On 24/05/07, Simon Taylor <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Stephan Assmus wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > from my personal impression, the problems are clear. We have some
likely
> > solutions. I'd say we force *both* category and importance level to be
> > given by the application (the more information, the more appropriate
the
> > server can handle it). Anything beyond that can be easily defined
after a
> > first implementation is there (like which importance levels, how to
call
> > them, which categories...). I don't anticipate a very complicated
> > implementation with regards to the actual service, so changes should
be
> > relatively easy. The most complicated part of the thing is likely the
> > settings panel.
>
> I agree the thing should not be too hard - the settings panel is
> definitely important.
>
> Still, InfoPopper is BSD/MIT according to BeBits - that would provide a
> good starting point I'd imagine.
>
> > So, IMHO (of course), we should pick up discussion after Ryan has got
> > something to show, unless someone has an idea which has really not
come up
> > yet at all. I'm just saying it, because *anything* can be misused, and
I
> > think we have found a reasonable approach. At a certain point, you
have to
> > let go and trust some responsibility with the user. If a developer
misuses
> > this service badly, you can always just deinstall the app or write an
email
> > to the developer. I mean there are ways, but we shouldn't let
ourselves
> > cripple our creative power by trying to forsee *too* much.
>
> Just to make clear - the category approach I was thinking of would not
> have any fixed categories, the application would be free to categorise
> as the developer wishes. That gives a lot more flexibility than, say,
> Windows Event Viewer.
>
> Importance is useful on Windows Event Viewer as it is really a
> replacement for a log file - you have a lot of noise ("information"
> messages such as "Service x started successfully"). The importance field
> is there to make errors and warnings stick out.
>
> The thing I wish to avoid is having a low-importance category that may
> encourage developers to send messages like "New window opened!".
> However, I have just thought that importance could be useful for certain
> situations - "Meeting in 5 minutes" being the same category yet more
> important than "Meeting in 30 minutes". I feel the range of useful
> importance values is pretty small (I don't think a discrete pop-up is
> sensible for critical things, and is annoying if overused by many
> unimportant things) but perhaps there still is value in having it.
>
> All of that rambling leads me to agree with you completely Stephan -
> let's wait for the first implementation! That wasn't going to be my
> conclusion until I started writing this, but I'll send it anyway...
>
> > Best regards,
> > -Stephan
>
> Simon
>
>
Dear all,
Lets just keep things simple.
A little api that puts just pops alerts in the corner of the desktop /
deskbar. Some lines in the Haiku coding guidelines that says when and
how to use it should be all that is necessary. If someone wants to
abuse it, so be it. One can either not use the program, modify it if
it's open, or complain to the author. It's a simple job, lets keep it
that way!
Euan
