Summer of Code [Desktop Dock]

[Alexander Shenoy]

On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 2:56 AM, <plasma-devel-request at kde.org> wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 18:01:13 -0600
> From: "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo at kde.org>
> Subject: Re: Summer Of Code [Desktop Dock]
> To: plasma-devel at kde.org
> Message-ID: <200904011801.17152.aseigo at kde.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> On Wednesday 01 April 2009, Alexander Shenoy wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > My name is Alexander Shenoy. I am a student at the University of
> Pittsburgh
> > at Bradford and I was considering a summer of code project. I have also
> > been looking for a way to contribute to the KDE community. I was
> wondering
> > if there had been any proposals submitted for the Desktop Dock Plasmoid
> > idea. This project really interests me and would give me the opportunity
> to
> > contribute to the KDE community. I am preparing a propasal right now, but
>
> great :)


:)

> I
> > wanted to contact the plasma team to see if there was any other
> information
> > that I should be aware of.
>
> just that we have a *lot* of people applying this year for plasma work
> apparently. so proposals will need to really shine and stand out
> content-wise
> this year, i think.


Thanks for the info. :)

> I have long wanted a dock for the KDE desktop. Also, I have some
> > interesting ideas about the dock. One of the things about the Mac Dock
> that
> > has always annoyed me was the thumbnail when minimizing windows. The
> > thumbnail looks out of place when side by side with beautiful icons.
> > Instead, I propose to use Present Windows to show the windows in that
> > application on a hover of the icon within the dock.
>
> sounds interesting ...


Interesting, bad? I was thinking that it would be probably the hardest part
of my proposal.  Especially because it wont be as simple as just invoking
the Present Windows effect. The main problem is that Present Windows clears
panels and takes focus. For this to work the Dock would need to retain focus
so that switching between applications would enable the effect for the new
application. The way I wanted to handle this for people who don't have
effects enabled was a pop up menu with window title names or thumbnails. The
primary motivation for my thinking is that the user should be able to look
once and get to what they need.

> I also thought of
> > having a small area on the right of the dock that would allow users to
> use
> > keyboard inputs to launch applications and find documents. The basic idea
> > is that you would click this and the dock becomes a search tool. Then the
> > user can type in a phrase and get search results in a pop up(or
> drop-down)
> > menu and applications in the dock. While this idea might be beyond the
> > scope of the Google Summer of Code, I believe that it would improve
> > usability substantially as far as the Dock is concerned.
>
> we already have such a plasmoid in playground so i don't think it would be
> much work to integrate it nicely ;)


Great! To elaborate on my original idea(or the way I saw it in my head),
when you enter text in the search box, the icons on the dock are replaced
with icons that  match the search criteria. and the pop-menu would contain
documents that meet the search criteria. This allows users to launch any
application from the Dock. Although there could be an option that just adds
the search criteria programs to the dock and then removes them after one is
launched. That way, the user could decide which functionality they liked
best.

> This is also a
> > project that I would be interested in working on even past my summer of
> > code obligations, should I get accepted.
>
> :)


I have been looking for a KDE project to sink my teeth into and this is a
great opportunity.

> Anyone have any questions or comments before I make my final proposal
>
> please put your proposal up sooner rather than later. you can still edit it
> until the 3rd after you submit it, but google is wanting students to put
> their
> draft proposals online ASAP


Already done. Continuing to edit though, especially trying to work out
milestone dates.

--
> 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 Qt Software
>
> -------------- next part --------------
> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> Name: not available
> Type: application/pgp-signature
> Size: 197 bytes
> Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
> Url :
> http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-devel/attachments/20090401/8caa88e2/attachment-0001.sig
>
> ------------------------------
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-devel/attachments/20090402/7934e473/attachment.htm