KNotificationItem class name is confusing

[Parker Coates]

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 05:57, Sebastian Kügler <sebas at kde.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday 28 October 2009 10:17:12 Sebastian Trüg wrote:
>> I agree that the name is not great. Remind me why we are not using
>>  somethign  like "KSystrayItem"? Sure, systray is a weird word but everyone
>>  knows what it is...
>
> Systray is a possible visualization of what we can do with KNotificationItem, it's
> how it's currently shown, but likely not in the future. The name shouldn't be tied to
> a specific visualisation since that's exactly what we're trying to avoid with the new
> mechanism.

I'm wondering if the same applies to suggestions containing the word
"area". I remember hearing about plans to but different types of
"Notification Items" in different places. If there isn't just one
dedicated area anymore, does it make sense to include "area" in the
name?

I think the fact that it's proving so difficult to name this class is
a pretty good indication that the paradigm of the "systray icon" is a
broken one. It's obviously just become a catch all for all kinds of
different functionalities over the last decade. It's great to now see
some real progress there.

My proposal? "KPersistentWorkspaceStatusItem". Just rolls of the
tongue, doesn't it? :) It sums up the three properties shared by every
systray icon I could think of. They're persistent, meaning they exist
even if the application/service has no open windows. Workspace,
because they are shown in the workspace, not in the
application/service itself. Status, because they indicate (even if
only through their presence) the status of an application/service.

Parker