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{#} To reply to the author, write to Erik Smartt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
While on the subject of Away mode, there is a feature of AOL IM that I
miss: When you set the client in Away mode, it opened a dialog box with
your message up, and a Close button to return to non-away mode. The
reason I like this is because it gives a fairly noticeable UI feedback
that the mode of the software has changed -- particularly to one where
you are telling people that you are not there. I bring this up because,
while Fire does have a drop-down in the Buddy List window, the feedback
is minimal, and I have numerous times come back from lunch or something,
and forgot to reset Fire to Available.
I was thinking about this problem, in the context of the OS X UI, and I
think we can go a step beyond the AIM client. The solution I keep
leaning toward is to change the Fire icon in the Dock while Away.
Assuming you don't auto-hide the dock, the dock is a place to give such
feedback (and it's already done with flashing, bouncing, and numbers,
and even more elaborately with the cpu meter, temperature and bandwidth
displays, etc...) My first thought was to simply change the icon's
color, but of course, color alone isn't enough UI feedback to inform a
novice user as to the REASON why the icon has changed. A better
approach would be to actually change the icon to one more representative
of being in an Away mode, but color is a good first step, and beats no
feedback.
So:
1) What do people think about this?
2) What steps would need to be taken to make it happen? (I haven't
had any of my code ever manipulate it's doc icon yet, so I have no idea.)
Cheers,
-- Erik
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