Hi,
some applications (e.g., Akregator, Kopete) that minimize themselves
to the system tray inform the user with a dialog when top-right 'X' is
used to close the window. That's quite annoying. The dialog kind of
stops me wondering what is going on. Also, for some reason, I would
always like to press 'Cancel' on that dialog, but it only has an 'K'
button.
The HIG (guideline) document states "If the main interface of the
application is a window then closing (with the 'X') that window will
only close the window and keep the systray icon visible.", but it
doesn't say anything else.
Thus, I have a proposal to remove that dialog.
Could the window fly to the system tray like it flies to the task bar,
when it is minimized?
That way, the user would see that the application still "lives" in the
system tray. To make it even clearer, the system tray icon could be
flashed for half a second or so. The user would see, which icon
represents the application.
It would also be nice if 'X' and Quit would work similarly in this
case. Currently, if the user selects Quit, the application quits but
doesn't place itself to the system tray. If the user selects 'X' in
the top-right corner, the application goes to the system tray. Can
anyone guess what will happen if the window's top-left menu is used to
select 'Close'? Will the app remain in the system tray?
Could all these three be consistent? I.e. minimize the application to
the system tray. There could be another menu selection for removing it
from the system tray or perhaps a configuration setting.
Do these sound reasonable or do you prefer the dialog?
- Kari
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability (AT) kde (DOT) org

I fully agree with that it should have a cancel button.

Kari Pihkala wrote:

>Hi,
>
>some applications (e.g., Akregator, Kopete) that minimize themselves
>to the system tray inform the user with a dialog when top-right 'X' is
>used to close the window. That's quite annoying. The dialog kind of
>stops me wondering what is going on. Also, for some reason, I would
>always like to press 'Cancel' on that dialog, but it only has an 'K'
>button.
>
>The HIG (guideline) document states "If the main interface of the
>application is a window then closing (with the 'X') that window will
>only close the window and keep the systray icon visible.", but it
>doesn't say anything else.
>
>Thus, I have a proposal to remove that dialog.
>
>Could the window fly to the system tray like it flies to the task bar,
>when it is minimized?
>That way, the user would see that the application still "lives" in the
>system tray. To make it even clearer, the system tray icon could be
>flashed for half a second or so. The user would see, which icon
>represents the application.
>
>It would also be nice if 'X' and Quit would work similarly in this
>case. Currently, if the user selects Quit, the application quits but
>doesn't place itself to the system tray. If the user selects 'X' in
>the top-right corner, the application goes to the system tray. Can
>anyone guess what will happen if the window's top-left menu is used to
>select 'Close'? Will the app remain in the system tray?
>
>Could all these three be consistent? I.e. minimize the application to
>the system tray. There could be another menu selection for removing it
>from the system tray or perhaps a configuration setting.
>
>Do these sound reasonable or do you prefer the dialog?
>
- Kari
>
>kde-usability mailing list
>kde-usability (AT) kde (DOT) org
>

kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability (AT) kde (DOT) org

1) If we want to remove the dialogue, Can I suggest the following
possibilities (note that I am a n00b so some of these may already be the
case):

a) In the toolkit for KDE4, make some kind of "confirm minimise to systray"
dialogue, which programmers can all use easily, then have a "do not show this
*type of* message again" checkbox as well as a "do not show this message
again" box. (I find that when I change distros, I have to get rid of that
message for lots of programs)

b) Make any buttons which minimise to systray look different to any close
buttons.

i)Emule on Windows has a button next to minimise, which looks like a decimal
point. This might be an idea, but it shouldn't be used in programs like
Kopete where the program *needs* to be kept open because it is too easy to
accidentally close the window if you're not used to it

ii) Make the close button change colour to green (rather than red on plastik)
if the window will be iconified rather than closed. This would make users
aware that the button won't act like a normal one

c) Make it easier for programmers to animate a "minimise to system tray"
At the moment, most programs don't bother to animate it. The only program
which does is Kmail, which uses the following hack (by the looks of it):
close button sends "minimise" event followed shortly by "iconify"

I'm in a radical mood today. See my post on "Unification" which will follow
shortly.

kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability (AT) kde (DOT) org

there are things being done about it (see the threads on kde-core-devel
between Lubos and myself, primarily).

, I'm sorry, you have really thought about it.

I like your idea of a higher abstraction level for notifications etc.
so that they can be presented to the user in an accessible way. It
would also mean that the system tray can be reimplemented without
rewriting apps using its abstract API (which is not the case with the
current api).

- Kari

kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability (AT) kde (DOT) org