rawhide report: 20041001 changes

[Jeff Spaleta]

On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:32:05 -0400, Bryan Clark <bclark at redhat.com> wrote:
> We realize that not everyone likes a dual panel layout and I'm not
> really interested in seeing a thread starting on how people hate dual
> panel layouts ;-)  

What about a thread talking about how much i love the dual panel layout?

> The dual panel design is based
> off the GNOME design which has had quite a bit of thought put into it.
> With the panel occupying all the corners of the screen we can take full
> advantage of things like Fitts Law, where when you want to change the
> volume quickly you can throw your mouse up to the upper right hand
> corner of the screen without aiming and hit the volume applet.  

Have you seen/toyed with the brightside project?
http://home.jesus.ox.ac.uk/~ecatmur/brightside/
I'm conflicted by the functionality and rationale behind the brightside project.
In one breath brightside claims to be a way to add edge flipping
functionality that breaks fitts law. Havoc is quoted on the brightside
page as the standard bearing expert opinion that edge-flipping is a
specifically dire evil and contrary to Fitts law. But aside from
edge-flipping, the corner effects brightside implements seem to me to
correspond well to what you are talking about and try to provide with
the new panel applet layout. The idea of throwing you mouse into a
corner without aiming to get something done, the way brightside allows
for things like volume muting, is exactly the ideal your shooting for
with the new panel layout.  This isn't a sneaky call for brightside
inclusion or anything like that, but after toying with it. I find
brightsides implementation of 'throw the mouse in the corner' to mute
the volume or to prevent the screensaver from coming on, or to start
the screensaver interesting.


-jef"always look on the brightside of life <embed oggvobis stream of
whistling here>"spaleta