[Panel-devel] Coherency issue

[Alejandro Exojo]

Disclaimer: I've read your email a bit quickly, and I don't have all the time 
of the world to reply right now, but I wanted to comment a bit. Oh, and... 
maybe the kde-usabilty list is best suited to write about this.

El Lunes, 19 de Junio de 2006 18:09, Zbigniew Braniecki escribió:
> Well, I can try to explain it more, but I thought that we simply all know
> that status, and the only thing that matters now is if we'll agree to keep
> it or try to change it.

I'm sure the KDE project will always try to improve the integration of its 
applications, but I thought that KDE was considered one of the best 
integrated desktops. I don't know if GNOME has improved with respect this in 
the latest releases, but the last time I tried it, it was less integrated 
that KDE, specially if you use OpenOffice.org and FireFox by default.

> Do you really need more explanation on how using KDE makes me FEEL that I'm
> using a set of apps that were bundled together just before the release
> happened? That UI of K3B has NOTHING to do with UI of Amarok, and Kwrite,
> and Kate, and Quanta, and KsCD, Juk or Ark?
> (...)

But HOW? How can a plain text editor be similar to a CD/DVD burning 
application? I agree that some similar applications have chosen different 
design decisions. For example, Juk and Amarok have the progress bar in 
different places of the UI, but which one (if there is one at all) is 
correct?

AFAIK, KDE doesn't provides a way to make this kind of progress bar the same 
in all media/music players, but does in other aspects of the UI. I've never 
seen a KDE application whose "Settings" menu is before "Edit", or with a 
dialog in which the "Cancel" button is before the "OK" one.

Certainly there are applications that are k-named, that link against kdelibs, 
but don't make use of all the facilities that KDE provides. Look for example 
at Konserve:

http://konserve.sourceforge.net/konserve-screenshot424.png

This is the main view of the application, when it's not minimized to the 
systray. It's not integrated with the rest of KDE because doesn't make use of 
KMainWindow or KSystemTray. This means, for example, that the pop-up menu 
displayed when you click in the systray icon, is different of the rest of KDE 
applications. Or that there is not a menu bar with the same organization of 
the rest of KDE. Etc.

Greetings.

-- 
Alex (a.k.a. suy) - GPG ID 0x0B8B0BC2
http://barnacity.net/ - Jabber ID: suy at bulmalug.net