[Gossip-dev] Gossip gets libnotify

[CJ van den Berg]

On Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 03:00:03PM +0000, Martyn Russell wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-03-16 at 15:18 +0100, CJ van den Berg wrote:
> > It's always difficult to keep the number of configuration options down with
> > event notifications. Maybe the disable options should be dropped? Does it
> > make sense to ever turn them off? (ie. to *enable* sounds when away/busy)
> 
> You mean to disable sounds when busy or away. Currently sounds are
> ALWAYS played unless turned off. I can't make my mind up between the
> two... Sometimes if I am watching TV I want the sounds so I can hear it
> in the next room and get up to talk to someone... other times, I
> wouldn't. But I never change the configuration, I usually just turn the
> sound off.

I often have this scenario too. I have a PC in my living room and I often
leave it on while watching TV. If someone sends me a message I'd rather
chat than watch TV. What I normally do in this (with other Jabber clients)
is disable auto away altogether. That way I always appear available to
others, which is technically correct, even when the screensaver kicks in.

> Maybe it should just be:
> 
> Notifications:
>  - [x] When messages arrive
>  - [x] When contacts become available
> 
> Notification methods:
>  - [x] Play a sound
>  - [x] Popup a window

These look great.

> Intrusions:
>  - [x] Disable notifications when busy
>  - [ ] Disable notifications when away

I'm not sure that an option to disable when busy or away makes sense.  You
shouldn't have to go into the preferences dialog and change options based on
your current state. I, for example, have these five "pseudo" states or
scenarios that I use all the time:

1. Available for chat but not actually sitting at the computer
2. Available for chat and at the computer
3. Busy (i.e do not disturb)
4. Away (back in 5 minutes)
5. Away/Offline (ETA unknown)

Number 2, 4 and 5 are fully automatic and work fine. Number 3 I select
manually, which is also fine. I don't know what to do for number 1 and I
somehow don't think changing options in preferences makes sense. Maybe the
states combobox should contain additional states that effect how
notifications and auto-away are done?

> I was also thinking about doing it when receiving subscription requests
> and file transfer requests... but I don't think the subscription
> requests should be optional and probably not for file transfer requests
> either.

Why? If you've explicitly said you don't want to be interrupted why should
anything override that? I usually use the busy state when I've got a
co-worker sitting at my computer and we are doing a bit of pair programming
or something together.  I *really* don't like random popups in this
situation, especially not file transfers.

-- 
CJ van den Berg

mailto:cj at vdbonline.com
  xmpp:cj at vdbonline.com
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