GNOME Desktop Integration Areas of Focus

Intent

The intent of this document is to outline the key areas in which Firebird needs to improve in order to better comply with GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIGs) and integrate with the GNOME Desktop infrastructure.

GNOME HIG Compliance

P1 - Button Ordering

Use correct button ordering for dialogs.

P1 - Accelerator Keys

Shift+Ctrl+P for Print Preview, Alt+Return for Document Info, Ctrl+Q for Quit, Ctrl+A for Select All.

P1 - Menu Item Locations

Options should be Edit->Preferences (no ellipsis), View -> Toolbars should be View -> Toolbar.

P2 - GTK Theme Integration

Better obey settings from GTK theme for all widgets including list boxes, tabs, etc.

P2 - Stock Images

Locate and use stock images on Cancel, Close, Help, Print and other system dialog buttons.

Locate and use stock images for Query, Info, Alert, Exclamation and other system alert message dialogs.

P2 - Menu Item Access Keys

Ensure we use correct access keys for standard application menu items such as File New, Open, Close, Print, Quit, Undo, Clipboard operations, Select All, Find, Preferences, Toolbars Help).

P3 - Emacs Keyboard Bindings

Default to GNOME keyboard bindings but obey system Emacs keybinding preference.

P4 - Dialog Text Review

Review dialog text per capitalization rules. This seems like a good ruleset for all platforms.

Desktop Integration

P1 - File Type Registration

Installer should register Firebird as viewer for .html etc with GNOME VFS MIME Registry.

P1 - Protocol Handling and Dispatch

Must use Desktop means of locating protocol handlers and invoking them appropriately (e.g. mailto:, irc:, news: ...)

P1 - Unknown Content Type Handler Fallback

Unknown Content Type Handler/Helper App Service needs to fall back into GNOME VFS MIME registry for content types without application specific overrides (just like on Windows).

P2 - moz-icon Implementation

An implementation for moz-icon on Linux should be written using the GNOME VFS gnome_vfs_get_icon method etc, to better provide meaningful UI hints in aspects of application UI that reference files, such as the Downloads window, Helper App Options etc.

P4 - Help System Integration

Provide help through Desktop help system.

P4 - Status Notification Area

Download Initiated notification for when Downloads window is in the background.