[26612] in Athena Bugs
sun4 9.4.15: bugme
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeffrey S Walden)
Mon Sep 19 00:05:20 2005
Message-Id: <200509190404.j8J44ih5004550@quickstation-random-hall.mit.edu>
To: bugs@mit.edu
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:04:44 -0400
From: Jeffrey S Walden <jwalden@mit.edu>
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System name: quickstation-random-hall.mit.edu
Type and version: Sun-Blade-100 9.4.15
Display type: ifb
Shell: /bin/athena/bash
Window manager: metacity
What were you trying to do?
I was attempting to maximize my use of the screen locations which are easy to hit (the four corners of the screen) by using the upper-left corner for a logout button. While this works fine, the upper left corner is always obscured by the bugme box on quickstations, requiring me to move the bugme box in order to use that corner to its fullest potential.
What's wrong:
The bugme program should not automatically monopolize one of the most useful locations on the screen; it serves too little useful purpose (where "useful" is partially determined by how often some of its functionality is accessed with a mouse, which in this case is effectively "never" if we assume it is rarely moved) to justify the location.
What should have happened:
It should grab an unobtrusive location that doesn't impede access to easy-access areas of the screen. One prime example of such an unobtrusive location is a Notification Area, as is included in the GNOME desktop.
Please describe any relevant documentation references:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/design/ui/fittslaw.html
...specifically, the "Use screen corners and edges" section.
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html
...specifically, the answer to Question 3, which describes in detail why the corners of the screen are the easiest locations to hit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts'_law
A more mathematical perspective but still possibly useful for background information.
