unity-design team mailing list archive

[Sense Hofstede <qense@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Quick Lookup Information
>
> Applications have previously have made some information quickly available by
> using a tooltip on the icon.  While I don't wish to start the tooltip
> discussion again, what I'm curious about is we can't find a solution for
> this information that isn't a tooltip.  Does some sort of standard menu item
> help?  Could we put it somewhere else?
>
Skipping the rest of your questions: I think that it would be best to
only allow certain applications to display 'quick lookup information'.
I'm thinking: put all media players together with all other
audio-using-applications -- USE PulseAudio's features! -- in the sound
menu and make there room for showing the currently playing song. Put
other 'quick lookup information' in the battery applet, etc.

All this information would not be put in there using ugly hacks like
insensitive menu items, but instead using a predefined protocol. The
applet can than process the information. We could show the information
in a tooltip, but we could also use insensitive menu items if we
cannot think of anything else. We could also do both, we have the
information and can decide how to process it.

This would also make it easier if the design specification changes in
later releases.

Regards,
-- 
Sense Hofstede
[ˈsɛn.sə ˈɦɔf.steː.də]