Clarifying CCSM as a power tool and putting simple safeties to it.
There's been a big discussion about the problems surrounding CCSM and the possible solutions . The situation is the following - compiz is the window manager for ubuntu (as Unity is written as its plugin) , but the project (compiz) is poorly maintained at the moment . The package CCSM which so many people use to configure their desktops is considered volotile and causes various bugs and breaks when used uncarefully . A recent problem with the preferences menu has drawn a lot of attention (because ccsm broke upon clicking the preferences menu ) ,and that is part of the reason a notion has started to remove ccsm from the repositories . That though leaves a gap in configurability (and is almost never the way to go when encauntering a problem) . CCSM has functions that many users (mostly power users) .. use .. and CCSM is the only tool providing so much configurability (picking at gconf manually is just not an option) .
This blueprint is about putting ccsm in its place as a tool that can brake the system (yes there is such a place ;) ,there's enough tools that are already there) . There's a few steps to that ,which I'll present on the whiteboard .
This blueprint is not about commiting manpower to the project (I get that compiz developers or volenteers are hard to get) . It's about making the package not cause as much fuss as it does and making it more stable with as little effort as possible .
The development of compiz/ccsm will come when the users'/developers' demand grows enough so more people get interested in getting involved .
Blueprint information
- Status:
- Not started
- Approver:
- None
- Priority:
- Undefined
- Drafter:
- None
- Direction:
- Needs approval
- Assignee:
- None
- Definition:
- Pending Approval
- Series goal:
- None
- Implementation:
-
Unknown
- Milestone target:
-
ubuntu-12.04-beta-1
- Started by
- Completed by
Whiteboard
ToDo list :
--commit the fix of https:/
--change the description of the package to show it's not a user friendly tool
"Compiz Config settings manager is a tool for advanced configuration of the Compiz window manager and its plugins . Note that changing those settings may break your system ." -- now if someone knows where to push that change
--put an "apply" button instead of applying changes instantly (and on clicking display a warning message)
--->find a developer on compiz to help out with that task - email sent to smspillaz
Secondary tasks :
-- (Nico's suggestion) put a 10 sec period to confirm (and revert changes when there's been no confirmation) . I'm aware that that doesn't fix some more major breaks but it fixes a lot of breaks that are not that bad , but hard for a newb to handle .
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Notes for further development of CCSM as a configuration tool for Ubuntu
(not really related to the current blueprint , but since when it is carried out then work can begin on further development, I'm putting the notes here ) -- Petko
--"It is possible for users to really mess up their systems by disabling
important plugins like move, resize, composite, opengl and unityshell.
As such, we should provide a way for distributions to be able to lock
down certain parts of the user's configuration, such as settings
values or the plugins one is allowed to have enabled or disabled"
--> summed up : make CCSM watch if critical plugins aren't switched off and give out a warning ( or if the tool gets more development attention and wants breader userbase - have it disallow disableing those plugins)
