RFC: app open only once instead of instances in the different activities

[Marco Martin]

On Thursday 27 October 2011, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Thursday, October 27, 2011 17:11:34 Fania Bremmer wrote:
> > Usecase: I want to check my private mails any time I want, not related
> > to my current activity. Currenlty I need to create a "general" activity
> > with that sort of apps in it, like also a chat program... I need to
> > switch to this activity to be able to chat, even if I am using that chat
> > maybe for different projects, contacts, activities.
> 
> we face the same issue in Plasma Desktop, and the solution currently
> implemented is to allow the user to associate an app/window with all
> activities.
> 
> perhaps this is another use case for the "C" in SLC with a "Connect to all
> activities" option?

yep, or the application could also be that by default (makes sense for kmail 
for instance)

a problem i see with slc is that now always work only with the content, not 
the window.

another complimentary thing that can be done is that if a kuniqueapplication 
is re launched from another activity, it would send it to the new one 
alongside the old one

> it will, i think, be very hard to tell which apps we can launch safely on
> all versus just the current activitiy. we'd have to track each
> application, make a top-down decision and it would often seem random to
> the user. i'd suggest consistency over intelligence in this case due to
> that.
> 
> things get even harder if / when apps like kontact touch become activity
> aware. imagine having the ability to only show emails / email accounts
> related to the given activity. if the application can switch naturally,
> then we'd be better off showing that same app on multiple activities when
> launched; e.g. -> launching such an app again on a second activity would
> actually just associate the window with that activity. though to avoid
> user confusion, this would also mean that "closing" the app would mean not
> actually closing it but dissassociating it from that activity (so it would
> "keep running" in the other activities)

that would be another case for an api for the app to say "i manage the 
activities by myself thanks" so that would be on all activities by default


-- 
Marco Martin