unity-design team mailing list archive

[Joern Konopka <cldx3000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 19.08.2010, at 23:34, Apoorva Sharma <appi2012@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 1:27 AM, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  On 08/08/10 20:49, Apoorva Sharma wrote:
> > I like all these ideas, but why not do what KDE4 did, and present a
> > desktop of files, a zeitgeist timeline, etc. as widgets, so you could
> > have access to files and useful information?
> 
> I do think a gadget story is interesting. There's no really compelling
> framework out there today, though. Google's implementations have a lot
> of rendering and usability problems, and the gadgets are not attractive.
> Yahoo's is closed source. The others are marginal.
> 
> I was thinking more on the lines of desktop implementations, not web implemtation, like KDE4's Plasma.
> 
> Am I missing a good candidate?
> 
> I don't think you forgot to mention any specific candidate, but is it possible to create an implementation ourselves? It wouldn't need so many gadgets, just a clock, file view, and notes should be enough to start. However, if we had a good framework for developing more, I'm sure more will follow.
> 
> Also, something like this could possibly work:
> http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/plasmadashboard-equivalent-coming-to.html
>  

If I may lead attention to SeedKit for a second:
http://live.gnome.org/SeedKit
In a nutshell it's a gtkWidget holding a (optionally) transparent webkit container, it ties strongly with the Seed JavaScript Implementation, GObject Introspection and DBUS (all the sweet stuff everyones looking at right now).
I think by putting WebTechnology in the front row we'll have the highest possible developer base. Just imagine something like A Ubuntu Widget Website not unlike Android Market or the App Store ( or a tie in with the USC ) where people can upload new Widgets which provide them with capabilities like :
1. Easy to learn and get into ( any other guy could write a basic Widget within under a Day)

2. Are easily portable to other Mobile Devices, Websites and Distributions 

3. Offers Devs of f.e. iPhone HTML5 Apps a very convenient way to bring their Apps to a new Audience in form of a Widget.

The sweet thing about it, it's already working and would only need the WM_CLASS treatment (meaning a window class for widgets of course).

One could even go as far as supplying the Widget with a pull and push function (Pull= a "real" GTKWindow, push=move back to widget space) and you could even "listen" to the window state via CSS Media Queries.

Proof of concept:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1890515/MiniPlayerPreview.ogv

I pulled this off in just a couple hours even though I never used Seedkit before.

Best Regards, Joern
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