Plasma/Kwin cooperation to achieve efficacy of Activites spatial metaphors

[Lubos Lunak]

On Tuesday 10 of February 2009, Jud Craft wrote:
> It doesn't help that the transitioning-between-Activities bears little
> distinction from transitioning  between workspaces/virtual desktops.
> It's sometimes hard for the user to figure out exactly what the big
> deal is.  Personally, I rationalize it myself this way:
>
> --Virtual desktops are like having a really huge desk in your office.
> There's plenty of room for stuff, but you have to reach around to get
> to any of it.
>
> --Plasma Activities are like having _different_ desks in your office.
> For example, one for essay writing, one for your reading, and one for
> communication (memos, letters, in and out boxes).
>
> The idea of "having more than one desk VS having a huge desk" is
> immediately apparent to any office and home user;

 I guess I'm not one of those then, as I'm at a loss here. Virtual desktops 
are technically neither of the two ways above, and they can be perceived as 
either depending on what metaphor one chooses to use.

 I also don't quite follow on the rest of the mail, possibly because I still 
haven't found out what makes the activities different from virtual desktops 
and the Plasma FAQ hasn't helped me there either. The way I see it activities 
are virtual desktops for plasmoids done independently from virtual desktops 
and I don't see why it couldn't be simply done directly as virtual desktops. 
It's quite normal for people to have desktop 1 named e.g. as "Work", 2 
as "Web", 3 as "Mail" and 4 as "Custom".

 Looking at the rest of the thread, I don't think it makes sense to discuss 
this before first knowing what the activities are actually supposed to be.

PS: Some mails in this thread are a pain to read. Could you please learn to 
reply and quote properly and not just have a huge quotation and one added 
line somewhere in it? Thanks.

-- 
Lubos Lunak
KDE developer
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