Creative direction of plasma

[Marco Martin]

On Tuesday 27 May 2008, Michael Rudolph wrote:

> > > Panel-devel at kde.org
> > > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/panel-devel
>
> Hello nuno,
>
> wow, that was fast.
>
> But if I may speak freely: no, no, no!
>
> This is just the most beautiful version of everything, that plasma needs
> to overcome.
>
> We need to ask ourselves the question: What is it, that the user really
> wants to do? And how can we use the technology that is currently
> available, at the beginning of the 21st century (and specifically in
> plasma, prior to the 4.1 release) to ease the user's way to achieving
> their goals?
>
> I like the lower folderview, in which you display a screenshot of an
> actual document. But why don't we just get rid of everything else
> around it?
> I've been talking about "no interface" being the "best interface" and
> I'd like to explain that, using this very example:

partly the direction is that, think about the picture frame that gets created 
when a picture is dropped on the desktop, it will be extended for other file 
types.
but a folder is only just another type of thing that can (or will can) get 
created when dropped on desktop. it's a quick way to get maybe copy 
create/delete operations done.
i think there is the need of that, even if more marginal (an applet vs the 
entire desktop like before) because the concept of files and folders will not 
go away anytime soon in the desktop (it makes sense for other kind of devices 
btw) because trying to hide the filesystem too much can really cause 
frustration (think about the media, home and system kio slaves in kde3) 
probably for technical limitations (for example, how can i open a document 
represented in plasma as a preview in a gtk app? at the moment it will always 
stink) but we must live with that for a some time still.
on the other hand think i prefer it will remain quite simple and not a full 
blown copy of dolphin.
just two random toughts :)

Cheers,
Marco Martin

> Everything besides the document itself is useless, or as others might
> say: everything else is administrative debris. Your ODF document is the
> plasmoid. It's not just an entry in a list or a tiny icon in some
> gridview. It's the content itself, it is the very thing you are
> interested in. It would have small left and right arrows superimposed,
> so you could flip through multi page documents. Of course it shows the
> applet handle, when you're touching it. So when you need a closer look
> or need to get it out of the way, you can resize it. And you can move
> it. Drag it on the printer plasmoid to print it, to the trash plasmoid
> to delete it. Drag a note plasmoid onto it, to annotate it.
> To edit it, you might have to double click it and open kword. But
> actually the idea is to just start typing, because the document is
> kword.
>
> In terms of interactions with other plasmoids (I already mentioned trash
> and printer), I'd like to stack my content. But interactions are
> confessedly tricky; I have some ideas, but the important part for me
> here was to tell the story of "no interface".
>
> I hope, I could make myself clear and I'd be glad to hear your comments.
>
> michael
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