Review Request: Add "Show Icon only" option to the tasks applet

[Aaron Seigo]

> On 2010-08-23 09:00:48, Marco Martin wrote:
> > this very patch appeared here for several times already.
> > and as usual, the question is: what real value gives over auto hiding the text when there is not enough space?
> 
> Markus Slopianka wrote:
>     If this patch works with the other one that implements launcher support, a Mac OS X-like Dock (AFAIK it's similar in Win7) can be implemented without the need to get 3rd party widgets.
>     With a Dock-like setup I wouldn't want text other than tooltips.
> 
> Beat Wolf wrote:
>     i would actually agree on adding it from the feedback i get when i show kde to people used to windows. it's one of the first things they ask for.
> 
> Aaron Seigo wrote:
>     the number of such features that have appeared over the years is immense, and always people ask for those features ... as long as they are new in Windows. there is no point in chasing taillights just to chase taillights. if the idea is a good one, let's do it; if it isn't, let's not.
> 
> Beat Wolf wrote:
>     sure. i was just mentioning it because i for myself think its a good idea and other people want it, so from my point of view if the patch has a good quality, and it's actually using a feature that is there anyway, why not have it.
>     But i see the other point of views too and all have their merit i think.
> 
> Todd wrote:
>     I think that the question is not so much a question of why we shouldn't have titles in the task manager, the question is why we need them.  With grouping and the ability in 4.5 to change between grouped windows by clicking on their thumbnail, at least for me titles are just wasted space.  I understand that for people without compositing they are needed, and some people may still prefer them, but personally they don't contribute anything, and they are huge relative to just the icons.
>     
>     I agree that the the current configuration interface for the task manager is getting a bit crowded.  However, there is a way to add the feature without increasing the complexity of the dialog.  Currently there are three grouping options: "Do not group", "Manually", and "By Program Name".  There is also an checkox "Only when taskbar is full".  The problem is that this option is only meaningful in "By Program Name" mode, and in fact the checkbox is disabled when the other two modes.  So I would suggest getting rid of the checkbox and adding a fourth option in the dropdown "When taskbar is full", or something along those lines. 
>     
>     Also, since plasma supports multiple categories in the configuration dialog, it may be worthwhile splitting the current options into categories.
> 
> Marco Martin wrote:
>     > With grouping and the ability in 4.5 to change between grouped windows by clicking on their thumbnail, at least for me titles are just wasted space.
>     
>     well, i think in this case is really fake "wasted space" because i would agree if the text would let to have less icons in the taskbar.
>     but since when there is not enough room the text gets disabled automatically, this is a no issue.
>     without that i really don't see use cases except making it look like windows
> 
> Todd wrote:
>     It isn't fake wasted space, there is still a bunch of text on there that fills up the area while contributing nothing to me.  I don't think it looks good.  This has nothing whatsoever to do with making it look like windows, I couldn't care less what windows does.  It has to do with not making it look cluttered and inelegant.  
>     
>     The text also contributes to the resizing of the panel, making the panel much larger than it has to be.  I could, of course, force the panel to be small, but that works against me when I do have a lot of open windows, since it drastically limits the number of windows I can work with easily.  
>     
>     Further, when the text is removed the tasks still expand to fill the available space, which looks really bad in my opinion.  It makes sense when you want to show the text is hidden, but not when you don't want to deal with the text at all.

"contributing nothing to me"

* a larger target (Fitt's "Law")
* disambiguation from other similar items

that may not matter to you, and i fully grant that. it matters to others, and we (the maintainers of this item) do not see enough value in option to turn the items into icons-only to include it in the tasks plasmoid directly.

i have, however, already described a way that you (and whomever else) can accomplish your goals. we aren't exclusive, plasma has been designed to allow differences of opinion, differences of goals. others have taken advantage of this with stasks, fancytasks, etc. you can do the same without having to convince anyone or ask anyone's permission. so instead of continuing this conversation which is going to lead nowhere other than to find out what we already know (namely: we disagree on this matter), let's get back to hacking. as soon as your window listing plasmoid is ready (you can develop it in playground until then), we can move it into kdereview and then move it on into the appropriate module. cheers ...


- Aaron


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On 2010-08-22 13:52:33, Björn Ruberg wrote:
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
> http://reviewboard.kde.org/r/5078/
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> (Updated 2010-08-22 13:52:33)
> 
> 
> Review request for Plasma.
> 
> 
> Summary
> -------
> 
> This patch adds the option to put the taskbar in an icon-only mode - similar as in Windows 7 . This is an much requested feature in bugzilla.
> It is fairly simple and just using features already existing in the code, adding an m_showIconOnly member to the layout and the abstractitem plus the adaption of the config ui.
> 
> 
> This addresses bug 159480.
>     https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=159480
> 
> 
> Diffs
> -----
> 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/tasksConfig.ui 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/tasks.cpp 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/taskitemlayout.h 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/taskitemlayout.cpp 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/abstracttaskitem.h 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/abstracttaskitem.cpp 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/taskgroupitem.h 1166313 
>   /trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/desktop/applets/tasks/taskgroupitem.cpp 1166313 
> 
> Diff: http://reviewboard.kde.org/r/5078/diff
> 
> 
> Testing
> -------
> 
> Moved panel around and made sure it works. Looks actually pretty good this icon-only mode!
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Björn
> 
>

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