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List:       mandrake-cooker
Subject:    [Cooker] [DESKTOP DOMINATION] drakxtools + alert_applet + net_applet UI love
From:       Fabrice FACORAT <fabrice.facorat () gmail ! com>
Date:       2006-03-31 14:38:33
Message-ID: 200603311638.33292.fabrice.facorat () gmail ! com
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I have a look at drakxtools UI and net_applet/alert_applet stuff.


I have several proposals and possible improvements :

1. Notification :
there's really an issue with notifications. Not enough feedback about system 
state change, and when there's feedback, it's too simple or not interactive 
enough.
My proposal is to use the new notification framework libnotify :
http://www.chipx86.com/blog/?p=149

Libnotify allow to :
	- classify notification by priority thanks to colors usage
	- provide links in the notification bubble and even buttons, etc ...

libnotify could be usefull for

+ net_applet :
	- Interactive Firewall notifications and hability to directly make 
choices/actions ( block, white list, ... )
	- connection status change ( low priority ). cf 
http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/NetApplet2007Proposals
	- connection switching

+ alert_applet :
	- new hardware detection and configuration ( propose directly from the 
notification bubble to launch the apropriate tools if needed or try to 
automatically configure the hardware or do nothing ). This could be extended 
to printerdrake autosetup feature which actually use popup window whereas it 
could use this notification mecanism and flawwback to popup only if this is 
not available.
	- msec notifications ( which ones ? )
	- lm_sensors notification : what about using lm_sensors to monitor processor, 
and notify if something goes wrong
	- partition usage notification : at present your system may become silently 
full with no notification/warning
	- help and tips : for example USB pendisk usage is still not obvious for most 
users. Whereas opening it is no longer a issue as there's notification, the 
fact that you need to umount it is not abvious at all. If I just give my 
computer to someone without explaining nothing, he will be able to open the 
key and access it, but will not think he need to go to device icone and do a 
right click on USB pendisk icon ... this could be mreminded to the user 
thanks to alert_applet unless we find a way to patch konqueror to tell the 
user this.


2. New widgets :

In drakconnnect the IP field is just a simple text widget : we must admit this 
could lead to errors and doesn't help to enter correctly an IP adress.
libview for example provide IP entry widget which will help to solve this.
Others things interesting are WrapLabel ( may help to fix the wrapping issues 
with gtklabel ).
Libsexy provide some interestings things also like the sexy icon entry which 
also to put icon in an input field.

http://view.sourceforge.net/classes.php
http://www.chipx86.com/wiki/Libsexy#SexyIconEntry

3. UI glitch correction and less popup usage :
see http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/MandrivaLinux2007UIReview






-- 
Le respect de la démocratie veut que j'ai le dernier mot.
Georges Marchais (1973)

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