panel usability

[Duncan]

xPol posted on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:50:11 +0100 as excerpted:

> I think panels are an important tool for end users. Do kde4 envision a
> new approach of the user to the workstation, to reduce or replace the
> utility of panels? I would like to know more about that.

The specific questions are answered elsewhere.  As Anne also indicates 
about these more general questions but in different words, plasma is 
indeed a new approach in many ways, but is very much still maturing, with 
some features not yet fully developed to the point they were originally 
envisioned, and others modified after initial deployment, as people found 
it didn't work quite as well in practice as the original vision expected.

That said, I don't expect panels will be disappearing any time soon.  
They're just too useful.  But the implementation will certainly be 
changing some as the authors develop their vision, and find out what 
actually works and what doesn't, in deployment.  As just one example, not 
specifically panel related but very much plasma related, the zoom-based 
interface to switching desktop "activities" was a nice vision, but it 
turned out to be rather more unwieldy in practice than most people were 
willing to put up with, so kde 4.4 will change that interface quite a 
bit.  I'm not running trunk so haven't seen it for myself, but from what 
I've read, I think the zoom interface will be still there, but while 
currently, some options are ONLY available from there, they'll be made 
available in the general GUI (from the cashew/toolbox, the desktop 
settings dialog, or kcontrol/systemsettings, possibly multiple places) 
from 4.4 on, so people won't have to discover or use the zoom interface 
at all to access these options.  (AFAIK, the activity-per-virtual-desktop 
option is only available when zoomed out, presently, for instance.  BTW, 
that's another case in point, as that wasn't part of the original vision 
either, but was added because so many people found it more intuitive to 
think of and switch virtual desktops and activities as a single unit, 
rather than separately.)

To really get an idea what the vision is, and where it's heading next, 
the best thing to do is to follow Aaron Segio's blog, as available on kde-
planet.  Right now I'm way behind in my feeds, but that's what I've been 
doing.

-- 
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

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