qwhatsthis experiment

[Carlos Leonhard Woelz]

Hi guys,

So now the list kde-usability-issues will get the qwhatsthis
submissions. The issue tracking will be a simple reply to the list
saying ("I took care of this one"). It is better something simple
working now, later, we can improve it :)

So everyone who is interested in helping out, please subscribe. I am
subscribed.

We could follow up the submission with e-mails, bringing more people to
KDE. Therefore, this effort would be not only to create whatsthis, but
to bring more people to KDE. And this side of the proposal is what
attract me most. So who should do this task? Power users, with a little
training, and developers. I other words, us. What is the gratification?
Bringing new contributors to KDE. This is the itch we are scratching,
bringing the community of testers closer to KDE development.

I really would like to see people helping out with this. Should not be
too hard to manage it if we have a real team helping out.

Now let's discuss boring pratical issues:

Here is an example submission created by dfaure, by shift + F1 and
clicking the animated gear:

----///----

Widget text: ''
current --> unnamed (KAnimWidget)
unnamed (KAnimWidget)
mainToolBar (KToolBar)
qt_top_dock (QDockArea)
toplevel --> konqueror-mainwindow#1 (KonqMainWindow)

Please type in your what's this help between these lines: 
--%-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a test. Whatsthis submissions will be sent to this list (which
was
apparently unused for any other purpose for a year, so I think that's
ok).
--%-----------------------------------------------------------------------

----///----

As you can see in the example, not all submissions will helpful. A
volunteer working on this tasks should do the following:

1) Find the widget related to the submission (not available in the
example, but let's suppose it is).
2) Proofread the text, make it follow the doc guidelines.
3) Review the contents, to make suer it is usefull.
4) Find the code in kde cvs related to the whatsthis.
5) Edit the .ui or c++ code to add the submission.
6) Send the patch to bugzilla, or to the maintainer / devel list.
Bugzilla option requires more work, while the devel list  can be a black
hole for patches.

As you can see, this is not exactly a total newbie task, as it requires:
1) Some clue.
2) A KDE CVS installation from source.
3) Detailed knowledge about *random* of KDE apps (Whatsthis should
present good non-obvious information, reducing the need to go to the
help file.)
4) Some development knowledge, to edit C++ files and .ui files (in this
case, this is easier, as one can use the qt designer).
5) It does not scale well: the things you learned about one app do not
apply to the next one. Also, most satisfaction goes to the ones who
create the whatsthis and most work goes to the ones who create the
patches, so this is hardly a motivating first task.

On the other hand, developers, power users or long time KDE users may
find this easier. One solution is that we should not check the content
as a rule, only create the patches, check the spelling and guidelines
conformance. The maintainer should apply the patch if he thinks it is
OK, or simply drop it if it is not.

Cheers,

Carlos Woelz
-- 
  Carlos Leonhard Woelz
  carloswoelz at imap-mail.com