Indicator Applet and Gnome Shell

[SB]

Hello Folks,

I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 with Gnome Shell from the Testing PPA (slightly outdated), and AWN in version 0.4.1-rewrite-bzr743+201009122042, installed from the PPA. I have the following "problem":

Since Gnome Shell doesn't use Ubuntu's Indicator Applet system, all the programs and notifications that would go into the Indicator Applet, instead use the normal notification area, just like they do if you disable the indicator applet in Ubuntu (for instance, Rhythmbox, Transmission, the Battery Applet). Now, when I want to use the Indicator Applet in AWN, just like would be expected, the icons for these applications get pulled into the dock, leaving the other icons that only use the "old" notification area up in the panel. The problem that I have is that if I disable the Indicator Applet support in the Applet preferences (say, because I only want to use the Indicator Applet for the Messaging Menu, because with Gnome Shell I can't use it otherwise), the icons for Battery, Rhythmbox etc. will still get pulled out of the notification area, except that they are not being shown in the dock because I disabled that. But they are not being shown in the panel either, because the panel in Gnome Shell doesn't use the indicators. This is not an issue with normal Ubuntu, because the Indicator Applet in AWN just duplicates what's happening in the Indicator Applet in the Gnome Panel. But in Gnome Shell it means that I can't see my battery life anymore if I decide to use the Messaging Menu via AWN's Indicator Applet without using the entire applet, thus rendering useless the choice of disabling the indicator applet for me.

To make it clearer what I mean, I included some screenshots of the situation.

Step 1: Gnome Shell and AWN without the Indicator Applet: the battery symbol is in the panel (as a "normal" notification)

Step 2: The Indicator Applet in AWN is now activated. As you can see, both the Messaging Menu icon and the Battery icon reside in the Dock. The icons not making use of the indicator applet are still up in the panel.

Step 3: disabling the "Indicator Applet" option in the Preferences and only leaving the "Messaging Menu" option. The Battery Applet is not being shown anymore, but doesn't show up in the panel either (even after a restart).

So to sum up what's happening: Even though the "Indicator Applet" option is disabled, the system still thinks that AWN supports the use of the Indicator Applet, thus pushing all icons that support this out of the notification area. What instead should happen is that the system should recognize that the "indicator applet" option is turned off (instead of just disabled from view) and act as if there was no indicator applet.

The reasoning behind this for me is that I want to keep the notification area in the upper right corner, but with the use of the Indicator Applet in AWN, some of the notifications will now turn up in the upper right corner and some in the dock, which is logically inconsistent.

This might be a very niche issue, so I would understand if you didn't want to fix it. But it's still bugging me quite a bit, because i love Gnome Shell but I would also like to use the Messaging Menu without cluttering AWN too much.