Review Request: Change activity by rolling the mouse wheel over the showActivityManager widget.

[Sebastian Kügler]

On Tuesday, December 27, 2011 14:11:34 Marco Martin wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 December 2011, Simone Gaiarin wrote:
> > To fix the two problem it is just necessary to add a configuration
> > dialog to the plasmoid in a such way that the user must intentionally
> > enable this feature before use it. What do you think about this
> > solution? I'll work on it.
> 
> no, adding a configuration option for every potentially problematic feature
> is a too easy shortcut that has been done too much in the past, and is a
> thing we are finally manage to get out of.
> 
> as i said, a solution can be a combination of:
> a) make the activity switching way more intuitive, with animations, an osd
> that says the activity name for an instant, in any case something obvious
> b) only cycle troucg runnung activities (and by default there is only one
> running activity) so if someone never seen them/doesn't use them, doesn't
> get anything with the mouse wheel
> 
> this may or may not be intuitive enough, but is important to avoid the
> shortcut of "just throwing another configuration option in"

One could also make it a hover interface, a bit like opening a QMenu while the 
mouse is over that button (but not directly underneath it, as that makes 
interaction harder). Or maybe fold the button out to a list of activities when 
clicked (a bit like the devicenotifier does it).

One of the problems I see is that the Activity Switcher still feels a bit too 
modal, the switcher is also in my normal usage often at least half a screen 
away from my mouse, and in the case of the toolbox, even across the entire 
screen. The activity switcher in the panel has a much better position.
-- 
sebas

http://www.kde.org | http://vizZzion.org | GPG Key ID: 9119 0EF9