Unity Updates
Alright, welcome to another dose of Unity contributor news. We’ve got a bunch of new rockstars since the last status report from 11.04, so let’s do a little catch up to what’s been going on:
- Daniel van Vugt has fixed Bug #773946 – “Launcher missing Eject/Remove/Unmount options for eSATA drives”, Bug #783813 – “Fix duplicate names for Unity MT Grab Handles”,
- Marius Gedminas has fixed a nice multi monitor bug, #778256 – “Notification area (‘system tray’) missing when using dual monitors of different sizes, with their bottoms aligned”
- Manuel Nicetto’s fixed another annoying bug, making the launcher avoid focus switching when opening quicklists: Bug #750781 – “Opening quicklist with launcher keynav returns focus to previous window”
- Jeremy Bicha, famous for his GNOME3 integration work brings in a quick fix to whitelist system-config printer in the whitelist, Bug #771562.
- Nico van der Walt fixed it so the combo box resizes in the Dash when you change the font (no bug # listed) and Bug #759886 – “indicator font does not update when changing font in Appearance Preferences.”
- Cameron Heart fixed Bug #750349 – “Clicking on a app icon to spread the windows must always show all the windows, regardless of whether or not some of the windows are minimised”
And that’s just the new people, here’s some more hot action from now-familiar names:
- Marco Biscaro’s added an option to adjust the automaximize value, Bug #754214, and Made sure the ubuntu home button obey’s your panel opacity (hey, it’s the little things) – Bug #767733, and was the one that added the look to make the home button look depressed when you actually push it as well as 754095 fixing the mail shortcut in the Dash.
- Oliver Sauder ‘s fixed an annoying one, Bug #746382 – “Make the application-name in the panel obey the system-wide set font”
- And lastly, Andrea Azzarone has been on fire since UDS, here’s the list from the Italian Stallion:
- Bug #735031 – “If you pull down the application panel, the context menu pop up”
- Bug #677594 – “Workspace switcher useless with one workspace”
- Bug #687956 – “should display the launcher tooltips after a delay”
- Bug #750778 – “Menu key should open quicklist for the selected item in the launcher.”
- Bug #722178 – “window’s title does not fade in the right position”
- Bug #718185 – “Keep launcher hidden when modal dialog is opened”
The Big List
Here’s a list of targetted bugs that the design team has picked out as a result of user testing and feedback that would make Unity nicer to use. Here’s the full list if you want to dig in.
- 676453 Launcher – Add ‘installing’ animation for when app is installed via drag & drop
- 767075 Launcher – when the user reveals the Launcher by moving the pointer to the left side of the screen, the Launcher should unfold at exactly the point entered
- 616866 Installation of apps by dragging them to the launcher
- 750375 Dash – Cursor navigation allows the user to keep scrolling down indefinitely
- 723866 Dash file Lens – Rename “Favourite Folders” category header to “Folders”
- 765715 Launcher – When a app icon de-couples from the Launcher a small shadow should appear on the bottom and right sides of the icon
- 767272 Top bar menus – there should be a very quick and subtle fade out/in effect when a user shifts from one menu to another or closes a menu
How to Get Involved
1. Get the Code
Follow the Step by Step Instructions and Wiki Page. This will get the code from Launchpad, set up your development environment, and getting you used to the Launchpad workflow.
2. Pick a Bug
Here’s the full list, or you can just join the team and watch them roll in and pick what you’d like.
3. Fix your bug and then get your code into Unity
Don’t worry we won’t leave you hanging, you can get a-hold of a Unity developer through many different ways:
- Join the ~unity-community-hackers team and start digging in.
- We now have a Weekly Meeting at 000UTC on #ayatana on Freenode IRC if you feel like hanging with us and getting organized and ask questions
- #ayatana on freenode IRC during European and American workdays. Or you can post to the mailing list if you have a question.
- We also have weekly IRC Q+A for any developer who wants to dive in and ask a Unity developer. 7pm-8pm UTC (That’s 2pm EST) every Friday!