[sugar] current network differentiation?

[Martin Dengler]

On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 05:42:26PM -0400, Eben Eliason wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 3:37 PM, Martin Dengler <martin at martindengler.com>wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 03:23:47PM -0400, Eben Eliason wrote:
> > > 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?
> >
> > Perhaps the currently-associated network's icon can appear below the
> > XO icon, as the Journal does initially in the Home view.
> >
> 
> Could be tricky, since (hopefully soon) the view will be fixed so that the
> current activity is beneath the XO, consistent with the Home view.  There
> may be other options, though.

It could also be made bigger (for a while I kept patching my
MeshBox.py to make favorite icons bigger) than the others.  Or a
128/128/128 rgb ring could be drawn around it.

Well, you asked for ideas :).

> > cjb suggested to me on IRC that Disconnect/Turn Off (for
> > wireless/mesh, respectively) could just cut power to the radio.  I
> > then suggested that this would work if the restoration of power was
> > quick enough that switching to the Neighborhood view could power back
> > on the radio and update the icons in some acceptable lag.
> 
> 
> Again, I don't think this is really the desired semantic.  It's /almost/
> right, and is the traditional means of achieving this, but that also turns
> off the ability to be on the mesh, which isn't necessarily what one means by
> "disconnect from this AP".  They should be independent.  I realize this
> isn't as crucial right now, since we can't be on both mesh and AP at the
> same time, but in the future it's pretty clear that they need to be
> orthogonal.

I guess if they won't be independent for 8.1.2 it seems like it's
exactly the right thing to do - whether I'm on the mesh or the AP, if
I want to disconnect from the wireless and connect to the mesh I just
hit the mesh channel in the mesh palette, so if I select "disconnect"
I don't want to do that and thus have no use for the radio; and
if I disconnect from the mesh I definitely don't need an AP (if I did,
I would've chosen it).

We thought about just doing a NetworkManager sleep, but then, well,
again, what is the radio then good for barring drawing 1W of power :)?


> > This problem (and it affects "Extreme power mode" too) is
> > recorded in #7690.
> >
> > >  The old behavior used to
> > > switch into mesh mode, which disassociated with the network itself.
> >
> > This is much less desirable than powering off the wireless, IMO.
> 
> 
> I agree.  That's why there's no longer a disconnect option.  We thought it
> was better to remove it until it has a proper semantic, rather than
> implement it in a peculiar and not readily understandable way.

Again, "Disconnect" and "turn off" the wireless and mesh
(respectively) seem to have quite intuitive semantics (to those not
familiar with MPP usage): turn off the radio, since I don't want to
use what it's providing (wireless or mesh connectivity). 

> - Eben

Martin
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