Notification fading is so subtle that I don't notice

[Matt Zimmerman]

Binary package hint: window-picker-applet

Previously, the window picker icon for a running Xchat would blink prominently when there was an unread message waiting, which was very useful. In Karmic, this seemed to have stopped working.

In a controlled test with njpatel, I learned that the functionality was still there, but the visual appearance had changed. The icon now slowly fades in and out instead. It does this so subtly that it doesn't trigger in my peripheral vision, which means it isn't doing its job.

If it must be a fade, it needs to be more noticeable. A faster rate, or a higher contrast, might help. At present, at its brightest it looks about the same as the focused window, and at its dimmest about the same as the non-focused windows. It just doesn't stand out from the content around it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Sep 7 09:52:58 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: window-picker-applet 0.5.2-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LC_COLLATE=C
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-9.29-generic
SourcePackage: window-picker-applet
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-9-generic i686

[Jason Smith (jassmith)]

I will play with the settings to make the effect much stronger. Pehaps a sawtooth wave instead of a sin wave is in order?

[Jason Smith (jassmith)]

=== modified file 'src/task-item.c'
--- src/task-item.c 2009-09-04 17:40:08 +0000
+++ src/task-item.c 2009-09-08 07:19:43 +0000
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@
     gdouble ms = (current_time.tv_sec - priv->urgent_time.tv_sec) * 1000 +
                  (current_time.tv_usec - priv->urgent_time.tv_usec) / 1000;

- gdouble alpha = .75 + (cos (ms / 500) / 4);
+ gdouble alpha = .66 + (cos (3.14 * ms / 600) / 3);
     cairo_paint_with_alpha (cr, alpha);
   }
   else if (priv->mouse_over || active) /* focused */

Try that

[Neil J. Patel (njpatel)]

Jason's patch worked great. Together with the new-look that's in trunk, the pulsing of urgent windows is much more obvious now.

[Andy Balaam (mail-artificialworlds)]

I wanted the notification to be much more prominent, so I tried this, which is quite insistent!

diff --git a/src/task-item.c b/src/task-item.c
index 55f3e27..ce38fe7 100644
--- a/src/task-item.c
+++ b/src/task-item.c
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ task_item_expose_event (GtkWidget *widget,
     gdouble ms = (current_time.tv_sec - priv->urgent_time.tv_sec) * 1000 +
                  (current_time.tv_usec - priv->urgent_time.tv_usec) / 1000;

- gdouble alpha = .66 + (cos (3.15 * ms / 600) / 3);
+ gdouble alpha = 0.5 + 0.5 * cos (ms / 30.0);
     cairo_paint_with_alpha (cr, alpha);
   }
   else if (priv->mouse_over || active) /* focused */