Mark Shuttleworth introduces Window Indicators - Windicators

Mark Shuttleworth is doing some serious work in further improving the usability and look and feel of Ubuntu. Earlier it was the global menu for Ubuntu 10.10 netbooks. This time he has come up with integrating the panel indicators into the window title bar. Yes, the same panel indicators - volume etc. that we see on the right side of top panel. They will be merged in the window title bar now.

This idea grew from the Ayatana indicators which provided a clean basis for indicators in the panel but then Mark thought why put indicators in the top panel when we have all the space in the window title bar. Just take a look at the windows title bar in your browser, all it has is the title, three control buttons and an immensely un-utilized space. So, according to Mark, why not use this space for application specific indicators and since they are on the window title bar, hence the name - Window indicators aka Windicators. This is how he defines Windicators:

Windicators are indicators displayed in the window title bar that behave just like the indicators in the panel: they have an icon which shows state, and clicking on the icon brings up a menu.

Here is the mockup of an application using windicators:

Earlier all the window related stuff was supposed to be rendered by a specific application - window manager, but by using the technology "client side window decorations", we can move the rendering of windows decoration into the application. And as a result, application can make better use of the window title bar space.

What are the benefits of Windicators?

One important thing is that in this way we will be providing a lot of flexibility to an application. They will be able to use indicators for notifications or any way they want.

I am not sure if you had this problem or not, but when I am using too many applications which make use of the indicators, my top panels looks clogged and this is something I wanted to get rid off.

In case you have noticed, there is mostly a status bar associated with an application (the bar at the bottom of an app window). The work of this bar is to either show some status icons, tools or show some notification messages - "saving file". So, the plan is to include them too along with the windicators. This will save some vertical space for netbook applications.

So, what about the Global Menu and 10.10, Maverick Meerkat

If you rememeber last week I wrote about the introduction of global menu in 10.10 Netbooks. The gist was that when we maximize an application in a netbook, because of global menu, the top panel will include the menu functions of the application. But we also need to accomodate the windicators and title. This is how it is planned to be done.

When the window is maximised, and we are using a smart which can include both indicators and window titles, the window indicators will be inserted into the panel as well. They will appear on the right of the panel, and be the leftmost indicators.

Here is a mockup of the maximised window.

I am not sure how are they planning to include the menu bar and the new app. title bar together in the panel. Although these are just mockups, so we can hope for some patches or implementation soon.