tasks-refactor issues

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday 24 September 2008, Christian Mollekopf wrote:
> Hi,
> sorry for my absence, the swiss army needed me ;-)

heh.. sounds exciting ;)

> > * ProgramGroupingStrategy::toggleGrouping shows we have some API issues
> > in the new libtaskmanager additions. from reading that method it is
> > completely unclear what the interplay between blackList, handleItem,
> > closeGroup and add. this must be sorted out either with proper commenting
> > of the method (which is anything but clear) or by fixing the code to read
> > clearly (the preferred fix)
>
> Unfortunately i don't know how i could fix the code but i will add the
> documentation of the function. 

that would be terrific =) i figured it out after reading through the code more, 
but we try and avoid that when possible ... 

> > * defaults for the tasks widget: sorting by alpha and grouping my program
> > should be on. no sorting/grouping is a bit silly and manual management is
> > not something most users will crave (though it's awesome that the option
> > is there)
>
> i will trust in your experience with users =)
>
> > some not-so-small things:
> >
> > * we're going to want to have a "only group when full" option in there
>
> yeah, cool idea
>
> > * multiple rows are still missing
>
> yes, yet to be added. I was thinking of subclassing LayoutWidget (it isn't
> a widget anymore, actually...) from QGraphicsGridLayout and adding some
> variables where we can set a fixed collumncount or  a maximum count of
> collumns which would be automatically added or removed as needed.
>
> > * i'm getting a consistent crash-on-exit with program grouping is on
>
> me too...

it's ok; i've fixed this one already =)

> > * all grouping interaction is done via the context menu. this is a non-
> > starter. there absolutely must be visual feedback on this, e.g. an arrow
> > to expand collapsed groups
>
> I'm not sure if i got this right. Do you mean, that it isn't obvious that
> items can be grouped by dragging them with alt pressed (i agree) and that
> there should be a context menu for this action, or do you mean that there
> should be a different way for expanding/collapsing than the contextmenu (i
> agree as well)?

maybe a combination of all these things... marco and i have been experimenting 
a little bit, and it's in playground so we can hack away to all our heart's 
content on it.

> > * when a group is expanded, it becomes a cloud of little icons in about
> > the same space as original button. the icons are not recognizable.
>
> Yes i experimented a bit with the setStretchFactor function of
> QGraphicsLinearLayout but i couldn't get it to work....

marco fixedt his one =)

> > so ... how to interact with grouped items ...
> >
> > expanding groups:
> >
> > * a single click on a collapsed group could expand it
>
> I know that you don't like the cycling mechanism very much aaron, but i do
> (and marco apparently also) =) (although its maybe really more the
> developer in me that likes it...) The order is kind of predictable because
> its exactly same as shown in the expanded group.

hmm.. yes, i'll bounce some of this off of celeste and see what she suggests.

> > * something else .. ?
> >
> > showing expanded groups:
> >
> > * we could do it like in kicker and show a popup with the grouped window
> > inside that popup.
>
> I thought we could show such an expanded group widget instead of the
> tooltip, when you keep your mouse over the group for a sec or so.

that's possible ...

> > * an expanded group could overlay other buttons, temporarily 'taking
> > over' the tasks widget
> >
> > * an expanded group could push other buttons aside, giving the buttons
> > inside as much room as buttons not in the group (making an
> > all-groups-expanded taskbar as cluttered as the current bar)
>
> I would really prefer if a taskbar with all groups expanded is as cluttered
> as the old one. If  you just want to temporarily access a task you can do
> it with the tooltip like popup

yep ...

take a look at what we've done to your baby in playground (and the library in 
kdebase, too) and let's keep this ball rolling =)

-- 
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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