Bersace's Braindump

Here's the initial braindump of the Topaz desktop done by ÉtienneBersac.

(Scanned with GnomeScan !!)

• At the left side is the content dock : mails, news, archive, albums, music, addressbook, etc.

• At the right side is the devices dock : Computer, cd drive, portable media player, pda, printer, etc. Icons can expand to more information at focus (e.g. computer expand to cpu/memory load, battery status, etc.). DnD to such icons trigger actions (dnd to cd drive do burn, dnd to print do print, etc.). The trash can be consider as a device. I (ÉtienneBersac) would prefer to have the trash at the end of the device list.

• At the bottom is the toolkits dock : image toolkit, configuration toolkit, write toolkit, card game, etc. A toolkit is opened on a document. not by itself. A toolkit provide tools for specific manipulation of a (specific) content (e.g. pencil for image). some tools are standalone. E.g. a card games is just a set of 52 cards. Opening it shows a green carpet over all documents and the cards are distributed considering the rules you choosed.

• At the center lay an opened document. Top left icon is the document icon (representing the document type). The image toolkit is loaded and you have a bunch of tools on top of the document. Just click the tool you want to use. See Tango Window Experiments for document window.

My Braindump

Here's the refined concept of the Topaz desktop.

(See also Desktop with opened document picture.)

This is a place holder for our devices, network volumes and applets. The shown devices are, computer, dvd, firewire drive and printer. The computer is a permanent object. When clicked, it shows a panel with objects related to the computer + configuration i.e. desktop tools(desktop config tools), system tools(system config tools), shell, system/computer info, user info, system monitor, reboot, standby, shutdown, hibernate, logout, etc.

The Shelf

This is a place holder for document stacks. stacks are created automatically when we create new documents. We can pile other document(s) onto existing stacks or pile other stacks onto existing stacks via DnD. (see The Shelf and the Document) The objects shown on the shelf are: file manager -- This opens the file manager and is a permanent object. "new document" icon-- This creates a new document when DnD to the desk. This is also a permanent object. Document stacks -- document stacks created by the user.

The Tool Box

This holds the tools we use to get the work done. The tools shown on the toolbox are: the viewer, document editor, image editor, audio player, audio editor, mail tool, address book tool and the diary tool.

The Desk

This is the space where work gets done. Applets can be moved between the desk and the device dock depending on the user's wishes. i.e. the trash and the clock can be moved back to the device