Review Request 122249: libksysguard: add Kill Window to End Process button and show correct keyboard shortcut

Gregor Mi codestruct at posteo.org
Tue Jan 27 19:49:58 GMT 2015



> On Jan. 26, 2015, 7:05 a.m., Martin Gräßlin wrote:
> > My opinion is that this is a feature which should not be exposed in libksysguard. It actually ties libksysguard to KWin, while libksysguard was in the past also used in e.g. kdevelop.
> > 
> > If libksysguard wants to offer the functionality to kill a window, it should implement it itself.
> 
> Martin Gräßlin wrote:
>     In addition: KWin's global shortcut action names are not public API. We do not guarantee that we don't change them, we do not guarantee that they are exposed at all (KWin handling shortcuts internally without kglobalaccel on Wayland?). I do not want to run into situations that we cannot change our code because external usage makes it impossible.
> 
> Thomas Lübking wrote:
>     In case there was larger demand for invoking such action (taskbar, dedicated plasmoid, ...) one could move the xkill functionality into KWindowSystem (option for portage) - invoking a kwin shortcut through a kglobalaccel dbus call is a hack. Maybe sufficient for any downstream solution, but easily broken feature.
> 
> Gregor Mi wrote:
>     First of all, a clarification of this RR's intentions:
>     1) The original "End Process..." tooltip says "you can always use Ctrl+Alt+Esc..." which is wrong as soon as someone changes the keyboard shortcut exposed by KWin. So this should be fixed.
>     2) Make the Kill Window feature more discoverable. It is a seldom used feature which makes it harder to remember.
>     
>     About invoking Kill Window:
>     > If libksysguard wants to offer the functionality to kill a window, it should implement it itself. [Martin]
>     > ...one could move the xkill functionality into KWindowSystem...  [Thomas]
>     
>     Without knowing the amount of xkill code I suspect that having a dbus call that loosly couples libksysguard to KWin is probably easier to maintain than 2 times the xkill code.
>     Having said that, what about moving the xkill code to a common location as Thomas suggested?
>     
>     > We do not guarantee that we don't change them, we do not guarantee that they are exposed at all ... I do not want to run into situations that we cannot change our code because external usage makes it impossible.
>     
>     Understood. But would it then be possible at all to get the current shortcut to display it to the user?
> 
> Martin Gräßlin wrote:
>     Ok, so this addresses two issues using one solution: exposing KWin's internal shortcut. This is bad as outlined above.
>     
>     I agree that 1) needs fixing. This can be done in the way as approached in this review request: check whether kwin is registered on kglobalaccel and get the key command. If it's done that way the fault is with libksysguard in case KWin changes the shortcut name or doesn't use kglobalaccel any more. Another fix is of course to just hide the shortcut.
>     
>     2) is a different issue. Whether it's needed to expose the functionality in addition from libksysguard is probably questionable. A better approach to do this would be through a method in KWindowSystem. This does not need to duplicate the code, it could also just send a client message to the window manager to start the kill window process. Through KWindowSystem we can check whether the feature is supported by the window manager and could exclude if not supported. But and that's a big but: the feature would not be able to work if it's triggered from a (context) menu or drop down list (it needs to grab mouse). Given that I'm hesistant to say that it should be added to kwindowsystem at all.
> 
> Thomas Lübking wrote:
>     ad 2)
>     I'd have said to rather *move* the code to KWindowSystem and use it from there by any client (incl. kwin)
>     This allows porting the solution (in case such is possible on other systems at all) as well as to invoke the feature unconditionally (ie. instead of "is this kwin?  yes? tell kwin to trigger xkill." just trigger the xkill functionality)
>     
>     About the popupmenu:
>     The issue is global, ie. as long as a popup (or other grabber) is around, the kwin shortcut neither works.
>     It's kind of the client codes problem to deal w/ a "false" return (eg. invoke a timer and/or timered retries)

ad 1) (shortcut)
I could live with adapting (or remove) the shortcut retrieval as soon as it will not be possible anymore. As long as it is, I would show it. (I suspect as long as the shortcut is not hard-coded there will be a some way to get it)


ad 2) (invoke window kill)
I looked a Kwin's source code. For reference, here are the two methods I found to kill a window:
```
/*!
  Kill Window feature, similar to xkill
 */
void Workspace::slotKillWindow()
{
    if (m_windowKiller.isNull()) {
        m_windowKiller.reset(new KillWindow());
    }
    m_windowKiller->start();
}

and

/**
 * Kills the window via XKill
 */
void Client::killWindow()
{
    qCDebug(KWIN_CORE) << "Client::killWindow():" << caption();
    killProcess(false);
    m_client.kill();  // Always kill this client at the server
    destroyClient();
}
```


About the context menu / grabber issue: Without knowing much of the details, isn't it possible to use a timer or similar to circumvent the problem? Too hacky?

About exposing the xkill method in ksysguard I would say from a user's perspective:
- The killing method requires the me to click for a window kill.
- So why not be able to invoke this method using the the mouse, too?


- Gregor


-----------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/122249/#review74740
-----------------------------------------------------------


On Jan. 25, 2015, 6:21 p.m., Gregor Mi wrote:
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
> https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/122249/
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> (Updated Jan. 25, 2015, 6:21 p.m.)
> 
> 
> Review request for KDE Base Apps, Martin Gräßlin and John Tapsell.
> 
> 
> Repository: libksysguard
> 
> 
> Description
> -------
> 
> Current situation:
> The "End Process..." button has a tooltip which says "To target a specific window to kill, press Ctrl+Alt+Esc at any time." The keyboard shortcut is hardcoded.
> 
> RR:
> Add a drop down menu to the "End Process..." button with one action:
> i18n("Kill a specific window... (Global shortcut: %1)", killWindowShortcut)
> 
> 
> Diffs
> -----
> 
>   processui/CMakeLists.txt 7f87b85e0201e63d69070a71203bbb34851a79c6 
>   processui/ProcessWidgetUI.ui e50f55cf1813b00d49b1716023df487ffbd536e3 
>   processui/keyboardshortcututil.h PRE-CREATION 
>   processui/keyboardshortcututil.cpp PRE-CREATION 
>   processui/ksysguardprocesslist.cpp 4dc142e864d8353ceafc3a6735ffa81e48291420 
>   tests/CMakeLists.txt 967b03fae1e460bfb22e1a07ef05cf7b49412546 
>   tests/keyboardshortcututiltest.h PRE-CREATION 
>   tests/keyboardshortcututiltest.cpp PRE-CREATION 
> 
> Diff: https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/122249/diff/
> 
> 
> Testing
> -------
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Gregor Mi
> 
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-core-devel/attachments/20150127/8003fbf3/attachment.htm>


More information about the kde-core-devel mailing list