[Kde-kiosk] Re: KIOSK features in Kicker

[Uwe Thiem]

On Thursday 04 November 2004 17:14, Waldo Bastian wrote:

Hi Waldo, Aaron,

> Several people have asked for more flexibility wrt panel restrictions.
> Below are some design ideas for KDE 3.4. Your feedback is appreciated. In
> particular I would like to know whether you think that the feature set
> outlined below allows you to meet any requirements that you may have in
> this area.

lemme start with what *I* want. Whatever I provide, be it desktop icons, menu 
entries, panel icons or whatsoever, the user should not be able to fuck up. I 
don't mind whether they change kickers position, line up icons differently, 
change the number of virtual desktops, or any other stuff like that. If I 
provide a desktop icon for OpenOffice it has to stay there, no matter what. I 
don't mind the position but the user must not be able to delete it or change 
the application it launches. That applies to all desktop icons and menu 
entries. If I provide a menu entry for konquerer it has to stay there as 
provided.

On the other hand, I want the user to be able to add desktop icons, kicker 
icons, menu entries. I don't give a rat's ass whether they can mess that up. 
If a user adds a link to that special "Lady Di" Web site and fucks it up 
afterwards, I don't care and won't give any assistance in getting it right 
again. 

In other words, whatever is provided by me should stay there unadultered (not 
counting position or such). The user should be able to add whatever they want 
to. Whatever they do to their stuff, I don't care.

Alright, so much for principle.

>
> 7. KIOSK features in Kicker
>    ------------------------
>
> Several aspects of the panel can be restricted:
>
> * Individual elements (buttons, applets, etc.) can be marked immutable.
> This means that they can not be removed and their properties/configuration
> can not be changed.
> How: The configuration group in kickerrc corresponding to the element is
> marked immutable, OR, the configuration file associated with the element
> (ConfigFile= entry) is marked immutable.

Yes.

>
> * The addition of Applets, Application Buttons, Special Buttons or Panels
> can be restricted.
> How: "General/Applets" key is marked immutable (??? Strictly speaking
> that key is not used for extra panels)

I don't care. Add whatever you want, mess it up, delete it. As long as the 
originally provided stuff stays the way it was provided.

>
> * Panel configuration can be restricted. This affects appearance as wells
> as menu-editing (see below)
> How: ??? "General" group in kickerrc is marked immutable (??? that would
> imply that buttons can't be added either, loss of flexibility)
> How: Use "kde-panel.desktop" control module restriction.

I would rather like users to be able to add stuff and edit the stuff they 
added. As long as the menus and menu entries I provide can't be altered I 
don't care what the user adds. My goal is: No more emergency calls to the 
system administrator (if there is one) "My Internet has vanished".

>
> * Menu editing can be restricted. Kicker offers several menu items in the
> KDE menu beyond the applications menu itself. See "Configure Panel ->
> Menus" How: Restrict action/menuedit (??? Are their cases where you would
> want to restrict editing of the applications menu but not the other
> elements in the KDE menu?)

I don't think so.

Uwe

-- 
Alternative phrasing of the First Law of Thermodynamics:
If you eat it, and you don't burn it off, you'll sit on it.

http://www.uwix.iway.na (last updated: 20.06.2004)