[kde] [Bug 427550] New: Ridiculously difficult to figure out how to add a launcher to the task bar (or panel or whatever it's called)

[bugzilla_noreply at kde.org]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427550

            Bug ID: 427550
           Summary: Ridiculously difficult to figure out how to add a
                    launcher to the task bar (or panel or whatever it's
                    called)
           Product: kde
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: openSUSE RPMs
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: major
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
          Assignee: unassigned-bugs at kde.org
          Reporter: php4fan at gmail.com
  Target Milestone: ---

I am new to KDE Plasma.

Cinnamon and probably other desktop environments actually have this exact same
issue, but that doesn't make it any less of an issue. It has always irritated
me.

I assume the horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen, where you see
currently open windows and also launcher icons to launch applications that are
not already open, is called "task manager", given that right-clicking on it the
first entry in the context menu that shows up says "Configure Task Manager".

When you have already launched an application, and you want to add it as a
button on the Task Manager's bar, you can right-click on it and choose "pin to
Task Manager". Cool.

You can also look for the application in the Application Launcher and drag it
onto the Task Manager. Cool.

But what if I need to create one from scratch?? I want to add an icon that runs
a given executable. It's not always an option to launch it from a terminal or
from the Application launcher and then pin it while it's open. Is that the
assumption? Is that why there is no easily discoverable option to add a new
one? Do I need to explain that you cannot always do that??

This should be an easily discoverable thing to do. This should be obvious. I
right-click on an empty space on the bar and I EXPECT to see one option in the
context menu that says "add launcher icon", or whatever the correct name is.

It's completely ridiculous that it's not there. I explored the other options:
"add widger", no; "add panel", no.
Then there is "Configure Task Manager": perhaps there I'll find an option to
add buttons. Nope.
In "Edit panel"? Nope.

So far, the only way I've figured out to accomplish this was to create a
shortcut (a link?) on the desktop, and then drag it onto the task manager.
I thought I had accomplished what I wanted. But to my surprised, when I deleted
the desktop shortcut, the one in the task manager stopped working. It didn't
even disappear: it was still there, but when I tried to click it, it gave me an
error. Because apparently what you create by dragging the desktop shortcut icon
onto the task manager is a link in the task manager that links to the desktop
shortcut that links to the application.

An example use case is Tortoise Hg.
In order to run it, I have to run the executable /path/to/thg/thg, which is a
script that then runs something else (I thin it runs "python
some-python-program.py", I'm not sure, I don't care). So, the window that I
eventually see is something else from the executable that starts it, and I
cannot pin it to the task manager (I tried).

But this is just one of infinite possible use cases.

To this day I still haven't figured out how to do this. This is something that
you should discover by just clicking and right-clicking around.
Exactly like you right-click on an already-open application's button and
discover the "pin to task manager" option. This is as basic as that, so if you
understand that "pin to" is a basic operation that one should discover without
googling "how to pin an application to task manager", you should equally well
understand that adding a new one should be something that you can discover as
easily without having to google "how to add an application to the task manager"

I am not asking how to do that. I'll google it and I'll find out. I'm reporting
the issue that it's ridiculously difficult to discover how to do that.

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