[sugar] current network differentiation?

[pgf at laptop.org]

eben wrote:
 > On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 3:14 PM, <pgf at laptop.org> wrote:
 > 
 > > is it intentional that the currently-connected network is no
 > > longer differentiated in the neighborhood view?  the outer ring
 > > of that network icon used to be white -- it no longer is.
 > >
 > 
 > This is intentional.  The colors of the stroke/fill serve as the visual
 > representation of the identity of the network; changing them effectively
 > strips this identity.  The new design does not make any indication of which
 > network is presently associated in the Neighborhood view; perhaps we can
 > find an alternative method.  Thoughts?

i get the color thing, though those colors are all arbitrary,
right?  but i guess you can say "connect to the green/orange
network" as a means of identification, and if the ring is white,
you can't do that.  but it still feels like the connected network
should be "special" in that view.  maybe little radio waves
emanating from it or something.  :-)

 > 
 > > it's been pointed out that you can see your current network on
 > > the frame, but somehow that's not quite the same (to me).
 > >
 > 
 > Yes, that's the preferred model.  The Frame serves as a perpetual status
 > element, and is instantly accessible no matter "where" you are within the
 > UI.  I'm open to improvements on the model.

it wasn't until charlie came over and showed me the icon in the frame
that i'd had the frame up at all today.  but it's certainly a good place
to go for status information.

 > 
 > i'm also not sure how to disconnect from that network -- there's no
 > > "disconnect" option in the popup anymore.
 > >
 > 
 > Well, that's a "bug", but not really.  The problem is that there is no
 > notion of "disconnect" in network manager at all.  The old behavior used to
 > switch into mesh mode, which disassociated with the network itself.
 >  However, we now have a more direct means of accomplishing this, via turning
 > the mesh device on or off explicitly.  It doesn't make sense to compound

i'm not sure what you mean by "turning the mesh device on or off explicitly",
at least in terms of the current UI.  is that the Radio: checkbox in the
Network control panel?

 > these.  The more conventional option is something like "turn wireless off"
 > to disassociate with the current network, but that assumes that there is no
 > other potential use for the wireless at all. In our case we still have the
 > mesh to worry about, so that again doesn't map onto our circumstances.

i guess i'm thinking of it in traditional terms.  if i'm browsing
available nets, i might connect to a network by mistake, and want to
disconnect without necessarily connecting to something else, and now
it feels (rightly or wrongly) like i can't do that.  i guess it's not
very important, though.

paul

 > 
 > - Eben

=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at laptop.org