thoughts on the systray

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Monday 14 February 2005 11:23, Jason Keirstead wrote:
> > and is what we have a  taskbar for. if the issue is "it takes up too much
>
> space to have a taskbar entry" then that can be handled by the taskbar.
>
> There is a big difference between taking up less space vs. taking up no
> space.

if they take up 22^2 pixels in the taskbar, or 22^2 pixels in the system tray, 
space is not impacted. keeping interface elements clear in purpose is 
however.

> For apps that are running 24/7, people don't want them in the taskbar *at
> all*, because the utility of having them there is zero - in these cases,
> the process is no longer a task - it is never going to be closed - it is
> more like a daemon.

given that definition, why would it be in the system tray? and we're not 
talking about daemons, we're talking specifically about applications that 
people wish to minimize without taking up a regular taskbar button size of 
space.

> > positioning is changeable. we're talking about the actual concept at use
> > here.
>
> Not really.. you are arguing that new users don't understand the concept of
> docking.. how many would know how to move the system tray?

i mean that if it makes sense, we can change the default location of things. 
to be exact, i don't expect kicker in KDE4 to have the same layout as kicker 
in KDE3. i wasn't thinking of users being able to do this. i'm not that daft. 
does that make it clearer for you?

> No it doesn't. If I have to glance at it to even know it happened, it is
> not a notification. For it to be a notification it has to at least cacth
> the eye - once it has caught the eye, you can choose to look at it to read
> it, or ignore it until you are done your task.

semantics. would you prefer it if i used the phrase "omnipresent status 
views"? i'm not talking about KNotify type notificatoins here.

> If notifications took place in the upper left / right of the screen, as I
> suggested, there woudl be a much higher liklihood that you would notice the
> change, even with no sound or baloon.

so your issue is with the location where the systray defaults to. fine, but 
that's not the topic of this thread.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
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