notification icon should follow new specs

[Luca Invernizzi]

From Ryan's post (http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/12/ubuntu-1004-will-bring-panel-overhaul-social-network-menu.ars), ubuntu is planning to give out a new specification for the notification area.

[Luca Invernizzi (invernizzi)]

attached an example in python.
add https://edge.launchpad.net/~indicator-applet-developers/+archive/indicator-core-ppa and install the python-appindicator bindings

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

And, exactly, what could we do as GTG developers? Having your tasks appearing in the "Me Menu" makes a lot of sense IMHO. But we have to care to not be Ubuntu specific.

[Luca Invernizzi (invernizzi)]

I have been too laconic.
This bug is not about the "Me Menu" (but I agree that tasks belong to that menu).
Gnome and Kde are going to use the new specifications for the notification area, which will "enforce a much higher level of consistency in how status icons are used".
My understanding is that:
 - the user will be allowed to change icons
- the notification will be loaded automatically with the proper gui libraries (gtk or qt, depending on the desktop)
- the user will be able to move between the menus with the keyboard (tried it, it's pretty nice)
- everything will be right click

This bug does not have to be fixed *right now*, but when gnome will release with this in its changelog, we will be ready.

Ryan surely knows a lot more than me, so I'm subscribing him to this bug

[Paul Natsuo Kishimoto (khaeru)]

There is now info on the Ubuntu Wiki about this: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/ApplicationIndicators (including example Python code, very simple).

If I understand correctly, there has been a slight shift of focus from Karmic to Lucid:

In Karmic that region was called the "notification area", and rationales like the one Bertrand Rousseau posted at https://answers.launchpad.net/gtg/+question/78253 were used to justify the removal of (some) things that were not *notifications*.

Now it is being called an "indicator area". I think the change means that it can properly hold icons meant to *indicate* things (even persistent things) to the user, instead of merely *notify* him/her about transient events.

By this new philosophy, it is OK to for GTG to use an indicator. I think this should be a core feature that is turned on and off through a configuration option ("Show indicator in panel") instead of a plugin. I don't have an opinion on whether it should be enabled by default.

Aside: if this is changed, I don't think it is appropriate to have "About" in the indicator menu.