Three different tab implementations

[Maks Orlovich]

On Friday 31 January 2003 12:00 am, Allan Sandfeld Jensen wrote:
> On Friday 31 January 2003 01:14, Rob Kaper wrote:
> > There are currently three different tab implementations in KDE:
> > Konqueror, Konsole and Kopete each have their own framework for tabs,
> > with different keybinding shortcuts and different behavior.
>
> Dont forget kate too, although they try to make it look more like emacs'
> multiple buffer thing, but it's really all the same.

No, it's not, and that's exactly why the whole "Make tabs part of the window 
manager" thing completely misses the point, IMHO (yes, I am partly replying 
to other people). The whole advantage of those types of interfaces is that 
they're adapted specifically for the use patterns of each application, which 
is why many users like them over the WM/Panel mechanisms. Try fitting more 
than maybe 10 files in a tabbar (depending on screen size) and it soon gets 
useless. Now compare that with Kate's filelist, which scales to much larger 
filesets, and lacks the awkward scrolling problem of tabs. See the 
difference? 

Yes, I agree that homogenizing appearance, shorcuts, and reducing code dup is 
a great goal - but these interfaces will never be 100% identical, because 
frankly, they're all used for different things. 

On the other hand, maybe we should just move Konqueror to kdelibs? It does 
tabbing, view splitting, sidebars, and embedded konsole. What else would an 
app need? ;-)

-Maks