There are a lot of usability problems with the AccessGrid, some of them inherent in the architecture. However there are some things we can do to mitigate the worst of it...

Kiosk Mode

This is targeted at dedicated AG nodes.

Normally the AG fires up into a desktop session, usually Gnome. However this places you at the mercy of the window-manager, which knows nothing about the special relationships between the various apps of the AG; window placement can therefore appear arbitrary. By simplifying the desktop, automatically loading applications on startup and introducing custom window configuration and placement we can make things more usable.

Method

[http://sawmill.sf.net/ Sawfish] is an X11 window-manager written in a [http://librep.sf.net custom dialect] of Lisp. The full API and source-code of the system is exposed to the user, allowing an large degree of configurability (think 'emacs the window-manager'). It also provides for process invocation and control.

Goals

Window-placement: Control windows (AG client, Vic, Rat) always start on the designated control control panel, possibly in fixed/borderless mode. Individual Vic windows should always start in the display area, preferrably in a deterministic tiled mode, with options for alphabetical and per-site ordering (if possible). Function keys can be programmed to force layout and window sizing . Window-sizing is tricky; vic does allow interactive resizing and only responds to s/m/l keypresses. Sawfish provides a method of injecting X11 events into windows, we may be able to use this to hack in control.

Potential operations:

• Tile all
• Tile all as small
• Tile only the normal windows (leave large alone)
• Group by site

For a bonus we could have a workstation version to split the desktop into control and vic areas.

Custom theme: As mentioned, control windows should be fixed and borderless. We could also modify an existing theme to add small/medium/large control keys to the title-bar of the Vic windows, as this functionality is non-obvious. This would be done with key-injection. The theme would preferably be low-profile to maximise use of space.

Application hot-keys: As well as auto-starting the AccessGrid it would be useful to quick-start applications from the function-keys (browser, VNC, etc.) A keyboard overlay should be provided for them ([http://www.datacal.com/dce/custom-templates.htm e.g.]).

Screenshots

Some work-in-progress shots:

• [attachment:quad-ag.png Multihead]
• [attachment:workstation-ag.png Workstation]