Context View Bookmarks

[Mark Kretschmann]

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Leo Franchi <lfranchi at kde.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday 07 October 2009 02:22:26 Nikolaj Hald Nielsen wrote:
>> Some people have been asking about the usefulness of the Context View
>> bookmarks that I added yesterday, so I thought I had better explain my
>> reasoning behind this feature. There are a few reasons why I added
>> this, and I will try to cover them below.
>
> (this whole email assumes the context browser bookmarks work as promised---
> currently there are a few bugs that make them hard for me to use)
>
> I think we should separate the two functionalities, and their respective
> supporting points. I agree with having an implementation of Context Bookmarks,
> it makes doing some stuff behind the scenes much easier, and can be used in
> writing a stateful context view (i think it's attacking a nail with a
> sledgehammer, but whatever).
>
> But I question more the use of the "add bookmark" button in the context
> toolbar. I don't think your point that "well we have playlist and collection
> bookmarks" holds any water---just  because they have them, doesn't  mean it is
> logical for the CV to have them too. Features for features' sake don't make
> sense.
>
> So we're left with the "switching between multiple sets of applets" piece of
> support.  While I see the use of this, I disagree for a few reasons:
>
> 1) We don't have that many applets. I rarely find myself wanting to see a
> completely different set of applets that fill up the CV---that is, replace
> *everything* at the same time. I can fit ~3-4 applets on the CV at once
> depending on what I have open, and I can't think of 8 applets I want to see
> during any amarok session, let alone 12 or 16.
>
> 2) It is a sort of halfway-point between the CV as being stateful and the CV
> as being a blank slate upon which you place applets ad-hoc. If I have a bunch
> of saved configs, which are variations on each other, should I switch between
> them, or switch what applets I am showing manually? It feels like it's giving
> too many ways to accomplish the same thing, leaving the user confused.
>
>
> Anyway, I see a lot of uses for the internal implementation of the bookmarks.
> As you navigate through a service in the Internet browser on the left, for
> example, it could load a Context Bookmark that would show some specific set of
> applets. Etc. I just disagree with the user-facing button.

Call me lazy, but Leo has written pretty much what I'm thinking too,
so I'll simply say:

I agree with Leo.

-- 
Mark Kretschmann
Amarok Developer
www.kde.org - amarok.kde.org