GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 326138
If >1 keyboard layout is selected, the Keyboard Indicator should become available automatically
Last modified: 2010-05-07 08:12:09 UTC
That bug has been opened onhttp://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=18120 "If there is more than one layout selected in Keyboard Preferences, there should be a widget in the top panel where one can see and choose the layout. Currently, if the Keyb. Indicator isn't added manually, the only way to switch layouts is from the Keyboard Preferences. Even this requires that the "Separate group for each window" option is first unchecked (it's on by default); if it's not, selecting a layout only affects the preferences window itself (which probably isn't what most people would want)."
Well, here I see two bugs: first, about auto-adding the indicator. Whithin current architecture of gnome applets it is not doable (I do not want to use notification area). Another bug - without "separate group per window" layouts do not work. Could you please give more details on this one - I cannot reproduce it :((
What is wrong with using the notification area for that? The bug was about the first point, I'm not sure of what the submitter means about the group bug, I'll ping him
Well, I do not like the idea of the notification area. I like the "next generation" applet architecture offered by David (http://live.gnome.org/AppletsRevisited) - and would prefer to wait till it is actually available. Even now, the notification area is overloaded with various stuff - I don't want to increase the mess.
So we're hurting the user while we wait for a new architecture?
Yes. Because notification area is an all-purpose mess already - I really do not want to increase it.
Is there an estimated completion time for the new applet architecture? How long should we wait? My concern is that GNOME aims to be international, but this problem seriously hampers anyone trying to use GNOME in several languages. The explaination of how to add the indicator in the User Guide is proving to be a complex set of steps. By default, the notification area is empty. The most I ever have in it is GAIM and Skype. Would adding an option "Show keyboard layout in notification area" be an acceptable compromise for the time being? If it's off by default there's no further clutter.
Well, about the timeframe - ask Davyd. If (which I do not really want) we move the applet to the notification area - it will not be the option - it will be the only way. I can promise that I will not support BOTH applet and notification area icon.
As a workaround, is it possible to pop a dialog advising the user to add this applet to the panel once he adds the second keyboard layout?
Well, adding the popup is easy - but looks ugly. It really looks like "we would love to help you here, but we suck technology-wise, so please DIY". You know, something like a virus "we are bad in scripting, so please remove your files and send this text to all your friends" :) But if g-c-c maintainers would approve this hack (and offer good wording) - I can easily implement it.
I found this report while searching for related bugs before submitting bug #346752. I would like to support the addition of a message (even if it looks ugly) until a better solution can be found. Yes, this is a "me too!" comment. But of course, that message should only appear if the user has not added the applet yet. By the way, I would like to mention that I had a different approach than the one described above when I wanted for the first time to be able to switch between keyboard layouts: I did not even look in the menu Desktop->Preferences->Keyboard. Instead, I looked for a panel applet that could allow me to switch layouts, because I expected that the ability to switch would be associated with a display of the currently active layout. So I found the "Keyboard layout indicator" and added it to the panel. From this applet, I used the menu entry "Open Keyboard Preferences" to add a new layout. It could be interesting to run some usability tests with users who have not played with the GNOME keyboard settings before and see how many of them would start with the keyboard properties vs. how many of them would start by adding an applet as I did.
As I said, I am not happy with the popup - but I could live with it. Just give me proper words for it. The popup should mention: - How to add the applet - Default way of switching is "Alt-Alt" - The way of switching can be changed in the "Layout Options" - Also, it is possible to switch layouts by clicking on the applet And actually if next GNOME usability research would cover keyboard configuration area - it would really be cool.
Added Davyd Madeley as CC, so he can say whether he thinks it's a good idea to wait for a new Panel architecture so we can automatically display the keyboard layout indicator when there's >1 keyboard layout, or to just use the notification applet in the meantime. I'm not personally aware of any rules about what shouldn't go in the notification are. Most stuff that obviously shouldn't be in the notification area probably shouldn't be an applet either, or would be an applet that almost nobody would use. But this seems genuinely useful.
This really shouldn't go into the notification area. It's completely not what the notification area is for. Programmatic addition of applets to the panel could be implemented now, independantly of the new applets API. Ryan Lortie is working on the new API this summer. This will probably not cover the intricacies of programmatic addition, but those could very well be looked at now.
I wonder, what is the notification area for. Maybe this should be mentioned in the platform overview.
Davyd, any progress on the new applet API which would help to close this issue?
doesn't look like any extra information is required
I'd say new API is still required.
Rather than require a new plugin framework for automatically adding applets or sticking the applet in the notification area, why not just invert the requested functionality? That is, hide the applet if <= 1 layout is available. And turn the applet on by default. I believe this addresses the original concern about auto-adding the applet not being possible in the current architecture. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by 'hiding the applet' -- whether that really means hiding it or just presenting a zero-width applet, but I'm pretty sure it's possible. I've seen Ubuntu's indicator applet do it.
I could "hide" the applet by not showing gkbd-indicator widget. But still it will be a separate process to start, some RAM taken etc. Is it fair to users who might never want that indicator at all? I would prefer to address this issue within GNOME 3 where the whole idea of panel is going to be revamped. The only non-hackish resolution would be using notification area, but, as Danielle rightfully said, it is not what notification area is for.
fixed in 2.30 by dropping the applet and creating status icon