unity-design team mailing list archive

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Luke,

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 16:54, Luke Benstead <kazade@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In 10.10 we'll have two "group" indicators; the messaging and sound menus.
> Both of these menus allow applications to run inside them, by this I mean
> when the window is closed they continue to run in the background available
> from the indicator. So these "background" applications are Gwibber,
> Evolution(?), Empathy and soon Rhythmbox. There are of course others that
> attach to the menus.
>

While i enjoy the news, it comes to me that at some point we need to stop
talking about apps here, focusing on the functionality we actually want to
see in those group menus.

Which messaging features should the messaging menu encompass?
Displaying links to incoming messages?
Sending new messages?
Finding contacts / people?
Adding a contact to a conversation?

How far should this group indicator take the Messaging Menu?

For all i know, the Me Menu is currently the only indicator menu that can
send a message to a messaging service.. Broadcast, i.e.

Now, what I've experienced is a range of inconsistency outside of the
> default applications. For example, there is a Thunderbird plugin for the
> messaging menu, but closing the Thunderbird window quits the application,
> which is not what I expect.
>
> I think it would be a good idea to remove the minimize button from
> applications that appear in the group indicators (and run in the
> background).


Here's a recent mockup of GNOME Shell (thanks for the link, Jan-Christoph):
http://vimeo.com/13797705
* no minimize button
* large close button
* large maximize button, probably equals "full screen"

minimizing stuff is quite old-school imo..
what's the purpose of minimizing stuff?
we want to close the window and keep the app running and accessible via a
symbol or button somehow..

I think Mark's idea of showing different close buttons for apps that quit
upon "close" is the solution here.. see:
https://lists.launchpad.net/ayatana/msg02181.html

That's really what we need imo. Minimizing is something a clever system
should know to do automatically, the minimize button is totally redundant if
we start closing windows without killing the apps along with them..

Perhaps a better integration of the escape key would help greatly! Imagine
pressing the top left button of your computer keyboard to close a window
without quitting the application.. i think the learning curve to that would
be quite steep and short.

This already works for menus and should imo be adapted for windows also.