Re: secondary window titles

[David Jarvie]

On Tuesday 14 November 2006 15:22, Hans Meine wrote:
>In fact, having windows with just "File Open.." on Windoze systems has already 
>bugged me several times.  (If you don't use them immediately, but later, 
>there is indeed no visible indication of which program they belong to.) IMHO 
>that's a bug.
>
>On Tuesday, 14. November 2006 12:00, David Jarvie wrote:
>> If KDE is a desktop environment, it doesn't matter whether it adheres to
>> existing standards on OS X or Windows, because it will be used in place of
>> the existing desktops on those platforms.
>Agreed.
>
>> On the other hand, if KDE 
>> applications are to be run outside the KDE desktop, they presumably need to
>> adhere to non-KDE conventions.
>Agreed.  Show people the advantages of a KDE desktop, where you know which 
>program wants you to choose a file. ;-)
>
>The only disadvantage may be that people think: KDE (as a DE) is not so 
>different, see: This KDE program is very similar to other Windows programs.  
>But that's the price to pay for consistency I guess, which is a preliminary 
>for a DE's usability IMHO.

In the ideal world, if KDE applications are running under a 
Windows/OS X/Gnome/whatever desktop (not a KDE desktop on a 
Windows/OS X/whatever system), they should adhere to 
Windows/OS X/Gnome/whatever conventions. For example, if the OK and 
Cancel button positions were the opposite way round from other applications on 
that desktop, it wouldn't be very user friendly, and it may be considered 
counterproductive to confuse users by doing everything in the unexpected KDE 
way.

But is it actually feasible to try to adhere to every desktop environment's 
conventions? If not, we can do whatever is practical to blend in, but recognise 
that every desktop differs, and that the user will therefore have to accept that 
KDE applications do some things the KDE way. If a user wants homogeneity, 
he/she will have to choose between running the KDE desktop or forgoing use of 
KDE applications.

--
David Jarvie.
KAlarm author & maintainer.
http://www.astrojar.org.uk/linux/kalarm.html