[Bugs] #453 UNSP: if the Sugar control panel is open, then Frame icons are inoperable

[SugarLabs Bugs]

#453: if the Sugar control panel  is open, then Frame icons are inoperable
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    Reporter:  skierpage                  |          Owner:  erikos  
        Type:  defect                     |         Status:  assigned
    Priority:  Unspecified by Maintainer  |      Milestone:  0.84    
   Component:  sugar                      |        Version:  0.83.x  
    Severity:  Major                      |     Resolution:          
    Keywords:                             |   Distribution:  OLPC    
Status_field:  Assigned                   |  
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Comment(by tomeu):

 Replying to [comment:3 garycmartin]:
 > Replying to [comment:2 tomeu]:
 > > I think the actual bug is that you can go away from a modal alert like
 the control panel. Once you get into such a modal window, you shouldn't be
 able to interact with other screens.
 >
 > If so, then I think this bug may be my fault :-) I lobbied that folks
 making control panel changes would very likely need access to other
 information. Classic case would be trying to enter a new jabber server
 address and needing to refer to some wiki page in Browse. Or when
 reporting bugs where the first thing you need is the information in "About
 my XO" so you can report the various OFW, distro builds, Sugar version
 details. Or just reading a help document and going through the CP options
 available.

 Yes, I see this general issue with modal UIs, they suck because they are
 modal but we resort to them because they are... modal.

 If we were able to provide this functionality without a modal dialog, then
 we should totally do in that way because modal dialogs are evil. But the
 problem is that we sometimes fail to provide a non-modal way to do stuff.

 So every time that someone sees a discussion about making something modal,
 please comment and try to help finding a non-modal solution (and
 implementing it). One example is the wireless key dialog. We know since a
 long time that the key should be entered in the palette of the access
 point instead of opening a dialog, but nobody has gotten to do it yet.

 Maybe other stuff can be moved from the control panel to other places in
 the UI, not sure.

 > OT: I must admit I'm not a fan of the current CP modal presentation and
 side effects, and was disappointed that the new naming dialogue copied the
 style (I was hoping for an alert style naming dialogue, alerts seem a much
 better UI interaction).

 You mean an inline alert? That sounds cool though don't know how we can
 put there all we want to. Care to do a mockup? This is something that I
 think can be changed for 0.86 without too big a disruption on users.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/453#comment:4>
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