[sugar] alt-tabbing to the Journal

[Eben Eliason]

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Martin Dengler <martin at martindengler.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 12:21:23PM +0200, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
>> have we reached any consensus on [alt-tabbing to the Journal]?
>
> No, based on http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/6251
>
>> Perhaps someone that cares about changing the current behavior could
>> do a summary of the arguments on each side?
>
> *Perhaps* there are only two opposing views; I am biased but will
> attempt to summarize the pro (removing-from-alt-tab-list) and the
> con (keep-it-as-is-now) views:
>
> Pro:
>
> 1. One never wants to Alt-Tab to the journal
> 2. there is a dedicated key for getting to it
> 3. the journal should be treated more like a zoom level ("lower" than
> the home view).
> 4. Unnecessarily makes itself the active activity when focused, so now
> the Activity/F4 key as well as the search key are dedicated to it.
>
> Cons:
> 1. One sometimes wants to Alt-Tab to the journal
> 2. The journal is positioned like an activity in the Frame and UI

You missed one of my biggest reservations in the cons:

3. The Journal wouldn't appear beneath the XO at boot.

It's important to me that the Journal be one click (yes, click; not
just keystroke) away when the child boots the laptop. The current
activity gets positioned here under the XO, so in the current paradigm
this happens implicitly.  I suppose you could argue that the Journal
still gets shown here if no activities are open at all, but then we're
special casing it a bit.  There may be other ideas for exposing the
Journal in Home as well, but nothing brought up so far as really dealt
with this dilemma.

Also:

4. The zoom level metaphor is specifically meant to convey the idea of
physical spaces.

In the top 3, we're looking out at a plane with people spread across
it.  In the bottom one (activity), we're zoomed in "onto our desk", so
to speak, with a single activity taking over the entire screen. The
Journal, as a fullscreen UI akin to an activity, felt more at home in
this space. Making the Journal a "zoom level" doesn't really make
sense in the metaphor.  You might still argue it's a "different kind
of space", but it doesn't seem to be a point (or "level") on the axis
already defined.

I'll just toss one more idea out there, for argument's sake.  The
Journal, as a "place for storing things", might actually be related to
a device instead (since it's UI may be the same or similar to that for
USB/SD/etc.).  We could put it down there to meaningfully distinguish
it.  This still leaves problem 3, of course.

- Eben


> I personally respond to the cons as follows:
>
> 1. When?  Nobody's cited examples where it's more desirable to use
> Alt-Tab than the dedicated key.
>
> 2.
> a) Frame positioning can be changed - there are two proposals and one
> with a mockup that synchronizes the keyboard layout with the frame
> layout:
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Activity_management_journal_core.jpeg
>
> b) I don't know what's meant by
> "positioned like an activity in the . . . UI" - it seems quite
> distinct and more like another zoom level to me, and the journal is
> never launched like other activities are (neither from Home, Mesh,
> Neighborhood zoom levels, nor resumed from itself).
>
>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tomeu
>
> Martin
>
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