--- proposal.txt Wed Jul 16 00:35:07 2008 +++ proposal-v2.txt Thu Jul 31 02:25:37 2008 @@ -1,3 +1,6 @@ 1. Introduction 1.1. Project/Component Working Name: @@ -46,13 +49,18 @@ 2.2. Risks and Assumptions: - 1. Through the preferences of AWN, AWN manager, user can add new applets, which - is developed by third-party or someone, but they are not stable or missing - some dependencies required to run , so may cause some error. So if - user like to add new applets, should go to Applet Gallery, and install the - stable ones. If someone develop the applet for AWN, should follow Applet - Submission at http://wiki.awn-project.org/Awn_Extras:Applet_Submission + 1. The AWN manager allows users to easily download and install new applets from + the Applet Gallery. There is a risk that a user might install additional + applets which might not work properly due to a missing dependency, or because + they are not stable. So if user like to add new applets, should go to + Applet Gallery, and install the stable ones. If someone develop the applet for + AWN, should follow Applet Submission at + http://wiki.awn-project.org/Awn_Extras:Applet_Submission + 2. AWN does not support accessibility at the moment, the community has not consider + this before, so need to take some push so to make it support accessibility. + Currently user can use Ctl+Alt+Tab to switch between the running applications, + so this supports some degree of accessibility 3. Business Summary @@ -62,27 +70,26 @@ and control system, user can start many applications in the system, so it's useful to provide user a GUI tool to list all of the running applications, and user can use it to active/deactive the application or access some location - by simply click one icon. Avant Window Navigator (Awn) is just this type of tool, - it looks very cool, and really provide user great convenience to manage the - running applications. + by simply click one icon. This project provides an alternative GUI panel for + easier navigation of running applications and the filesystem. - 3.2. Market/Requester: JDS Desktop group 3.3. Business Justification: - - Avant Window Navigator (Awn) is a dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of the - screen. It has support for launchers, task lists, and third party applets. - - So it can provide user an easy way to track the opened windows, and user - can launch some location by simply click some launcher, user also can add - applets, and set the theme to make AWN looks very cool. + AWN provides an alternative GUI panel which displays a dock-like bar + at the bottom of the screen. It shows the user all of their running + applications and allows users to easily switch between them. It + also allows users to specify commonly used folders on the + filesystem which will be shown to the user so they can quickly + navigate to them by clicking on an icon. User can also install + additional applets from the upstream community if they wish. + 3.4. Competitive Analysis: - Mac OS has leopard Dock. + AWN has a similar approach to the panel as the Leopard dock in MacOS. 3.5. Opportunity Window/Exposure: @@ -99,23 +106,22 @@ 4.1. Details: Avant Window Navigator (AWN/Awn) is a dock-like navigation bar for the - linux desktop that positions itself at the bottom of the screen. It can - be used to keep track of open windows and behaves like a normal window - list, you can also add a place or location (home folder or a drive for - example) to the dock. So to make you have control of your computer just - from the dock. + desktop that positions itself at the bottom of the screen. And it can + be used to keep track of open windows and behaves like the gnome-panel + window list applet. You can also add a place or location (home folder + or a drive for example) to the dock, so users have more control of + their computer just from the dock. - AWN is a dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of you screen, allowing - you to launch and control applications. Also has the ability to embed - external applets. Look and feel are fully customisable, and theming - support is also available. + AWN also has the ability to embed external applets. Look and feel are + fully customisable, and theming support is also available. - AWN ships with only the Launcher/Taskmanager applet. Many other applets, + AWN ships with only the Launcher/Taskmanager applet by default, which is + used to manage the launcher and task running. Many other applets, such as the Main Menu, "Stacks", CPU meter, and GMail notifier applets - can be found in Awn Extras. Once you have installed some applets, you - can add them to the dock via awn-manager, in the "Applets" section. + can be found in Awn Extras. After installing additional applets, users + can install them to the dock via awn-manager in the "Applets" section. - User also can develop plugin for AWN, which allow already-existing + Users also can develop plugins for AWN, which allow already-existing applications to interact with AWN. Awn Extras is a project focusing on providing a number of important applets (not unlike the panel applets for Gnome and Xfce) in a single package, along with a number of plugins that @@ -122,8 +128,28 @@ allow applications to better interface with Awn's task manager. These applets range from a Trash applet to fancy workspace switcher. To obtain them, follow the Awn Extras download instructions. You will - find the plugins in /awn-extras/awn-plugins. + find plugins in /awn-extras/awn-plugins. If users wish to develop their + own applets, it's easy enough. If the applet is written in Python, you + can install it directly, no need to compile, but if it is in C or Vala, + Makefile will be provided to handle the installation details properly, + then you can compile and install. + Now on Solaris we have gnome-panel run by default, and AWN is also the + Similar tool. At the moment, AWN will not replace gnome-panel. Instead, + these programs are intended to be run together. Reasons why we cannot + replace gnome-panel with AWN include: + * 1, AWN need compositing support. Before can run AWN, you have to + start Compiz, and then AWN can run, so in a non-Compiz + environment, we can only use gnome-panel. + * 2, There is no launch menu by default in AWN, and the AWN menu can't + updates when applications are installed. + * 3, Trash in AWN is not stable enough now. + + We also ship gDesklets on Solaris. gDesklets provides applet-like + objects which display on the desktop background. These compliment + whatever style of panel the user may be using, whether they are + using gnome-panel or AWN. + 4.2. Bug/RFE Number(s): N/A @@ -134,7 +160,7 @@ 4.4. Out of Scope: - Applets developed by third party developers. + Applets developed by third party developers and the ones in awn-extras. 4.5. Interfaces: