[Kde-pim] KMail and multiple KMMainWidgets

[Ingo Klöcker]

On Wednesday 28 May 2008, Szymon Stefanek wrote:
> On Wednesday 28 May 2008, Carsten Burghardt wrote:
>
> More thoughts.
>
> > > A very simple one could be a special kind of selection: middle
> > > click for example. Middle Click would not remove the "new" state
> > > of messages when switching folders... Et voila' :)
> >
> > I would call that a typical case of a hidden feature and the total
> > opposite of intuitive.
>
> It's true, it wouldn't be very intuitive.
>
> On the other side this solution has the advantage of being an order
> of magnitude simplier than any other solution that comes into my
> mind. It could probably implemented with few dozens of lines of code.

The implementation of multiple main windows also just takes a few lines 
of code (if the rest of the code was designed with the possibility to 
have multiple main windows).


> Since actually we're trying to introduce a feature to solve a problem
> that only few advanced users have (this is a keypoint that has to be
> verified) then the few dozen lines of code would be a somewhat
> "proportional" effort. That is: worth it.
>
> You put it in the tip of the day, you put it in the manual, you
> spread the word... you add it as "hint" to the status bar when
> hovering over the folder view...

You are kidding, right?


> > The tabbing feature would cover those I guess
> > but I can't imagine that it's easier to implement this than to use
> > a separate mainwindow.
>
> Yes. And it wouldn't be as easy as a middle click.

But it's a feature most people know from their webbrowser and I'm pretty 
sure many people would quickly start to use it.


> Now that I think of it, there would be also an issue with the
> "short folder list" layout option: not compatible with the tabs
> as I have described it in the previous mail.

So what? I don't think anybody would miss the short folder list (okay, a 
few people would certainly miss it). So I don't see a problem with 
losing this feature.


> Hm.. we could choose to tabify only the message header list instead
> of message header list + message preview... that would be feasible.
>
> It would be still more complex than middle click but probably
> cleaner than the half-not-working multiple main windows.
>
> But I'd really like to evaluate its real advantages.
>
> -
>
> In fact the multiple main windows is a problem that I have evaluated
> in the past in other applications. It turned out that nearly nobody
> used it and the complexity introduced by its implementation was
> really wasted. With a single main window most of the "key" objects in
> the app can be singletons. No need to pass hierarchy pointers around,
> no need for window selection code... We could even have a single
> centralized selected folder object, a single centralized previewed
> message etc...

I claim that code written with the possibility to have multiple main 
windows in mind is cleaner than code that relies on the main window 
being a singleton. KMail might be an exception. :-)


Regards,
Ingo
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