unity-design team mailing list archive

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 16:48, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> It's just a menu, it's not reinventing the audio system.
>

..yet it's close to reinventing the audio backend's interface to the
technically unaware user.

"The menu should give easiest access to the volume of the primary sound
> output device and the primary sound input device. Other devices can be
> accessed through the Sound Preferences window."
> <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundMenu#Menu%20structure>
>

yeah, great ;) That helps keep things orderly.
Devices aside (OT anyway), how about treating applications like GlobalMenu
does?
When e.g. Totem is focused, why not focus primarily Totem's options in the
sound menu?

imagine the following scenario:
1. start a song in Rhythmbox
2. hide main Rhythmbox window with the proposed "hide" button
3. raise e.g. Abiword to compose text
4. access Sound Menu to change Rhythmboxes volume

The use case in which i would need a "main volume" slider is rather a
workaround for not knowing which app is disturbing.
For this we have the single sliders in "Applications" within Sound
Preferences.

Also, "Sound Preferences" is not a good name.

my thoughts, condensed:
* make Sound Menu behave like GlobalMenu
* give Sound Menu > Sound Preferences > Applications a more accessible
semantic path