unity-design team mailing list archive

[Sense Hofstede <qense@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 19 May 2010 12:17, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 18/05/10 19:43, Dylan McCall wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:38 AM, David Hamm <davidthamm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Close=quit, some apps could just minimize to tray by default (music
> player). The music tray would already provide more function then the
> taskbar, no reason to minimize it there.
>
>
> That doesn't make sense to me. How, then, do we differentiate between
> these two? How do you quit Rhythmbox if Close=Quit, and why does
> Media›Close in its menu not do the same thing as Media›Quit? ;)
>
>
> The critical pieces in MPT's argument are that:
>
>  - apps which also provide services should show up in the panel whether or
> not they are running
>  - "state should be preserved across sessions"
>  - that state should also be visible in a persistent fashion, through the
> panel ("what was playing")
>  - changing state ("going online" or "playing music") should launch the
> application if needed.
>
> Putting those together, you get to a point where it doesn't matter that the
> application quit. Consider Rhythmbox. You are listening to a song and you
> close the window. You didn't say "stop playing", you just closed a window.
> Rhythmbox continues to play in the background. You can pause and start the
> music, or change playlists, through the sound menu.
>
> Now, say you've got a playlist playing, and you stop playback. Then you
> close the window. The point of the persistent state, and the continued
> expression in the sound menu when not playing, means that you can still have
> exactly the same experience. You can click on the sound menu, see what was
> playing (and hence, what will happen if you press play). If you click play,
> the app is launched, and you listen to your music. Simple. No window
> required - it's playing in the background.
>
> I think this handles the issues very cleanly and elegantly.
>
> Mark
>

Is Rhythmbox able to restore its previous state upon launch, or is
there a mechanism in place to allow third-party applications to load a
certain 'state', or selection?
That could cost some development to implement if it's not already
there and I think it would be best to start with that early in the
cycle so it can be tested properly and any unforeseen troubles won't
make Rhythmbox miss the freezes.

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