GSoC Idea: better multi-head support

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Thursday 20 March 2008, Aike J Sommer wrote:
> 1) Ideally using a second monitor should be as easy as plugging it in,
>    selecting what its position is and what you want to use it for.
>    With XRandR 1.2 this would actually be possible, but using the
>    xrandr command from a console is not really very comfortable.

there is an application called krandrtray that provides a (KDE) GUI for 
xrandr. it's not exactly perfect though, imho, and could use some additional 
work. it's pretty much a straight translation between xrandr and a UI. it 
could be made a lot more user friendly though, imho.

> 2) I think the best way to publish connected monitors and its
>    configuration choices would be the "New Device Notifier", either
>    through a direct XRandR/Xinerama DataEngine or by making Solid know
>    about these devices.

personally i agree that this belongs in solid. if Kevin disagrees, however, we 
can aggregate the information anyways in the devices DataEngine.

>    The notifier could then offer actions such as: Clone, Presentation,
>    Media-Player or Advanced Configuration, which would setup the correct
>    mode using XRandR and if applicable load specific Plasma-containments
>    or launch the configuration-module.

so essentially merging krandrtray with the devices plasmoid? that could be 
interesting.

> 3) The chosen actions or configuration should be remembered in form of
>    profiles, which can then automatically be loaded when the same device
>    is plugged in again at a later time.

as for Plasma, this would be a matter of associating the right Containment(s) 
with the new screen.

>    This would allow for an extended screen to the left when you plug in
>    the LCD in the office, using that LCD as primary screen and using the
>    laptops display as secondary screen (panel moving to the external
>    display, kopete moving to the internal for example). And when you
>    plug in the projector in the meeting-room it will set that up with a
>    special containment for presentations. And last but not least hooking
>    up the plasma-tv ;-) in your living-room will automatically launch a
>    mediaplayer like mythtv on it.

sounds great =)

> 4) This includes making the "New Device Notifier" monitor-aware, provide
>    feedback in the pager and allowing to apply settings from the
>    profiles.

what sort of feedback in the pager?

>    In my 4.0.2 setup plasma also doesnt behave perfectly when 
>    the screen is extended by a hotplugged monitor, but most of that is
>    probably already fixed in trunk. :-)

make sure you are using patch 0172 from qt-copy as that fixes a lot of stuff.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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