Post-4.4: Appfinder

[Alexandre Moreira]

2007/1/15, Jannis Pohlmann <jannis at xfce.org>:
> On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:50:44 +0100, Benedikt Meurer wrote:
>
> > Jannis Pohlmann wrote:
> > > Hey guys,
> > >
> > > yesterday I was told that Benny has written an application browser
> > > based on FrapMenu and has posted it on the ML at the beginning of
> > > this month. So I took a look at it yesterday and I really like it.
> > > It's clean, fast and already quite usable.
> > >
> > > It might be reasonable to replace xfce4-appfinder with this
> > > application in the future (after Xfce 4.4). If nobody disagrees, I
> > > will import it into libfrap/appfinder and continue developing it
> > > there as long as 4.4 isn't out yet.
> > >
> > > What do you think?
> >
> > Go ahead.
> >
> > Tho, as mentioned in the original post, that's mainly for JPs config
> > stuff (to avoid crippeling Thunar). A real appbrowser should look
> > better and offer some nice features.
>
> Ok, perhaps we should discuss these features before. The appbrowser as
> you posted it for JP already provides all features of xfce4-appfinder
> except: detailed program information, drag-and-drop (e.g. to the panel)
> and list view.
>
> I was really impressed by the concept of the appbrowser Novell
> introduced lately:
>
>  http://www.ossblog.it/uploads/nld_new_gnome_application_browser.jpg

I know this is very unrelated but I think it would be the right time
to ask something I've been cooking in my head for quite some time now:
What do you guys think of (in an undefined later coordinate in time,
hehe) having an interface much like this one for the
xfce-settings-show application ?

There goes the reasons behind such a proposal:

1) At first, the easy-to-do-it, although it is not reason TO DO it it
serves to cool down some of the "we're fine the way we are now"
behavior :). What I mean is, if we really get to having an Appbrowser
like this, having a xfce-settings-show much like it but just
presenting Settings stuff would be rather trivial.

Now to the real reason:

2) Thinking about the scenario of someone wanting to make a
distribution based on Xfce (and I know quite a few, like the
Brazillian Dream linux and Xubuntu and Zenwalk).

It would be great to people to have a nice place they could add their
own System settings plugin launchers. Xfce settings show already can
do that, I think, but it would be hard for the user to spot the
exactly config app with its interface (anyone else think of the
Windows Classic Mode Control Panel (much like the one in Win95) ?

3) It looks awesome. Really pretty. Xfce has always been a light and
pretty desktop, so why not be prettier ?


Hehe, I know number three is really silly, but I truly believe in
number 2. It seems like an important matter to me, but I don't know if
anyone shares this point of view.


I have a few other proposals to make to the post 4.4 release, but I'm
studying the viability of some before I post a longer thread with
interface mockups and stuff like that.

Best Regards,
Alexandre Moreira.

PS: Please excuse me for being off topic, but I just thought that,
since Jannis brought to the attention of the list the exact interface
I'd be mentioning in my post, it would be a good place for it. If
anyone decides to answer this post, please rename it.