Files: new feature

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On 02.11.2012 13:37, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Friday, November 2, 2012 13:23:00 Wolfgang Romey wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>>> I guess we can start discussing and schedule items soon, since nobody
>>> seems
>>> to be adding anything anymore. When is the scheduling/discussion session
>>> planned?
>>
>> Would Files be the right place to create new files and start the app, in
>> which i can work on it. Example: I create can creater a new .txt file and
>> kwrite opens?
>
> Very good question, and one I've also been wrestling with :)
>
> Basically, I think all this needs is a very simple application that lists the
> kinds of things you can create. Then we can have a "Create" entry in Launch
> which would open a window listing all the kinds of things you can create. This
> list would probably best be built from sets of .desktop files that applications
> can install specifically for this purpose.
>
> This Create application would then launch the appropriate application with a
> new document opened.
>
> It would be very nice things like "Email" and "Event" could be in there as
> well, which means being able to launch Kontact Touch with appropriate
> parameters.
>
> Even if that is not possible right away, we could start with things like text,
> word processing, etc. files for which we have reasonable editor support.
>
> This app should look harmonious with Files. However, it doesn't really need
> the sidebar ... and even the top bar is probably unecessary. So I don't think
> Files is the best application to add this functionality to.
>
> The real big question is: how to show the various things you can create
> without it becoming a giant mess of icons.

This is certainly one of the things which should be discussed during the "big 
picture design", as it is one central part of a task-centric system.

And for me, being able to e.g. write an email or add a contact or an event - or 
even visiting a website should be accessible via the same UI as creating a file. 
Users do not - and should not have to - care about applications or the 
difference between creating a file or a contact. They just want to get stuff done.
For me, KRunner is already pretty far in that respect. It can already do lots of 
stuff, but hiding it behind a keyboard shortcut and hiding much of its 
functionality behind very specific keywords users have to remember currently 
makes it a "pro tool" rather than something average users use.

So I'd suggest that we use some time during the PA4 cycle to carefully design 
something like a "KRunner for everyone - and better" which we can implement in PA5
This requires a lot of effort, but if we get it right, we've made a big leap 
forward towards a task-centric system.