GNOME Do to get more kick-ass than Chuck Norris

By , Published March 10, 2010

Yesterday evening the jolly folk behind launcher-and-then-some GNOME Do held a meeting to set out some goals for the future of the project.

Hold on to your seats, kids.

Just Do.

First things first, the 'GNOME' in 'GNOME Do' is getting dropped. This isn't a slight at GNOME but more about ensuring that the project isn't perceived as solely a GNOME application – KDE, OS X and Windows ports are all on the table.

The application will be getting a major overhaul over the next few months resulting in the application being, essentially, rewritten from scratch. This is to allow Do plug-ins to run as separate processes to better aid stability and functionality. Enhancing application compatibility (i.e. posting to Gwibber or Pino from Do without needing a plug-in) is also a a much mooted feature by the team.

The reset will also result in Do getting a new interface€¦

Do Interface

The interface of Do has always been incredibly pretty to look, right? But is it as good as it could be? And what do you do with Do now it's sans Docky? Is it as intuitive as it could be?

Thinking along these lines an enhanced interface is being proposed with the most important change being to properly distinguish a 'text entry' box so newer users understand how to use Do.

image

(Mockup by non-other than the awesome DanRabbit)

In the aim of usability Do shouldn't confuse the user when calling an application or action; if you type Firefox with the intention of launching it do you really need to see the 'run' option next to it as well?

Look out

So Do will be changing over the next few months and we'll be keeping a pretty beady eye on it as and when it develops.

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • http://twitter.com/Filipe_Aguiar Filipe Aguiar

    I can’t live without Do anymore. The mockup is GORGEOUS!

  • nathan

    oh god danrabitt is a master…

  • Anonymous

    Expect…?

    But seriously, is it going to be re-written in scratch in something other than mono?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Nope. They were a quick discussion about other languages but everyone agreed that C# gives them the best bang for their buck (i.e. they can do what they want using it)

    • Arkadi

      I’m using Gnome-Do for a very long time and it is a great application, but I really hate the fact that it is being developed in C#….

      • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CBUBZJNTMERFMELJULNBJ4VEBA Reinis

        If you want a lighter alternative, or by chance mono-free desktop, then i suggest Kupfer. It has bit less plugins, than Do, but none that I would miss. It is in karmic repositories, but i suggest PPA.

        BTW, would love to see an OMG review of this great app.

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          Funny you should mention Kupfer, i tested it yesterday along with Do and Launchy for a ‘review’ piece.

  • http://www.FreezingMoon.org/ Dread Knight

    Glad he finally took my trolling into consideration about how silly was “Gnome” inside the apps name… was a KDE fan at the time.. wtf does Gnome do inside KDE anyway? I dont have anything against Gnome now :P

    • Anonymous

      i really highly doubt they cared about your trolling. its simply a logical step when rewriting it to be run on multiple OSs.

      • http://www.FreezingMoon.org/ Dread Knight

        Actually that was an argument of the trolling I did.

        • Anonymous

          i’m not saying it wasn’t, I’m just saying most developers can figure stuff like that out for themselves. :D

          • http://www.FreezingMoon.org/ Dread Knight

            Lies! It’s all lies! :D

          • Anonymous

            Especially the cake

  • Anonymous

    Chuck Norris > Jackie Chan.

  • Connor

    Prefer the top left one, and I would definitely need the Run command showing as sometimes I search for files, look up words in the dictionary etc.

    • http://twitter.com/kinesthesia kinesthesia

      They’re all the same mock up in different states of action.

  • Juhani

    I just hope they would add the automatic calculation to the Do the way Katapult does it. Just typing 15 * 13 would display the result straight away without my need to do anything else or to install any plugins. That’s the only thing I miss from Katapult after moving to Gnome.

  • Schiwe

    “Love, love me do.
    You know I love you.”

  • http://twitter.com/gebagu Grigori

    nobody and nothing can be more kickass than chuck norris o.O

    • Yi Sun-sin

      Billy Idol is !

    • Anonymous

      chuck norris can.

  • Anonymous

    Those mockups absolutely stink of Dan Rabbit! His style is sooo ultra smooth

  • Mohan

    Oh that looks very nice! Looking forward to it.

  • Anonymous

    I like Gnome-do, I wish it would start up with my laptop like its supposed to.

    • Anonymous

      me too. i had to add a timed delay, now it works right.

      • Anonymous

        Really? How long of a time delay? 10 seconds?

        • Anonymous

          i usually go for 15 seconds.

          • Anonymous

            I’ll have to give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

          • Anonymous

            no problem.

  • http://peligrociencia.com/ aloctavodia

    those mock-ups are awful! the actual interface is much much more prettier. By the way the web page change from Gnome-Do to just Do, at least one year ago. I agree with Juhani, an integrated calculator will be awesome; from time to time I found my-self typing a division directly on Do ;-)
    Anyway if they create Do in the first place I trust they have new fresh-good-ideas for the future.

    • Anonymous

      Really? Awful? What is awful about them? i think they look great.

    • http://billishere.deviantart.com Billi

      I also prefer the old gnome-do look. honestly, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
      gnome-do with the docky feature was great! then they separated the two and now there is a dock that does not have integration with gnome-do. and now this? uggh. i feel like all my favourite apps and my favourite os is just going down the drain.

      • Anonymous

        aww poor you.

        it was broke, they’re trying to fix it. :D gnome-do was getting clunky with so many plug-ins, they wanted to rewrite, they started planning, and separating the apps meant both could be better and work better.

        • http://billishere.deviantart.com Billi

          they sacrificed functionality for simplicity…just like many other things in gnome. oh well. atleast the kde people understand functionality.
          actually on second thought…it isn’t simple now, its actually worse. having both do+docky combined in one app is a more simple and unified solution. additionally, its easier to use.

          • Anonymous

            well, i’ve been using docky since it split off, and gnome-do in classic interface, and I like them both more, and they haven’t even improved gnome-do yet. basically i’ve been able to use gnome-do’s plug in system a lot more, getting into using it for twitter and stuff. i think its better, and even more functional.

            i don’t really get how you think they sacrificed functionality for simplicity, since the whole point of the split was to add functionality, not simplicity. they work fundamentally different, so it makes sense for the stuff they want to add in the future.

          • http://billishere.deviantart.com Billi

            Well…I used all the plugins and what not while the two were combined.
            I guess its a just a difference of opinion..to me the combination of both of them in one package meant that it was ideal and had good functionality. It was a can full of whoopass. now…you have two separate apps that do not interact with each other…i.e a decrease in functionality.

            i do understand that it is simpler now to develop for two different apps now. but still. i would like to see some sort of integration of the two. i miss having to press super+space and my dock transforms into gnome-do…that was pure awesomeness. now…its like whatever..all those mac ppl have the same stuff too..with their quicksilver and osx dock.

      • Martini1179

        I agree. I use the dock as well as the program integrated program launcher on a daily basis. GNOME-Do (in dock mode) was an awesome app, and they shouldn’t have made radical changes to a winning formula.

        The argument that this was somehow necessary because the app was “broke” holds no water. They could have rewritten the code from scratch with the same dock + program launcher using a different package, with the caveat that the “original” GNOME-Do would no longer be in active development.

        But the “logical” thing was to split them up, start developing Docky first, then introduce a separate “Do” several months later, all while claiming that there will be “some integration between the two” at a future date.

        But I guess that four left turns also make a right.

  • http://www.thekiplingconspiracy.co.uk christiegrinham

    What would be great would be being able to add applications to Docky from Do.

  • bhm

    Support for Launchy’s themes would be nice.

  • http://samdevol.com/ Sam Devol

    Been avoiding mono, but what I’d love to see is a comparison to Cairo Dock (Gnome-Do/Cairo), my current favorite…

  • Anonymous

    This looks interesting. Do is collecting dust in my notification area since docky2 came out. Hopefully, Do will be exiting again.

  • http://keturn.net/ Kevin Turner

    The name change is probably a good idea, but just “Do” is gonna be hell to find in a Google search.

    • Anonymous

      LOL….yes, yes it would

      • http://davidsiegel.org/ David Siegel

        Until you actually try googling “do” — we’re on the first page. For many, it’s the second result. Hardly “hell to find.”

        • Anonymous

          sorry, google does seem to get it right (gotta love it!!)…weelll, I…um…i really don’t know how to say this….well, i used bing (it was only for a day…im back to the light now)….you try “binging” your project or whatever “do”….sorry for the misunderstanding, please blame it on good ole’ microsoft.
          awkward, eh?

    • Anonymous

      it’ll work out eventually.

  • http://mystilleef.blogspot.com/ mystilleef@gmail.com

    GNOME DO, Compiz and Avant Window Navigator are my favorite and most useful desktop applications. They’ve revolutionized desktop linux.

    I wish the GNOME DO folks would use Python instead of C# for development though. It’s so more expressive and would help tremendously if they’re aiming pluggable interprocess architecture.

    Anyway, kudos to them. I like the new mockups. They look awesome.

    • Anonymous

      but python has its limits and dependencies…C# is better for what they are trying to do….
      btw, I am an avid python user but C# just has that extra ‘KAPOWA’ for certain tasks

      • http://scribes.sf.net/ mystilleef

        What are they compared to C#?

    • Anonymous

      Python is horrible…
      C# is definitely a good choice.

      • http://mystilleef.blogspot.com/ mystilleef

        I think Python will save them a lot of development and design pain for what they want to do.

        • Anonymous

          Not really.
          C# is definitely better for this, Python is a pain.

          • Anonymous

            You’re all demented. Writing it in C makes it powerful, and if the programmer is even half sane then the code is small and clean with a tiny footprint…and of course it shouldn’t be too difficult to port across platforms. (Not that it is with Mono, but the point is that pure C is better than this .Net crap.)

            Python isn’t crap. If you think it is, then you haven’t used it. That is all.

          • Anonymous

            It’s about experience. They have experience with C#. Plus there are many reasons to avoid using unmanaged code; memory corruption, memory leak being some of these. Obviously when the benefits of these new languages outweigh the older languages is when they’ll achieve widespread adoption.

        • Anonymous

          Python and C# are my two favorite languages. In my experience, statically-typed, explicitly-typed languages like C# are what save you the development and design pain for any reasonably large project. Having a wonderful IDE like MonoDevelop with features like Intellisense also saves you a lot of frustration.

          One of the reasons you gave for choosing python is that python is easy to write plugins in. This is true, which is why Docky allows you to write plugins in python over a dbus interface. I’m pretty sure Gnome Do is heading down this path as well, which will give you the best of both worlds :)

    • http://twitter.com/xangua xangua

      Kupfer, a light launcher app, uses python if you are interested http://kaizer.se/wiki/kupfer/

    • Anonymous

      Python is great, but C# is much more expressive than you probably think. I think a lot of people think “C# is like Java, so it isn’t very expressive”. But C# is much more expressive than Java. Here are some examples:

      Quit a Gtk application when the main window is closed:
      window.Destroyed += delegate { Application.Quit (); };

      Search a collection of cardboard boxes for boxes shorter than 5m, and order the results by width:
      boxes.FindAll (b => b.Height b.Width);

  • http://dylantaylor.wordpress.com/ aliendude5300

    non-other should be none other

  • Anonymous

    I hope they use anything but mono, mono is great but it’s heavy as ****

  • Anonymous

    “Do”….something is just wrong….to simple (every mac fan boy is now putting me on their hit list)

  • omg what

    chuck norris is a dick can we start comparing stuff to jackie chan or something

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      ‘Jackie Chan’ was actually in the original title of this post and not Chuck Norris…

      • Anonymous

        LOL…nuf said

      • dRewsus

        Bruce Lee. Just sits quietly in the corner. Even dead, he could murder them all and they know it. But he lets them get the attention. Doesn’t bother him one bit, cuz THEY know. They know.

  • Numayos

    Dude, this is a silly Command Line Interface.

  • Anonymous

    Am I the only person that dislikes not having the option of Docky + Do? I really think they work well together. I understand wanting the separation, but I dislike being left out in to cold like this. I supppose I can run both, but it was so pretty!

    Also, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one with CPU issues in Docky. I recently saw that it was taking 127% of my CPU! Nifty little ‘feature’.

    • http://billishere.deviantart.com Billi

      I whole wheartedly agree! Docky+Do rolled in one is a smart idea! it’s ingenious! then some crackhead comes along and messes it up….

  • Anonymous

    The text entry will be a /huge/ help. And the mockup is gorgeous, Daniel!

  • http://davidsiegel.org/ David Siegel

    Chuck Norris is not very kick ass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlaWbCbZhAA

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      It’s probably really sad that i don’t actually know who Chuck Norris is…

      • Anonymous

        OMG…you must be british (inside joke with my brit cousin ;)

  • Anonymous

    Now i would like to see do as an applet for the gnome panels .. but since they are facing extinction :( …

    guess i have to wait for gnome shell to see what the future will really bring

  • http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~james/ james

    Since it’s getting a rewrite, I would *love* to see it get coded in python! I have a distaste for c#, and while this isn’t my choice, I do encourage switching away from mono since you have the chance. Thanks for gnome do!

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    Looks awesome

  • http://www.mind-funk.de/ nickless

    Since Do won’t open my Pidgin/Skype Contacts anymore when I type their names, I pretty much stopped using it. But because this was a design desicion they made, my hope is basically that they reconsider.

  • Pingback: OMG! First look at the new look ‘Do’ launcher

  • http://captainc.myopenid.com/ Chris

    I’m just throwing it out there… Vala has all the benefits of C# and it compiles to C code.
    Great to see the performance increase in Do after this rewrite though. I really hate the delay sometimes when typing in commands in the Do interface. It has made me disable almost all plugins.

  • dRewsus

    Im curious, once (Just) Do comes out, will I have to abandon the gnome-do PPA and add a new one, or will they continue to use the old one? I doubt they will keep the same one, or the same name for the package. Thats pretty silly, actually. But, I’d just like to not have to change anything. I’m lazy….