[Wylug-help] Evolution Alerts

[david powell]

On Friday 07 April 2006 11:21 am, Smylers wrote:
> David Whiteley writes:
> > I am using evolution, and its calendar.
>
> Disclaimer: I've never used Evolution, so I don't know what I'm talking
> about.
>
> > When I set the alarm for an event, thge resultant screen popup often
> > seems to be hidden behind other windows on the screen.  It there any
> > way to configure it so that these alerts are "always on top"?
>
> Which desktop environment and window manager are you using?
>
> Applications can indicate that a particular window is deemed
> 'important', and it's up to the window manager to decide how to indicate
> this to the user.  Gnome's current behaviour is indicate importantness
> by flashing the windows entry in the window list.  Personally I
> preferred its previous behaviour (long rant below).
>
> However, you may be able to use Devil's Pie and tell it to look out for
> Evolution alarm windows and make them be always on top (which is not
> quite the same thing as appearing raised (because you can't even lower
> them manually), but may do for alarms).  You'll probably also want to
> make alarms be pinned to all workspaces -- it's no good an alarm popping
> up on one workspaces if you're looking at a different one.
>
> Devil's Pie is here:
>
>   http://www.burtonini.com/blog/computers/devilspie
>
> I'm using version 0.10, as found in the latest Ubuntu release.  For what
> it's worth the XML below is what I use to pin Gaim windows to all
> workspaces ... but versions 0.13 onwards has a completely different
> configuration syntax (S-expressions turned out to be more useful than
> XML -- who'd've thought?), so this may be of no use at all:
>
>   <?xml version="1.0"?>
>   <!DOCTYPE devilspie SYSTEM "devilspie.dtd">
>   <devilspie>
>
>     <flurb name="Gaim windows on all workspaces">
>       <matchers>
>         <matcher name="DevilsPieMatcherWindowName">
>           <property name="application_name" value="gaim"/>
>         </matcher>
>       </matchers>
>       <actions>
>         <action name="DevilsPieActionSetWorkspace">
>           <property name="pinned" value="TRUE"/>
>         </action>
>       </actions>
>     </flurb>
>
>   </devilspie>
>
> Smylers
>
>
> Here's that rant against Gnome's decision on how to draw attention to
> 'important' windows:
>
> Until fairly recently Gaim instant messenger windows would pop up on top
> of other things, but this behaviour was changed -- not by Gaim, but by
> Gnome.  It seems that applications can set some sort of 'this window is
> important flag', and it's up to the window manager how to indicate that
> to the user.
>
> A few months ago I browsed the Gnome Bugzilla and mailing list entries
> discussing this.  Users, rightly, objected to IM windows popping up and
> stealing the focus, since if you're in the middle of typing something in
> another window you suddenly find your text going into an instant
> message.
>
> But Gnome's usability gurus decided that if an 'important' window isn't
> going to grab the focus then it shouldn't be raised either, because it'd
> be confusing to people to have a non-focussed window (partially)
> covering the focussed window -- you wouldn't be able to see what you're
> typing anymore.
>
> I can see why some people would find that irritating.  But one of the
> reasons I change Gnome's default 'click to focus' to 'focus follows
> mouse' is so that I _can_ focus windows without raising them; my tpying
> is good enough taht I don't need to look at waht I'm doing.
>
> The alternative window list flashing behaviour is only any use if you
> have a window list visible.  The Gnome usability gurus respond by saying
> that removing your window list isn't sensible and they don't support
> such stupid configurations.
>
> They make no mention of people who choose to use panels' 'autohide'
> option, so that panels slide out of the way to an edge of the screen --
> very handy on laptops with small screens.  This in practice means you
> only see the window list when you're looking for it -- and surely that's
> a supported setting, otherwise they wouldn't offer it?
>
> Further, even when the window list is visible I can the flashing _more_
> intrusive and irritating than a pop-up window.  A window only pops up
> once, and often gets covered again with no extra effort on my part: I'm
> just Alt+Tab-ing to another window and the pop-up gets covered as a
> side-effect.
>
> But if a window list item starts flashing it keeps on flashing until I
> give it some attention -- and I find it harder to concentrate on getting
> the network connection back (or whatever) if there's something flashing
> in the corner of the screen, trying to grab my attention to tell me to
> look at the window saying that it's lost the network.  So I find myself
> going out of my way to focus windows I'm not interested in (or have
> already read, cos they happened to be on top anyway) just to stop the
> flashing!
>
> While in general I agree with the Gnome (and Firefox) viewpoint that
> excessive configuration options should be avoided in favour of behaviour
> that is good by default, I'd rather have something with a few too many
> options (which I can ignore) than be missing something I really want --
> and failing to spot "instant" messages from my boss popping up on screen
> is definitely a problem that needs solving, not just a whim.
>
> Perhaps it's a good time to give KDE another whirl ...
>

from observation i have found gnome to seem to adopt one rigid method for alot 
of things like this 
there changing someting like that can affect alot of users who prefer it the 
other way 

form the developers point of view it is restrictive and prevents some new 
features being added ant they are prevented from adding the option to use 
ether way (because its not what there standards allow)

kde development on the other hand the end result would usualy be an option 
that would allow for eather way to be used 

so you have a better choice of how you want the system to opperate 
ie ether way is posible 

the down side is that it may take you a bit longer to learn or find 
but in the long term leads to better usabilaty as it is more personally tuned 
to the way you like it 

sounds like the problem beeing descused is that the windowmanager is set to 
not bring new windows to focus , in kde that is an option in the 
windowmanager setings in kde control center someware 

its the user options that kde offers that makes it very powerful and flexible 
but the down side is that it may take some time to learn and experiment with 
the diferent settings till you find the best for you

in a simple form   
gnome is like windows in that  xyx will always do xyz
kde   xyz can be customized  so that xyz can be done in a way that you like 

options = choice , choice = freedom to do things your way
rather than the one size fits all 

Dave
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