KDE SC 4: The good, the bad, and the broken

[James Tyrer]

On 05/25/10 06:42, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Tuesday 25 May 2010 09:05:14 Dennis wrote:
>> Hi Anne,
>>
>>> You have been able to have links to applications on the desktop for ages
>>> - I think 4.2 brought that.  You should set your desktop type
>>> (right-click on the desktop, Desktop Activity Settings - or similar,
>>> since not all distros use the same wording) to Folderview, after which
>>> most behaviour is the same as KDE 3.5.
>>
>> Thanks for this info - I will try this as soon as I can (right now, no KDE
>> 4 system under my hands). Although this shows clearly one question that
>> will certainly come up: "If there is a possibility to switch back to old
>> behaviour, why is then introduced the new one?". Yep, this is a question
>> with many aspects, but think of it from the following point of view: I
>> want to explain people that switching to KDE SC 4 is a good thing, so I
>> should be able to explain the benefits of the new technology.
>>
> Quite simply, the new one takes advantage of many plasma features, and was
> intended to be the only desktop.  Developers provided the alternative of using
> a folderview as the whole desktop when it became apparent that many users
> could not or would not use a folderview to the desktop directory as part of
> their desktop.  The result is that when you choose this alternative view, the
> folderview simply covers your whole desktop.
>
> It seems that few people realise that Desktop was simply a directory under ~/,
> despite the fact that they must have seen it as such within Konqueror file
> manager.   KDE 3 displayed that directory's contents by default.  KDE 4 began
> to treat it correctly, as a directory.  The folderview that was present on the
> desktop was by default set to display Desktop's contents, and it was
> scaleable.  The developers thought that since nothing had really changed other
> than the first-glance impression everyone's needs were met.  They had not
> counted on the total intransigence of some users.

I would suggest that you not call this intransigence.  In learning 
theory, there is: 'proactive inhibition" which means that something that 
you already know makes it more difficult to learn something new -- 
something which is related to what you already know.

Example: I have always used a HP calculator with RPN (and before that an 
adding machine and a Merchant calculator).  This makes it more difficult 
for me to learn to use an algebra notation calculator than if I had 
never use any calculator.

So, software developers need to realize that when a change is made in an 
existing application that it will require that users relearn how to do 
something.  This relearning is more difficult than starting from scratch.

Therefore, making changes in an existing interface is something that 
should only be done when absolutely necessary.  It is preferable that 
when this is necessary to add new features that the old way be the default.

I am not saying that FolderView is bad idea.  Actually, I like it and 
currently have 2 on my DeskTop.  What I am saying is that it takes time 
to relearn it and this should be a consideration.

With commercial users, this relearning costs them money!  This is important.

I also note that the Desktop directory really should not be in the $HOME 
directory.  It should probably be $HOME/.local/Desktop and accessed only 
using the VFS.  Actually, we are only talking the default since there is 
a path for it in KDE and the user can choose anywhere that he wants. 
However, if using the VFS, there should be a way to access it in the 
Dolphin Part using the menu and/or a toolbar icon.  Is this yet another 
feature which was removed?

-- 
James Tyrer

Linux (mostly) From Scratch
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