Falkon UI for touch and handheld devices

[Juraj Oravec]

On pondelok 5. decembra 2022 17:00:22 CET Genghis Khan wrote:
> Please pardon me for triple mailing.
> 
> Another observation below.

That is fine, I just read the last one.

> TOOLBAR
> -------
> Falkon should have all toolbars hidden by default except
> Navigation Toolbar.
> 
> Search Bar (a part of the Address Bar) should be disabled.
> This can be done now by collapsing the Address Bar to the Search
> Bar, but it really should be completely disabled as the display
> might be too narrow.

Provide a custom config by the distribution, or might need a way to 
introduce some defaults during compile time.

> TABS
> ----
> Tabs should be disabled by default in favor of (New) Windows.

That might break too many things, you are better of making a new 
interface over QtWE.

> TABS
> ----
> I think that a convergenced Vertical Tabs sidebar can be enabled by
> default, which I think is a very good solution and will allow users
> to handle sessions of multiple tabs.  It seems that such solution
> isn't offered by any web browser yet.

There is already a similar request on the bugtracker but this should be 
extended to sidebar itself.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=462085

> SUGGESTIONS
> -----------
> For the time being, suggestions should be disabled so it won't
> interrupt user typing on virtual keyboard, unless theses's a way
> to program the suggestions in a different way that would not
> interrupt typing.

Suggestions can be disabled by a config option. Other stuff may require 
aan investigation on how the touch input works together with current 
suggestion method.

> TOOLS BUTTON
> ------------
> Button "Tools Button" should be hidden by default and dialog
> "Configure Toolbar" should be available inside Preferences ->
> Appearance.

Another thing for custom config.

> ICON
> ----
> Falkon should change its icon to favicon, if available, for each
> active tab.  This is the begaviour of the default web browser of
> LineageOS and it seems useful.

Interesting, but I believe there is a similar request tied together with 
--app mode which I think include changing the icon to either the 
specified one or the one provided by page. Well I preffer to keep the same 
icon, often the icons provided by web are not good enough.

> SETTINGS
> --------
> Preferences and other dialogs should be stretched, that is occupy
> Falkon main window.

Not gonna happen.

> Preferences and other dialogs should also be adapted to smaller
> displays.

Some work can be done on this to at least have a way to get to all 
options on smaller screens.

> STATUS BAR
> ----------
> This issue is also relevant to Sway Window Manager for Wayland.
> Menus of status bar are opened to the buttom which makes them
> unusable when Falkon is maximized (streched).

Doe not happen on my desktop OpenBox setup, so this is either Qt or 
Wayland issue. Or is there a real way we can influence how menu is 
displayed?

> MENU
> ----
> Context menu might need some changes, but I think it's best to
> leave
> it after users provide feedbacks for Handheld Mode, perhaps under
> "Appearance" or "Configure Toolbar".

Yeah, incpect element is missing icon on my setup, may fix that.

> FINAL NOTE
> ----------
> I think we need to add a Handheld Mode to Preferences ->
> Appearance,
> and when this mode is made available, Falkon is perfect for
> handheld devices.

It feels more like a whole fork in terms of visual stuff. There are stuff 
listed which can be easily done by changing configuration and some stuff 
which would be nice to have anywhere and not just the handhelp 14 inch 
laptops.

> Juraj, please do let me know how can I help.

Falkon needs a lot of work as it is, so this all will have to wait until 
someone starts working on it.


> MENU
> ----
> Menus should not contain sub-menus, so essential menu items should
> be placed on the main menu (e.g. sessions, history and bookmarks
> sub-menus to be removed and page sourc, full screen, zoom in/out to
> be moved to the main menu).

I believe this should be handled by Qt itself. It should be told it is a 
touch device and menus should react in a way it is proper on such a 
device. I personally hate the Firefox menu when I have to click all the 
time.

> ENCODING
> --------
> Character Encoding sub-menu should be available in a form of a
> dialog when each change will be "Previewd" upon click.

I wonder if this can be done or how this even works, this one is 
interesting since it would be helpful anyewhere to have a live change 
(assuming it is not there yet)

> FULL SCREEN
> -----------
> Navigation Toolbar shoud be always visible, because F11 key isn't
> available on all th keyboards and when it is, it requires several
> clicks to reach to.

This is either already there or it can be done as an option and might be 
helpful at some time.

> SEARCH
> ------
> Search Bar (Ctrl+F) buttons should not have Next Previous text and
> Match Case button should be replaced by an icon.

There could be an option at worst case, I wonder.



These are my thoughts, so take it as an opinion of a thickheaded 
stubborn man.

Best regards,
Juraj
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 488 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/falkon/attachments/20221205/8bbdfccf/attachment-0001.sig>