unity-design team mailing list archive

[Sense Hofstede <qense@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 7 May 2010 15:58, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[snip]
> With most applications that play sounds (other than brief alert sounds),
> I think at least one these is true:
> (a) they have their own prominent volume control (e.g. music player,
>    movie player, audio editor)
> (b) they block access to the sound menu altogether (e.g. a full-screen
>    game)
> (c) you want to control volume within separate parts of the same
>    application, not the application as a whole (e.g. turning down the
>    volume on a browser tab at rainymood.com while you watch a
>    video in another browser tab).
>
> Given that, I don't think a per-application volume setting is useful
> enough to include in the sound menu. It is available in the Sound
> Preferences window "Applications" tab, and maybe that tab should be the
> default tab in the Sound Preferences window. But it doesn't really need
> to be more prominent than that.
>

I think I'm convinced now that adding all sound-using applications to
the menu might not be such a good idea after all. ;) I'm in favour of
what many people on this mailing list have already said: not
everything and more in the volume applet.

[snip]

Your mock-ups at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundMenu> look good. I do
hope that with 'Rhythmbox not running' you mean 'Rhythmbox running but
not playing'; it would be a shame if Rhythmbox would be hardcoded into
the menu.

I'm not so sure about adding player-specific menu entries. I know
Banshee wants to stuff half the player's functionality in a tiny menu,
but should we really break the consistency of the presentation of
music players in the Sound Menu to provide them that? Maybe the rating
menu entry wouldn't be bad, but in that case I'd also implement it for
Rhythmbox. However, adding the Repeat and Shuffle submenus would be a
bit too much, I feel.

Will other applications playing music, such as Totem, (GNOME )MPlayer,
VLC and audio editors also be added to the sound menu?

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