Mixing with KCM KMix

[Frans Englich]

On Monday 02 February 2004 00:33, Christian Esken wrote:
> On Sunday 01 February 2004 04:40, Frans Englich wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > In "KControl/Sound & Multimedia/Mixer" hides 3 settings, which I suggest
> > we do the following with:
> >
> > * Save/Load volumes
> > 	Remove. They are obsolete(usability change pre KDE 3.2).
>
> They are obsolete in KControl. I am still planning to put it back in KMix
> (I still hate autosave, especially because its broken).

Good that you mentions it, now we can discuss it, getting our ideas peer 
reviewed.
From the discussion we had pre 3.2 I found the rationalis to why autosaving 
was preferred superior.
I can take this discussion one more time: If we for one moment discards that 
you personally don't like it - what is the rationalis why an arbitrary user 
would not prefer autosaving?

>
> BTW: What would you think about removing the "Dock into panel" option?
> I am pretty undecided here: On the one hand, KMix should always dock into
> the panel, but on the other hand: what if a user wants to save space on the
> dock area

I find the applet area a place where things the user need often but can't use 
too much space, can be. If it's not in the applet area it is a taskbar entry 
and that consumes more space than the the applet entry.

>  - or what if KMix runs in a no-Dockarea-present Environment?

It sounds unlikely.. Doesn't large parts of KDE assume(to be reasonable 
usable) a system tray?

On top of my head: Remove it.

I also think the "Configure KMix" in the RMB can be removed - configuring kmix 
will be very seldom, and most of its settings are tied to the main window.

>
> > * Load volumes on Login
> > 	Move to kmix's preference
>
> Yes. Yes.
>
> > * "Maximum number of probed devices per mixer"
> > 	Fascinating if users can figure out what this does. Remove it and set
> > the default value to 3. kmixctrl will then loop 3 times(detecting at
> > maximum 3 sound cards). The option was there in the belief it affected
> > performance. On my setup, there is no measurable difference between
> > detecting for 15 or 1 mixers. Although, it is best if someone elaborates
> > on this..
>
> I thought of a better solution: KMix probes until it does not find any
> further mixers. So if you got 2 soundcards, KMix would probe 3 devices. OK?

This is the absolute preferred way - letting the software take decisions 
instead of the user. Very nice.

>
> > The attached patch does these changes.
> >
> > This leaves an empty kcm, except for its init routine. It could be
> > replaced by doing a simple:
> >
> > if kreadconfig --file kmixrc --group Misc --key startkdeRestore --default
> > true --type bool; then kmixctrl --restore
> >
> > (if this is the right way, where should it be executed? It must be quite
> > early in startup)
> >
> > Or, a corresponding code snippet could be added to an existing init lib.
> > (if this is preferred - what init lib should it be placed in?)
>
> I don't care where it is put. The above script snippet looks fine (haven't
> verified the syntax).

I don't know where to put it, anyone have a good suggestion?

>
> > And after that remove kdemultimedia/kmix/control.
> >
> > What do people think?
>
> Good move. Go ahead.

Thanks, I will.

Cheers,

		Frans