unity-design team mailing list archive

[Peterson Silva <peterson.235@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, I have an idea. Maybe this was discussed here before; if it was, I'm
sorry.

There was an ayatana thread here discussing a short-term solution for e-mail
in Ubuntu. One thing I particularly remember from it was something about
duplication of effort when it comes to shortcuts and how to access features;
since the launcher now has an API, you can click on the messaging menu or
right-click on evolution icon in the launcher, etc.

Well, this inspired me. Do we really need the system tray when similar
things can be achieved through the launcher now?

Picture it: Instead of using the launcher icon to launch / focus Clementine
*and* the sound menu to control it, why don't we have the sound menu
functions embedded into Clementine right-click menu?

Or, instead, why don't we have an icon in the launcher with the same
functions the sound menu currently has?

The same goes for, say, Transmission (when not launched, right-clicking
would only show regular menu; after it's launched, right-click would show
indicator menu), Ejecter (I'm currently using it, that's why I had the
idea), keyboard layout, messaging menu... Everything!

Me menu could then mix up with the messaging menu (something that has been
discussed here) or become a lense.

Shut down button, with all its options, could also become an icon in the
launcher (something not removable, like the rubbish bin is right now).

I guess it would be better to keep the clock in the panel, though.

I'm not a coder, so I don't think how feasible this is, but I want to
emphasise that all the work put in the appindicator thing wouldn't be
wasted, since all the information provided through it would just be
redirected to the launcher. I guess not a lot of code would have to be
written to hook these things up, am I right? Upstream applications wouldn't
need to adapt anything; their code right now would work with any
implementation of indicators, be it on classical 2D gnome or in Unity.

I don't know, but I think this is neat, what do you think? =)

*Peterson*
*http://petercast.net*