GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 651792
Show orientation lock for tablets
Last modified: 2013-08-15 01:45:40 UTC
If the computer supports automatic orientation switching (as implemented in gnome-settings-daemon), it should be possible for the user to force the orientation to stay the same, using an orientation lock. For such cases, I would probably disable the workspace switcher completely (assume a single workspace, all the time), and show there a toolbar with various "fast access" items that tablet owners would use (orientation lock, maybe playback buttons).
gnome-shell should check for the presence of the org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Orientation interface (under g-s-d's service name) on D-Bus to know whether or not to show an orientation locking button. The orientation lock setting is available through GSettings.
Replacing workspace pager with media keys/lock is something that assumes a rotatable device is something where the benefit of using workspaces is limited. That assumption may well be true, definitely worth investigating.
(In reply to comment #0) > For such cases, I would probably disable the workspace switcher completely > (assume a single workspace, all the time), and show there a toolbar with > various "fast access" items that tablet owners would use (orientation lock, > maybe playback buttons). I may be missing something (I've never used a tablet day-to-day), but does it naturally follow that you wouldn't want workspaces if you lock the orientation? Is there more of a technical problem behind this?
(In reply to comment #3) > (In reply to comment #0) > > > For such cases, I would probably disable the workspace switcher completely > > (assume a single workspace, all the time), and show there a toolbar with > > various "fast access" items that tablet owners would use (orientation lock, > > maybe playback buttons). > > I may be missing something (I've never used a tablet day-to-day), but does it > naturally follow that you wouldn't want workspaces if you lock the orientation? No, but: - workspaces aren't that useful on tablets (the overview is a better application switcher), though that's my personal opinion - we would need some space where to put the functionality. Allan was looking into trimming the status icon menus, so this could also be a location for the rotation lock. > Is there more of a technical problem behind this? Nope.
(In reply to comment #4) > (In reply to comment #3) > > (In reply to comment #0) > > > > > For such cases, I would probably disable the workspace switcher completely > > > (assume a single workspace, all the time), and show there a toolbar with > > > various "fast access" items that tablet owners would use (orientation lock, > > > maybe playback buttons). > > > > I may be missing something (I've never used a tablet day-to-day), but does it > > naturally follow that you wouldn't want workspaces if you lock the orientation? > > No, but: > - workspaces aren't that useful on tablets (the overview is a better > application switcher), though that's my personal opinion Workspaces are still useful on tablets/touchscreens. > - we would need some space where to put the functionality. I've written an extension that adds a button to the user menu: https://honk.sigxcpu.org/gitweb/?p=gnome-shell-lock-rotation.git;a=blob;f=extension.js If this makes any sense I can look into moving this into the shell. It would probably be nice to have an icon instead of a switch like on andriod. This gives a nice hint on what this function does. > > Allan was looking into trimming the status icon menus, so this could also be a > location for the rotation lock. > > > Is there more of a technical problem behind this? > > Nope.
Done as part of the new system menu designs.