Away OR Busy
* make "Invisible" an extra checkbox, orthogonal to the other Presence controls. [perhaps rename to "visible"]
This is why i mentioned invisible in the first place.
For those who want to appear as "busy" or "do not disturb" on IM, while keeping notifications ON (unmuted), we can leave an override interface in Empathy, as Contact List currently has.
Me Menu Presence controls should remain the Master controls for all clients who obey the User's wish for privacy as commanded via Me Menu.
(b) any design that works around that by making
"being online" a separate thing from being in "do not disturb" mode
would make IM slower and more complicated to use.
Thank You! I have been beating my head agains this one, but your above statement confirms my initial position.
Maybe we can rename "busy" to "do not disturb", semantics.. ;)
For any design problem, I consider: Can it be solved by
1. removing things?
2. merging things?
3. moving or renaming things?
Only if none of those will work do I consider making the system more
complex by adding things.
i noticed this while looking at your designs and it is the same thing i do when i'm producing a song:
if you keep on adding instruments and tracks, you have more material to arrange and more work in mixing later, so less redundancy is less chaos and less complexity, hence a more orderly interface.
For example, to solve the problem of too many interruptions:
* remove unnecessary notification bubbles from programs
<http://mairin.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/chatty-applications/>
* merge or replace notification bubbles, in programs where that's
appropriate
* merge Skype status setting with status setting for other IM
protocols, so you don't need to set "Do not disturb" twice
* move and/or reword the options for interruptions, to make them more
obvious in programs like Evolution and Empathy.
All those things could, and should, be done regardless of whether a
"silent mode" is added later. And if they were done, a silent mode
probably wouldn't be necessary.
i think i want to know that if i press "This button here", i'll have my peace for sure.
I need a way of guaranteeing that during a high level staff meeting, my presentation will absolutely not be interrupted by anything.
OTOH i agree that a professional application for business presentations will by itself inhibit any kind of disturbances.
Still i think it is better to have such a state, which is managed and guaranteed by the system, centrally, globally, locally and for the connected outside world.
>...
> other issues in the same domain:
> * Invisible doesn't really work - it jumps to busy always
That seems like a bug, not a design.
Correct, and once invisible works, we have another way of managing our privacy during a desktop session, as i explained briefly above.
> * the Session Menu is on the wrong side of the panel (imo)
In an ideal PC operating system, the session menu wouldn't be necessary
either. Adding an extra menu was easier than doing the necessary changes
in GDM and the kernel.
I'm sorry i ever brough it up! :P
On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 16:11, Omer Akram
<om26er@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Fixed in Natty more specifically telepathy-gabble ~0.10.0 ;-)
On Thu, 2010-12-16 at 19:42 +0100,
frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> * Invisible doesn't really work - it jumps to busy always
Thanks, Omer! ;)
¹ allowing the user to set his desired state of Availability *before* activating IM allows for "going online" in a desired state, instead of being limited to being Available by default