gnome-typing-monitor annoyances (bugs?)

[bobemoe]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

The new version of gnome-typing-monitor included with 10.04 appears to have undergone many changes. Personally I don't like any of them, I'm not sure if they are "bugs" as such or the intended new functionality? Let me explain…

1. The old versions indicator icon acted as a progress bar, starting grey and filling with green as the work interval progressed. This would give a good indication at a glance of how soon the next break would be. The new version seems to be a solid green bar no matter how far through the work interval you are, you actually have to hover over the icon to get an indication of the duration remaining.

2. A minute or two before the break kicks in the old versions icon would start flashing red, the flashing was good as it would catch your eye allowing you to find a convenient place to cease work. The new version does change to red, but does not flash, making it much easier to miss.

3. When the icon is (flashing) red and the break is about to kick in, using the old version you could find a convenient place to cease all keyboard and mouse activity and wait for the duration of you break interval, and the progress indicator icon would reset, without a break activating. With the new version the break seems to activate once the icon has turned red, even if you're not using the mouse or keyboard for the last minute or two. Especially annoying if you've just full screened a video and sat back!

4. As a side note, when not using compiz, on my dual display (NVIDIA TwinView) the screen isn't greyed out properly, it's almost like the overlay is misaligned between both screens allowing some areas down the sides and bottom of the screens to be exposed and still interactive. The greying works perfectly using compiz. I think this also affected the old version.

Anyway, I have copied the gnome-typing-monitor binary from my 9.10 install and it seems to be working fine, so although these points no longer affect me, I thought I would post my observations, especially as I have googled this on several occasions and found nothing but lots of people complaining about the missing/broken icon which did not affect me.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.30.1-0ubuntu1 [modified: usr/bin/gnome-typing-monitor]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat May 22 16:30:01 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-typing-monitor
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center

[Mads Navntoft Noe (mntnoe)]

I agree with you; this new behavior makes gnome-typing-monitor much less usable than before. I will downgrade my copy too for the time being.

Also, when watching movies in mplayer, the break occurs 30 minutes (my work interval) in the movie even when I have not touched the keyboard or mouse during that time.

To bring the new version justice, I will mention one improvement: The postpone button is disabled for the first five seconds of the break, so users cannot reflexively postpone the break immediately. With the old version I was guilty of doing that a lot...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

typing break has been deprecated in GNOME3, closing that bug