KDE4 Control Center confusing

[Duncan]

Anne Wilson posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:10:28 +0000 as excerpted:

>> Looking in the control center under device actions left me stumped
>> trying to figure out how to change that so I can choose Open with File
>> Manager.
>> 
> Basically it is exactly the same as in KDE 3.x.  The context list is
> affected by your choices in File Associations.  In 3.x you could add to
> the list with a context menu, IIRC, but the main way was always in the
> Control Centre, File Associations section.  In KDE4 it's in
> SystemSettings > Advanced tab > File Associations.  Add to the list any
> applications that you want to associate with the file type, remembering
> that the top one in the list will be the default - again, exactly as it
> was in KDE 3.

Read that double-quoted part again, Anne, it's not file associations but 
device actions that "generic" is talking about.  I don't remember the 
details of how kde3 handled that, but kde4 is far more hal-action-centric 
in that regard.  Unfortunately, hal isn't the most intuitive thing around 
to try to configure.

In fact, having done a bit of it myself, I must say configuring hal can 
easily be obtuse to the point of extreme frustration even for someone 
accustomed to dealing with bare text config files and who was configuring 
and compiling his own kernel even before he chose his email program on 
Linux.  It might be designed to make plug-N-pray possible for the Linux 
newbie, but God help the poor soul who finds it doesn't do quite what he 
wants and decides to try to configure the thing!

With the GUI style device (notifier) actions config, KDE has done an 
exemplary job of making the extremely obtuse reasonably possible, but 
there's simply no getting around the fact that what's being configured is 
complex and obtuse to the point of challenging even the hardcore Linux 
geek, and even with KDE's best efforts at simplification and a GUI config 
to work with, it's not a simple thing to configure.  But I'll take it any 
day over the obtuseness of hal's textfile config, that's for SURE!

Anyway, I'm working on a longer explanation myself.  But you know how 
detailed I get, and that takes time...

-- 
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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