unity-design team mailing list archive

[Martín Soto <donsoto@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 3:32 PM, Paulo J. S. Silva <pjssilva@xxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Em Ter, 2009-07-07 às 13:49 +0200, Martín Soto escreveu:
> > Also, future versions of X/Gnome wil automatically offer a
> > configuration box as soon as you plug in a monitor. We can consider
> > asking the user once at that point if this is a projector. The UI for
> > doing this would have to be very well thought, but I guess this could
> > work if done properly.
>
> I don't see how this guessing can be reliable. I usually use my laptop
> in an external monitor to save my back some pain, but I want my
> notifications in that case.


A regular monitor and a video projector are different devices, and their
EDID data [1] is likely to be different enough that we can indeed
distinguish among them. EDID is not 100% foolproof however. Some devices
report partially wrong data, for example. It can also happen that the EDID
chip gets damaged and stops working at some point, even if the monitor
continues to operate. But, all in all, this may be a workable solution.

And the idea of asking "always" when you plug in an external monitor is
> a bad one. As I said I plug one everyday, I don't want to answer the
> same question everyday. However I give presentations once a month. It is
> much more reasonable to me to turn on the "don't notify me" mode at that
> moment.


The system can remember devices you have used, based on their EDID data. If
you always use the same (type of) device, you would only have to answer the
question once. Also, if your projector has completely broken EDID, you'll
have to think of disabling notifications every time you use it, anyway.
Wouldn't it be better to be reminded of that when you plug it in?

M. S.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data