KInfoCenter

[Parker Coates]

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 12:59, David Hubner wrote:
> On 17/02/2010 10:29, Andrea Diamantini wrote:
>>
>> On Wednesday 17 February 2010 10:57:59 David Hubner wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have just currently become maintainer of KInfoCenter and now i have a
>>> chance to look at the wishes and bug list i have come up with a list of
>>> changes that i would like to implement.
>>>
>>> 1. Application start shows the about screen, this can be removed as its
>>> just duplicating data on the left side. Information about the different
>>> KCMs can be implemented using tooltips.
>>>
>>> 2. Have two different views, General and advanced as system settings has
>>> implemented.
>>>
>>> 3. Remove the left listview and replace categories with tabs, these
>>> categories can be consolidated. The tabs will still be generated from the
>>> KCM's .desktop files. I was thinking of the following consolidated
>>> categories.
>>>
>>> General View:
>>>
>>> - Summary - Kernel Version, KDE SC version, distribution information etc
>>> etc. - Device Information - Device viewer based on solid, this will
>>> remove
>>> the devices, processor information, partitions and sound KCM's - XServer
>>> Information - This will consolidate OpenGL and Xserver information. -
>>> Network Information - Solid::Control will be used to get Nic information,
>>> Samba will be moved here. - Memory Information - Current Memory KCM.
>>> - Profiling Information - New KCM to implement speed testing.
>>>
>>> Advanced View:
>>>
>>> - IOPorts, IEEE 1394 Devices, PCI, DMA-Channels, Interrupts, SCSI and USB
>>> devices KCMs will be moved here.
>>>
>>> 4. Add two buttons to the bottom of KInfoCenter, Export and Help. Help
>>> section will bring help for the currently selected KCM, export will
>>> export
>>> the information from the currently selected KCM to text format.
>>>
>>> What does everyone else think of these changes? Any ideas?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>
>> Just my personal opinion,
>> I don't like the General/Advanced division.
>> A lot of the "General" KCMs are really "advanced".
>> The views are just divided in groups and (again, IMHO) that's enough.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>
> It depends how you define the wording I guess, I see general and advanced
> tabs as general being frequently used and advanced being KCMs that are
> hardly used but can are there if you need to tweak a little more or need
> more information.
>
> Maybe different set of wording for the divisions, General and Extra?
>
> The "Extra" Kcm's will not exactly be a division, just an toggle menu option
> that will show the extra tabs.

My personal thoughts are that such a division doesn't really make
sense for KInfoCenter. Unlike SystemSettings which has to cater to
both novice users and system administrators, I think KInfoCenter
provides technical information and that's what its users expect.
Splitting that information into two categories based on a somewhat
subjective difference seems unnecessary.

I think a more useful focus would be to try to ensure that the user is
helpfully guided to the info he's looking for and not stumbling around
through those more "advanced" areas.

Just my thoughts,

Parker