[kde-community] Plasmoids and Apps - was - Re: Applications in KDE Generation 5

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Thursday, January 16, 2014 22:54:43 Albert Astals Cid wrote:
> So basically there's no difference between a plasmoid and a non-plasmoid?

There are differences; I would never do Krita as a plasmoid, e.g. Or, for that 
matter, Okular. The Plasmoid design pattern lends itself to self-contained, 
highly focused, single-use-case UIs. That is purposeful; the “full desktop 
application” paradigm is not visible in kcalc, and full desktop apps are not 
well suited to be implemented as plasmoids. It’s a question of granularity 
across a spectrum that runs from desktop shell gadgets to full desktop 
applications.

There is a gray area in the middle of that spectrum: things like KCalc make 
sense both as desktop shell gadgets but also as stand-alone applications.

What the application FormFactor and the single-plasmoid shells like plasma-
windowed provide is a way to address that middle zone.

Apps the “full desktop app” end of the spectrum may *use* plasmoids (or a 
similar pattern) themselves. We see this in Skrooge and Amarok, for instance.

> If that's the case, I don't understand why John started the discussion if we
> should favor plasmoids over non-plasmoids or viceversa since it seems to me
> "plasmoid or not" is an implementation detail.

I think it’s a matter of consciously deciding which implementation direction 
to take different apps, and that implies we know why we pick one or the other.

Beyond that, it is an implementation detail, yes.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo