unity-design team mailing list archive

[David Siegel <david.siegel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> I am working on bug 372789 "NotifyOSD notifications shouldn't appear
> when using fullscreen applications".
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/372789
>
> I created a patch which detects fullscreen windows and disables
> notifications in this case, but it does not take the multiple monitors
> case into account: it just stops notifications if there is a fullscreen
> window on one of the monitors. I have two solutions:
>
> 1. Leave it as it is
> 2. Try to find a monitor without fullscreen windows and show the
> notification there
>
> What do you think is the best solution for this?
>
> Aurélien
>
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Here is the list of fullscreen applications we've come up with on the 
wiki so far:

   * Games
   * Firefox + firefox flash videos
   *

     OpenOffice <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OpenOffice> Impress

   * Totem, VLC, and other movie players
   *

     MonoDevelop <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MonoDevelop> and other IDEs

   *

     OpenOffice <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OpenOffice> Writer (has a nice
     fullscreen mode!)

   * GIMP
   * Image viewer , picasa slideshows
   * Remote Desktop Clients
   * Skype Video Chat, and other video chat applications

Personally, I would want notifications more often than not when 
fullscreen-ed in games, while browsing in Firefox, while watching any 
movie shorter than an hour in length, while programming in an IDE like 
MonoDevelop, while working in OpenOffice writer on my netbook, while 
editing photos in GIMP, while viewing a remote desktop, and while 
conducting personal skype video calls.

Whether my preferences match yours perfectly is not the point, so lets 
not argue each case individually. I hope we can agree that fullscreen 
mode does not imply that the user wishes notifications to be blocked; it 
does not even imply that "low-priority" notifications should not be shown.

On the other hand, we can agree that OpenOffice Impress in presentation 
mode is a very special case, and that if we had to pick a default 
behavior for notify-osd during a presentation, it would be more 
reasonable to turn notifications off than to leave them on.

So, can applications be given a say in this? Or can we create a 
blacklist? Would a default blacklist, with per-application notify-osd 
control for the user be a good option?

David