kbstateapplet: Plasma integration directions

[Marco Martin]

On Sunday 23 May 2010, Sandro Giessl wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> recently I've started to use sticky modifier keys. It was inconvenient
> to get to know about kbstateapplet which currently lives in playground,
> and its UI is annoying because it uses lots of panel space (compared to
> win7 which displays all sticky key states within one systray icon,
> kbstateapplet uses 5 times more space and its indicators are less
> intuitive, IMO).

yes, not shippable at all atm

> There's a related bug https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165402 - (it
> seems like distros can live with packaging kbstatesapplet from plasma
> playground, so at least downstream distro bugs have been resolved by
> 
> now). The attempt to move kbstateapplet to kdebase failed:
> > Revision 963596 - Directory Listing
> > 
> >  Modified Mon May 4 22:59:10 2009 UTC (5 days, 21 hours ago) by aseigo
> > 
> > move back to playground; the UI is horrific, the code is ancient and
> > apparently it has no developer to be its constant companion
> 
> What's needed to fix those two outstanding points? Some thoughts and
> questions which might help getting me a rough idea about requirements:
> 
> - All kbstates information should (I think) be made available as plasma
> data engine. There's sticky keys status, locked keys, mouse status,

+1

> AccessX status. Mouse status and most keyboard status data sources seem
> to be there already.
> Whould AccessX be a separate data engine, or should another data engine
> (Keyboard?) be extended?

probably a separate one

> - UI Fixes?
> The indicator icons aren't quite self descriptive at the moment. The

and are too much, i think should be more barebone, just the more used keys 
otherwise will have too much graphics to have any meaning at all (like is now, 
besides being ugly)

> strict indicator grid layout could be made to resemble the
> hardware/virtual key positions.
> Maybe an iconified miniature version of
> http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~giessl/clip//1274628870070161346.png could be
> used for sticky keys indicators?
> 
> Is there any gain in making the kbstate applet UI theme'able?
>
would gaing to not be a punch in the eye i guess :p

i think it should be a composition that does one-two icons in the new systray 
style

> Can plasma applets be added automatically by the kaccess task, or is
> this only possible using system tray icons?

nope, it has to be manually added

> What's plasma's policy regarding when to use system tray icons vs. when
> to use applets?

basically when a really custom ui is needed 

> Like KDE's systray icon for switching keyboard layouts, shouldn't the
> accessibility key status be shown automatically when activated (opposed
> to requiring to add a plasma applet to the panel manually)?
> 
> 
> Thank you and bye
> Sandro
> 
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-- 
Marco Martin