Regarding kpdf

[Frans Englich]

On Saturday 03 January 2004 16:21, Eva Brucherseifer wrote:
> On Friday 02 January 2004 23:30, Frans Englich wrote:

> usabilitywise it's always good to provide offer several ways to do things.

Indeed. Another bad aspect is that it counteracts making functionality 
visible.

> Removing the entries from kmenu is a very bad solution imho.

Yes, the idea has definitely drawbacks but there is positive sides too. Most 
ideas involve both good and bad aspects and if the idea should be implemented 
relies on whether the good outnumbers the bad. I don't know the position in 
this case. Anyway, as you say, there's nothing against a good discussion:

The purpose of the integration technologies behind KDE(KParts, xmlGUI eg.) 
together with konqueror has as purpose to provide a wide range of 
functionality(open different file format eg.) under one, consistent 
interface(konqueror basically). This idea is great. Unfortunately it is held 
back by drawing straight lines between/separating the functionality by having 
different "shell" apps for kparts - kghostview, kview etc(otoh, that is the 
point as you say, but is comes with both good and bad aspects). The KDE 
technologies /allows/ us to make things very simple(UI wise) and present a 
simple interface, I think we should empasize that.
KDE, especially the KMenu has a reputation of being bloated and complex. If 
all viewing applications were removed things would look quite different. In 
substitution, the interfacing concept would rely on that the user do /not/, 
after having been faced with the relevant file, go to the KMenu but instead 
click on it, judging from the icon for example.
From a technical perspective it has its advantages; it counteracts the 
integration contradiction("konqueror for everything" but still individual 
apps) and it cuts down alot of code(keep the kparts but skip the "shell" 
apps).

Having the same functionality presented in different ways is a well 
established UI design concept and it clearly has it advantages, but so has 
the solution which unfortunately, as a side effect removes it. 

How does other OS's do? Ie., does MS Windows have viewing app for jpeg, or 
does it only embedd the images? If not, is there impression of a degradation 
in usability?

In case we can't find a clear answer in this issue, we could do such an 
change(NoDisplay on readonly/viewing apps) early in 3.3 and see how people 
react. Experiment in other words.

FYI, it is called rambling.

Cheers,

			Frans