kwin default window button order.

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Thursday 22 November 2007, Michael Pyne wrote:
> On Thursday 22 November 2007, David Jarvie wrote:
> > In fact I'm using Windows just now, and it definitely has the menu button
> > at the far left.
>
> Correct-amundo.  They also overload it such that you can close the window
> by double-clicking it.

which, btw, is one of the worst ideas ever and was a workaround introduced for 
a poor window manager in windows 3.1 and prior.

interestingly, some power users who found this feature decided they liked it, 
even though it's slower and sucks for people who don't know that feature 
exists and go around double clicking things randomly (another usability 
truism: make things wierd enough and people start acting randomly; "double 
click this, but single click that" leads to many people double clicking in 
random situations as they can't figure out the scheme).

so when i disabled menu-double-click-closes in the default kde window decos 
some time ago (kept it in the windows emulating ones, though) two things 
happened:

a) complaints on the kde devel lists by developers saying we had to keep it 
for compatibility, people were used to it, it was removing features for no 
reason (which is untrue, see above), etc. sound familiar? ;)

b) people added configuration options to some decos to allow this back 
conditionally to some decos (nothing like increasing the config load to 
re-introduce a highly dubious feature)

today? few care, few notice, and those who really want it use a style that 
supports it.

i've come to accept that friction against change will likely always be high in 
this project. it does mean, however, that it takes a really strong-headed 
person to get meaningful usability changes through. so if you wonder why 
usability doesn't improve faster/better or why i'm so annoying in these 
threads, accept that as the result of a project where resistance is high and 
mostly a reflexive reaction rather than reasoned thought based on 
understanding of the principle involved.

i don't think this is unique to kde, though. it's why gnome went all 
dictatorial-from-the-top with its usability push, why Apple only really 
innovates in usability when they have a dictator at the top, etc. i don't 
want dictatorships in kde. however, i do wish these things took less energy. 
=) i keep seeking a Third Way for this process. haven't found it yet.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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