D11896: Show Information Panel button by default instead of the Preview button

[Henrik Fehlauer]

rkflx added a comment.


  In D11896#239096 <https://phabricator.kde.org/D11896#239096>, @ngraham wrote:
  
  > In D11896#238990 <https://phabricator.kde.org/D11896#238990>, @rkflx wrote:
  >
  > > > Also, now that previews have been on by default since 17.12 (and I haven't heard any negative press or internet complaints at all about it)
  > >
  > > Maybe that's because in fact previews are off by default? I guess the test plan in D7440: Turn on Dolphin icon previews by default <https://phabricator.kde.org/D7440> is missing to account for `.directory` entries.
  >
  >
  > No, they are in fact on by default. Check with a new user account and add a picture to ~/Pictures, then go back to ~. The ~/Pictures folder gains a preview of its contents, i.e. the picture you just added to it.
  
  
  Well, I tested exactly that before commenting, on multiple distros even. Anyway, don't change it, because I like how it is currently :D It's just that I think we should not lose the Preview button to //actually// turn on previews.
  
  > In D11896#238990 <https://phabricator.kde.org/D11896#238990>, @rkflx wrote:
  > 
  >> There is a huge difference between making something a default and removing the ability to change back a setting from the main UI. There are lots of situations where users might not want to have previews enabled, e.g. their document previews all look the same (common for the first page of most scientific documents)
  > 
  > 
  > Sounds like a bug in the thumbnailer that we should fix. If where are cases where previews aren't useful, we should fix that.
  
  No, that's not a bug, but a fundamental problem: Most documents I'm talking about have a white background, the same aspect ratio, a centred title and some form of abstract always at the same position. Of course the thumbnails will look //slightly// different, but for all intents and purposes there is no value in the thumbnail. I'd rather have the colourful mimetype icon to immediately see which documents are PDFs, ODTs, ePubs etc.
  
  It is also reassuring for regular users, because the mimetype indicates which app will be opened upon clicking on an item (i.e. the "learnability" aspect of the academic definition of usability). If previews were on by default, it's either a surprise or you'd have to squint at the file extension.
  
  > In D11896#238990 <https://phabricator.kde.org/D11896#238990>, @rkflx wrote:
  > 
  >> or they simply want different settings for different folders (e.g. previews only enabled in their pictures folder).
  > 
  > 
  > I think that's a niche use case for expert users. I think most average users appreciate previews everywhere, not just their Pictures folder (many and maybe even most don't actually even put their pictures in there). macOS Finder and Windows Explorer both default to showing previews everywhere.
  
  At least for Windows, that's not true: By default, the "Details" view (which does not have previews) is used, and when switching to "Icons", only images will get previews, but not your typical Office documents.
  
  I think we can trust users to turn on previews by themselves via the easily reachable button in case they don't use the default Pictures folder.
  
  > In D11896#238990 <https://phabricator.kde.org/D11896#238990>, @rkflx wrote:
  > 
  >> - Find a better way to toggle panels in general (Gwenview's sidebar button in the statusbar comes to mind, but we'd need to make some space in Dolphin first, or find a different place…)
  > 
  > 
  > Agreed, and this is what my patch was attempting to accomplish. But it's still not ideal because it doesn't expose the Terminal or Folders Panels.
  
  Yeah, I'm not against providing easy access to the information panel. I just don't want to lose the Preview button.

REPOSITORY
  R318 Dolphin

REVISION DETAIL
  https://phabricator.kde.org/D11896

To: ngraham, #dolphin
Cc: rkflx
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