GSoC: command and get obeyed !

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday 19 March 2008, Jordi Polo wrote:
> To achieve it we just need a shortcut that runs krunner in whatever you
> last put in your clipboard and launch the most relevant action.

very nice idea.

> Even the 
> applications can give tips to krunner to choose the runner?

that's actually what we do for fast user switching.

and for those who hadn't noticed yet: yes, that's a runner.

> And Imagine a shortcut that do the above and takes the information back to
> your application (maybe this can be managed with drag and drop or something
> similar and get a lot of power with little effort).

very cool...

> The main advantage of the second approach is that it lets you make complex
> things with a very natural interface and in an unified way all over the
> desktop.
> "translate"
> "map"
> "send to bugs at kde.org"
> "svn up"

indeed

> All those commands will be applied again to the last thing you entered in
> the clipboard (or run them in Krunner as "command data")
> It will be very possible but not so general to select the word "Madrid" (or
> write it in krunner) and get the top rank runner a map service runner.
> And almost imposible get the translation service in the first place given
> any general word.
> So commands can specify!

makes sense.

> I argue that both modes (plain text and command line) are useful not only
> in krunner but beyond.

the hope/idea/wish/goal is that eventually runners will melt into the 
background framework of the desktop experience, with today's krunner being 
just one place they appear... seems we're on the same page there. =)

> translate  -> feed runners and get their results (the user select or launch
> the top ranking)
>
> :translate -> The command is parser and only the "translate" service runner

other things that can help:

* relevancy ranking. any runner which recognizes its keywords (e.g. "starting 
with translate" for a translation runner) should up the relevancy of the 
rturn

* if done in coordination with another application, that application can hint 
which runner to favour (not neccessarily limit to, but at least favour), 
which you already mentioned above.

> Please let me know your thoughts. Sorry for the horrible long email... I
> may be too verbose explaining myself ...

it's ok. i suffer from the same disease ;)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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