[kde-linux] 4.14.3 issues #1 Folder Widget

[Duncan]

James Tyrer posted on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 15:32:34 -0700 as excerpted:

> Note that if "Lock in Place" is not chosen that "Fill by" will have the
> same effect as "Arrange in"
> 
> Again, this is a case of the need for design and the problem is that the
> coder did not do the design work before the code was written. Excellence
> in code requires proper design.

Thanks very much for that exercise in (for me, self-)lucidity. =:^)

I've run into exactly the same issue in other cases as well, and 
experienced a similar frustration, without the ability to quite put into 
words why it wasn't exactly right.  You explained it so well.  The 
ability for individual rows or columns to self-arrange, without removing 
the constraint on which one they're in in the other dimension, complete 
to the point that some columns/rows may be several units longer than 
others... really does express the rather vague thought I had about how 
it /should/ be, that I couldn't quite put into words! =:^)

Actually, your putting it into words reminds me very much of my 
experience reading Eric S Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" essay 
series, in the form of the book I bought shortly after I switched to 
Linux and the FLOSS world from the old proprietary world, much as a 
defector leaves behind the old world and ways he knew, for the freedom of 
a new world, knowing he'll never return.  As I read that series, time and 
again I kept exclaiming to myself "exactly!", as he put into words 
thoughts I had had, but had never fully developed, to the point it was as 
if someone had somehow read my thoughts without me being aware, organized 
them and written them down, then presented them for me to read, without 
my having known it occurred upto the point of presentation.  FWIW, that 
book was my true conversion to free/libre and open source software, as it 
really did in so many ways echo my own thoughts about the way things 
"should" be, that in so many cases until that point I hadn't known anyone 
else thought that way as well.  That's sort of how I felt reading your 
description of how the sorting in the folder widget should work, as well, 
tho obviously just the single instance of it, not the repeated epiphany, 
discovering it wasn't just me thinking that way, time and again and 
again, as was my experience with that book.

But I can definitely see how that level of attention to perfectly 
functioning detail would get under some developer's skin, particularly 
those that are continually fascinated by and often already jumped onto 
the next big thing, before the current one even really works to a level 
either you or I would define as "well".

Oh, well.  As they say, "such is life!" =:^\

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman