network-idle icon links to (is the same as) network-transmit-receive.

[Dan Lea]

Binary package hint: humanity-icon-theme

Having the 'idle' icon identical to the 'sending and receiving' icon isn't particularly helpful (network-idle.svg links to network-transmit-receive.svg in /usr/share/icons/Humanity/status/24). The idle icon should be light grey. I sorted this for myself and so am attaching the svg file here.

[Dan Lea (danlea)]

The fix is provided: replace existing symlink with attached file (assuming the nature of the fix is agreed of course).

[Vish (vish)]

Thanks for the icon and great to see that it works for you.
There was a reason why we kept it the same.

We usually toggle transparency with disabled and enabled states , eg: chat icon and the bluetooth icon.
 - Using the same semi-transparent icon here would seem like a disabled state for the connection.
 - being less visible, is not really a clear metaphor for -idle either.

Why we need to differentiate the two states? [ Wireless icons dont show the active/idle state either.]
Do you have any other suggestions for a more apt metaphor ?

[Dan Lea (danlea)]

The Gnome NetStatus Applet uses these icons to show if data is being sent or received. The Gnome Network Monitor does not use this idle icon to show the wired connection status (it's distinct from 'networkwired.png'), which I think is your concern.

If the idle icon is the same as the transmit-receive icon, the applet is not providing the desired information (is the network idling or is it active?). Other standard themes distinguish these two icons, usually by indicating activity in either direction (transmit or receive) with a distinct 'on' symbol, such as light on a monitor, c.f. the human icon theme, where the network-wired icon is used rather than network-idle:

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/maverick/human-icon-theme/maverick/download/head%3A/networkwired.png-20100331141318-n6ylp4tkw1yysi69-18/network-wired.png

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/maverick/human-icon-theme/maverick/download/head%3A/networktransmitrecei-20091205110421-6zee3ly4x0w9rb46-357/network-transmit-receive.png

The Humanity theme's icons for 'transmit only' or 'receive only' instead designate the absence of signal in the opposing direction by cutting the alpha of that part of the symbol, and this should hold true for the idle icon (as in my patch). The concern that this suggests a disabled state is mitigated by it's use in the netstatus applet, and typically frequent switches between the idle and active states.

The alternative for this theme is to have fully opaque components represent inactivity, and use a colour (or some other symbol change) to denote activity, but this is not particularly desirable.

[Dan Lea (danlea)]

OK, one problem here is that the applet icon does different jobs for wired and wireless connections. In my opinion, the netstatus icon should show transmit-receive information, whichever network type is being monitored:

- That is what people (certainly myself) expect from it (MS Windows does this for example).
- Signal strength information is provided by the network manager icon that is [always?] displayed in the notification area, and so should not be required from the netstatus applet.

I believe themes that do not provide gnome-netstatus signal strength icons (0-24, 25-49, etc.) invoke this behaviour, since this is what occurs on my home computer using wireless, and not using the humanity theme (these icons default to those in the gnome directory). Perhaps the current behaviour should be a selectable option if anyone thinks there is a demand for it.

Since wired and wireless networks are differentiated in the network manager icon scheme, I suggest that the netstatus icon should symbolise a generic network, neither wired nor wireless, and can therefore be more consistent. I've created a sample set of netstatus icons (including those for signal strength) in this spirit, which I will attach along with a preview image. Of course it's the principle I would like to see adopted, not necessarily these specific icons.

Do let me know what the official thoughts are on this. Cheers.

P.S. The signal strength icons will particularly indistinct on a standard panel due to a current bug which scales the icon by two pixels unnecessarily, resulting in rather blurry icons. Set panel size to 26 for the clear version.

[Dan Lea (danlea)]

Having tested this at home, I can see that much of my last comment is incorrect (sorry about that). The wireless strength icon is in fact a supplement to the status icon, so the signal strength icons should certainly stay as they are.

As an aside: In fact there are issues with the netstatus applet's intention for these icons: it seems it should be rotated for vertical panels, which is useful for thin signal icons (such is in the gnome theme), but not square ones like those used in the main Ubuntu themes. This doesn't appear to work at the moment (no signal is shown on a vertical panel I created). There is also an issue with having no dedicated 'zero signal' icon for the applet, and the disparity between 'link quality'/'signal strength' calculations for network manager and netstatus applet. All in all, it's pretty messy!

I also notice that the mono icon themes use up and down arrows for the link status (possibly the most obvious choice). While this bug also affects those themes, fully fading this idle icon should be acceptable because the sense is that the data stream is inactive, rather than the device/connection. However, the disconnected icon in those themes uses the wireless pictograph, which doesn't make sense for wired network users, and in Humanity it's the wired pictograph that is used, which isn't ideal for predominantly wireless users (though at least the idiom of 'being unplugged' carries some weight). The link status arrows could be altered to create a disconnected icon by adding a cross for example, but the set of icons I've proposed (excluding those for wireless signal strength) bypasses both the disconnected problem, and the idle problem.

[Dan Lea (danlea)]

Here's a thorough set of icons for the network manager and netstatus applets based on my comments, and including animations for the 'connecting' phases for network manager. Of course these are suitable for Humanity, Ambiance and Radiance.

[Vish (vish)]

@Dan Lea: interesting idea!
But i would like to wait before making changes to monochrome icons. There are a lot of new changes happening in upstream icon naming , in the applets themselves and in symbolic icon specifications.
Btw , there doesnt seem to be an netstatus applet by default in Ubuntu 10.04, is it now a separate install?
And when gnome-shell lands in 11.04 there will probably be no applets any more.

I would like to wait for those to settle down first, before making any further changes.