VV GUI

[Felipe Contreras]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 12:43 AM, Maiku <cmaiku at gmail.com> wrote:
> For a while now the voice and video GUI has settled to the point where
> it's functional, but I'm not very satisfied with it yet. Here's the
> current GUI:
>
> http://www.mrprogrammer.net/vv-now.png
>
> The biggest problem I have with it is that it's using a GtkPaned
> between the backlog and the audio/video so it can't be automatically
> resized. I've tried a few times to make it so that it will auto-size,
> but it doesn't work the way I'd like it to. Ideally, I'd like the
> video to remain a specific ratio (4/3 or possibly later the ratio of
> the video rather than a constant). As the window is vertically resized
> I want the video to expand horizontally to remain within this ratio.
> As the window is horizontally resized I want the backlog to
> grow/shrink to take up the extra space that the video doesn't use.
> I've tried the GtkAspectFrame, but it just pads the extra space rather
> than letting the backlog take it. So unless there's some extra switch
> I'm unaware of, I'm not sure how to accomplish that.
>
> Another issue that's been brought up is that the buttons at the bottom
> move the input box. It has been suggested to move the buttons to be
> under the video as a toolbar. I was wondering if this might also work
> as a vertical button box, to the right of the input box. Maybe
> something like this:
>
> http://www.mrprogrammer.net/vv-option.png
>
> I'm curious to hear input on these points and on the GUI overall.
> Another idea to throw around would be how to handle the GUI for
> multi-user voice and video conferences.

In a video call the IM looses importance, so the biggest element in
the screen should be the other's side video. The video on your side
should be smaller, and optional. The IM boxes should be smaller and
optional too.

For reference take a look at Gmails' UI:
http://mail.google.com/videochat

-- 
Felipe Contreras