Activity Notification Options

[Kessbird]

Hi there! This is my first post, so go gentle on me.

I adore Savitar as a client and have been using it for years. It has to be about the best one I've used, and the most reliable.

I do have a suggestion, though. I'd like to see an activity notification feature, to alert the user whenever there is activity in a window. I have to cascade my windows in order to be able to monitor the activity in them successfully, which is okay, but it does limit the size of the windows and the number of them that I can feasibly use at any time. I'm thinking of something along the lines of the little activity monitor in the corner of Simplemu*'s window - that is handy.

I have no idea what that would entail, but thought I'd throw it out there and see what happened. Enjoy!

[Day]

I've heard other MUSHers mention this... But I never really gave it thought. How's it work in other programs?

I wonder if using transparency-flashing would appease people? Or do you want windows otherwise hidden to be indicated somehow? I hope the answers to these questions will help Jay. I'm basically just making conversation.


->Day<-

[Kessbird]

It would be most useful as a window that sits atop all of the other Savitar world windows, with a list of what windows have had activity pop up in them since they were last on top.

The way that Simplemu* does it, is that there's a portion of the window dedicated to activity notifications (bottom-right corner, if you're not familiar with it). Whenever there's activity in a window that isn't the one on top, the name of the window pops up in there. The notification disappears as soon as you check the window.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to have a notification that hidden windows have activity in them. Layering them so that you can always see a portion is a pain and generally hard to keep track of.

I suppose an alternative way to do it would be to amalgamate the world windows into a single window with tabs for each world, the same way that Safari does for webpages now. Then you could make the tab for the window change colour/flash/whatever. I suspect that that might be the long way to do it, though.

Is that any help? I don't know how well I'm explaining this. Thanks for the conversationing, though!

[Day]

Makes sens to me... This would have solved a problem I used to have, but I eventually decided I couldn't really do more than a couple MUSHes at once, anyway. I wonder if your over-everything window could be one of those mini-windows that Mac OS can do, you know, that disappears when you click to another app and then comes back when you go back to which ever app it belongs to. Like Photoshop's control panels and such. Well, I guess we'll just see what Jay says.


->Day<-

[Guest_Jeff_*]

Oo. That might make for a cool Konfabulator widget or something to sit on your desktop. Especially for when you might have Savitar hidden completely. Would even be cool to bundle with future versions, or have as a separate download, kind of like Panic has done with their Transmit Dashboard widget. Sure wish I was more of a programmer. Ah well, just ideas...

[Day]

Except that not everyone who has Savitar has Konfabulator. I don't want to pay two shareware fees simply for full usage of one product. I'd rather see it as a Sav-native feature.


->Day<-

[Guest_the savage mind_*]

Oh God have I been wanting this feature in Savitar! I never thought that it hadn't been suggested.

Another thing that would work is if somehow the dock icon could flash when there's activity in a window under the top one, but I guess that wouldn't help you figure out which window it is.

But I so heartily vote for this.

[Guest_New Guy_*]

Another way that SimpleMU does it, is they have a small icon in the toolbar, that flashes green and red alternately when there is activity even if you're in another app.

For Mac's it might be feasible to have the icon in the doc jump out at you, if there's activity and Savitar is in the BG.

Just downloaded Savitar tonight. I really like what I'm seeing so far!

This and spell-checking and it might be the perfect client!

[Kessbird]

That would also be handy!

Mostly, I want a way to know if there is an activity in a Savitar window other than the one I'm looking at. I tend to have a lot of them open at once, and keeping track of each of them is what ends up being difficult.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed.