[Fwd: KView for KDE4?]

[Aurelien Gateau]

Le Mardi 7 Juin 2005 01:28, James Richard Tyrer a écrit :
> What I am saying it that these special features for full screen mode
> should be standardized and be part of KDELibs.

Totally agreed. The current code could easily be a starting point for such a 
class, it's not tied to Gwenview (have a look at gvcore/fullscreenbar.h, if 
you are interested).

>
> >>You have
> >>status bar and toolbar items on the same bar which is not supposed to be
> >>allowed.
> >
> > I don't understand to which part of the toolbars you refer.
>
> The disappearing bar in full screen is both a toolbar and a status bar.

Oh, I see. Yes, it's true that this bar mixes tools and status. I designed it 
this way because I think the application should give as much room as possible 
for the image when in fullscreen mode.


> >>And, note that all of this is just my $0.02 on the question.
> >
> > Sure. We could debate for a long time on whether Gwenview is better than
> > KView feature wise and is KDE compliant or not, but I don't think it's
> > the right problem to address (although I would like to make Gwenview more
> > KDE compliant).
> >
> > The real question IMHO is whether KDE should keep the same image viewing
> > applications for KDE4 or whether KDE4 is a good opportunity for a change.
>
> Yes, this would be a good time for a change.  OTOH, we should avoid too
> much change with KDE4.
>
> > Actually, KDE provides two image viewers (KView and Kuickshow), which are
> > not very well maintained. Since KDE has often been criticized for
> > providing redundant apps (not only KView vs Kuickshow, but also KEdit vs
> > KWrite vs Kate),
>
> KWrite and Kate are the same application with two personalities.  KWrite
> is a basic editor and Kate is an editor with a lot of features.  Perhaps
> this same strategy could be used with the image viewer.  A viewer with a
> lot of features could also have a simpler personality (like KWrite) for
> users to use when they just wanted to look at an image.

In a way, Gwenview can already do this: if you give it an image in the command 
line, it starts in "View" mode: only menu, toolbars, statusbar and the image.

It would be easy to add a command line switch or a configuration option so 
that it would only show the image, without any GUI items. Some of the startup 
code could be delayed or disabled in this mode so that it shows the image as 
fast as possible.


> > it would IMHO be a good idea to replace two not-very-well-maintained
> > apps with one which is actively developped and which has already been
> > selected as the default image viewer by some distributions (Kubuntu and
> > SuSE).
> > Of course this won't please users who are accustomed to KView and
> > Kuickshow,
>
> As long as it has the features, there should be no great problem.
>
> > but I think it has some advantages too.
>
> Yes, if you can develop Gwenview into a viewer that will have the
> capabilities of KView and Kuickshow, this would be good.  Or, if someone
> was available to do it, we could make a single viewer from KView and
> Kuickshow to replace them.

As I said, we would be happy to make the necessary changes in Gwenview so that 
it can integrate KDE4 to replace KView and Kuickshow. Who should make the 
decision?

Regards,
  Aurélien