GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 635174
Reconsider Typing break removal
Last modified: 2013-06-13 19:51:38 UTC
By accident, I ran into the announcement that the Typing break would be removed from the control center: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnomecc-list/2010-October/msg00006.html The arguments are as follows; 1. It has never really been designed in a session holistic way - poor interactions with the screen lock and power management. 2. Doesn't really currently make sense in the 3.0 shell - due to lack of status icons, etc 3. It isn't used by (or required by) enough people to warrant inclusion in the core 4. It is probably more useful as an app 5. Things like workrave are fine 6. At some later point we can redesign it as a plugin of some kind that works well with the shell (once we have a design for it) Ad 1: While true, most power management features were added to Gnome _after_ typing break was included, and typing break wasn't updated to play along. Ad 2: I don't understand the argument, the current notification icon works just fine for me in gnome shell. Ad 3: This is anybody's guess. I know I use it myself and I've seen colleagues use it as well. Ad 4: It _was_ an app (Dr. Wright), until it was decided to bring it in the core to make Gnome more ergonomic. See this thread from 2003: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-April/msg00966.html Ad 5: Sure, but as mentioned in the discussion from seven years ago, it has lots of bells and whistles that a typical Gnome app wouldn't have. Ad 6: How does it not work well with the shell right now? I'd like to have a broader discussion about this before just cutting away useful features!
There are 23 other bugs against the typing break, that's nearly as much as the most used panels in the control-center. Unless somebody steps up to fix those bugs, then Dr. Wright isn't going to get re-added.
I'd add another argument: 7. The functionality is located in the wrong place, meaning that it isn't discoverable. RSI isn't just about typing - it can come from mouse use too. What you need is 'work break' functionality, not 'typing break'. Regarding 3.0 readiness, it's not so much a matter of notification icons as using a different model for notifications [1] and being consistent with other system modal dialogs [2]. I agree that Workrave is a bit overblown, though, and it certainly isn't very GNOMEy. I'd be happy to have a go at doing some design work on a GNOME work break facility if there are devs who want to put some effort into it. [1] http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/Design/Guidelines/MessageTray [2] For example: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell-design/plain/mockups/static/unlock-prompt.png
In the meantime, I've revived the latest typing-break code and put it back into the 'drwright' module in git, and released 2.91.0.
(In reply to comment #3) > In the meantime, I've revived the latest typing-break code and put it back into > the 'drwright' module in git, and released 2.91.0. There's a drwright module in bugzilla as well, so I'll move the bugs there.
Mass move to DrWright module. The code has been removed from the control-center, and put back in the drwright module as its interaction with the GNOME 3.x experience was not defined. See http://git.gnome.org/browse/drwright
Assigning back to control centre, since this bug asks for drwright to be added back there. @Allan (comment 2): if you have a design for this, please share it :)
(In reply to comment #6) > @Allan (comment 2): if you have a design for this, please share it :) Here you go: http://live.gnome.org/Design/Whiteboards/BreakTimer Please get in touch if anybody feels like helping out with implementation.
*** Bug 653584 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 665847 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I really see this as pretty specialized. And not a good fit for the core. Particularly when the system isn't used for lots of typing.
Closing as per comment 10.