[sugar] current network differentiation?

[Eben Eliason]

On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 3:42 PM, <pgf at laptop.org> wrote:

> eben wrote:
>  > On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 3:14 PM, <pgf at laptop.org> wrote:
>  >
>  > > is it intentional that the currently-connected network is no
>  > > longer differentiated in the neighborhood view?  the outer ring
>  > > of that network icon used to be white -- it no longer is.
>  > >
>  >
>  > This is intentional.  The colors of the stroke/fill serve as the visual
>  > representation of the identity of the network; changing them effectively
>  > strips this identity.  The new design does not make any indication of
> which
>  > network is presently associated in the Neighborhood view; perhaps we can
>  > find an alternative method.  Thoughts?
>
> i get the color thing, though those colors are all arbitrary,
> right?  but i guess you can say "connect to the green/orange
> network" as a means of identification, and if the ring is white,
> you can't do that.  but it still feels like the connected network
> should be "special" in that view.  maybe little radio waves
> emanating from it or something.  :-)
>

They're arbitrary, but the colors are chosen as a hash of the essid, which
makes them consistently arbitrary.  Your favorite network will always be the
same colors, and a given network will be the same colors on everyone's
machine.  It's just a hint of an identifier, but it's a lot better than
nothing.


>  >
>  > > it's been pointed out that you can see your current network on
>  > > the frame, but somehow that's not quite the same (to me).
>  > >
>  >
>  > Yes, that's the preferred model.  The Frame serves as a perpetual status
>  > element, and is instantly accessible no matter "where" you are within
> the
>  > UI.  I'm open to improvements on the model.
>
> it wasn't until charlie came over and showed me the icon in the frame
> that i'd had the frame up at all today.  but it's certainly a good place
> to go for status information.
>

I hope that the Frame will see much more use as a result of the redesign;
it's meant to be a crucial interface element, but until now hasn't had much
utility.  It will help when the notification system is integrated, since the
act of connecting to a network will invoke a pulsing network icon in the
corner of the screen, which will then slide into the Frame as a hint at
where to go to find it later.


>  >
>  > i'm also not sure how to disconnect from that network -- there's no
>  > > "disconnect" option in the popup anymore.
>  > >
>  >
>  > Well, that's a "bug", but not really.  The problem is that there is no
>  > notion of "disconnect" in network manager at all.  The old behavior used
> to
>  > switch into mesh mode, which disassociated with the network itself.
>  >  However, we now have a more direct means of accomplishing this, via
> turning
>  > the mesh device on or off explicitly.  It doesn't make sense to compound
>
> i'm not sure what you mean by "turning the mesh device on or off
> explicitly",
> at least in terms of the current UI.  is that the Radio: checkbox in the
> Network control panel?
>

There has been lots of confusion about the difference between mesh and APs.
 They're really not the same at all, apart from the fact that they both
depend on the radio.  The new design no longer treats the mesh channels as
objects in the Neighborhood view.  Instead, there will be (is? not sure if
the patch landed yet) a mesh device in the Frame, which you can turn on (and
off?) at whim.

 > these.  The more conventional option is something like "turn wireless
> off"
>  > to disassociate with the current network, but that assumes that there is
> no
>  > other potential use for the wireless at all. In our case we still have
> the
>  > mesh to worry about, so that again doesn't map onto our circumstances.
>
> i guess i'm thinking of it in traditional terms.  if i'm browsing
> available nets, i might connect to a network by mistake, and want to
> disconnect without necessarily connecting to something else, and now
> it feels (rightly or wrongly) like i can't do that.  i guess it's not
> very important, though.


I'm trying to point out that your assumption isn't actually true.  I'm not
aware of a "disconnect" option which strictly disconnects from the current
network.  Instead, there is usually a "turn off my ability to connect to any
network, disconnecting from the current one in the process" option.  This
isn't what we want, because one may want to disconnect from a network but
remain on the mesh.

- Eben
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