[PATCH] Animations enable/disable system wide

[Robert Knight]

Hi,

Several comments:

1)  This is implemented as a binary yes/no option.  Will that be
flexible enough?  Animations in a small area can be typically done
even on fairly slow machines.  Animations over a large area (eg. those
done by KWin) really need hardware acceleration to work properly.

2)  I don't think the meaning of the checkbox text and tooltips is clear.

The checkbox text in the patch is "Enable builtin animations".  My
immediate questions as a user are:

- What is a "builtin" (should be 'built in') animation?  The "what's
this" text ("If you enable this option, KDE Applications will run
internal animations") is even less clear.
- How does this relate to the options on the Effects tab?  Can these
options be unified?

The reason for this option to exist is to improve performance on
machines with slower graphics.  The benefits from disabling this
option are not made clear from the UI in the patch.  In fact, I'd go
as far as to question whether the style module is the right place to
have this option at all.

An alternative approach might be to have a slider with a number of
levels for the performance - with the simplest and least costly at the
top and the most expensive at the bottom.  This approach was used in
the first-run wizard for KDE 3 which asked how much "eye candy" users
wanted.  For example, from simplest to most prettiest:

- Minimal use of complex static 2D (eg. gradients), no animations
- Use of complex static 2D (eg. gradients), no animations
- As above, but with simple animations (ie. Qt's animations)
- As above, but with more sophisticated 2D animations (eg. which is
what your patch allows)
- As above, but with animations requiring hardware acceleration

Regards,
Robert.

On 15/02/2008, Rafael Fernández López <ereslibre at kde.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>  Attached are the patches to kdelibs and kdebase.
>
>  OK to commit ?
>
>
>  Bye,
>
> Rafael Fernández López.
>
>