the next step on the desktop

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Sunday, January 30, 2011, todd rme wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:

> > * a new panel layout (TBD: let's work on this together!)
> > * improve the tasks widget to have some of the nice features of widgets
> > like "smooth tasks" with the mouse over highlights
> 
> Some other possible improvements:
> - Application control interfaces moved from the system tray to the
> task manager (I recall you mentioning this before).

yes.

> - More focus on thumbnails.  For instance smooth tasks lets you close
> applications from the thumbnails.  There should also be prettier ways
> to deal with groups with large numbers members

a scrolling area could work, but would require some cooperation with the kwin 
effect for this i believe.

> - I think it would be nice if applications had some way to extend the
> thumbnail display.  For instance put buttons on it, or have a pop-up
> button to show extra thumbnails (such as thumbnails of tabs you can
> select).  This may not be feasible using existing desktop standards,
> though.

probably not, but that shouldn't stop us ... status notifiers might be a good 
first step.
 
> > * an "activities" widget (i'll hapilly write it) that sits next to the
> > app launcher and when clicked brings up the actvities manager
> 
> You mean like this:
> http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Activity+Manager+Plasmoid?content=1362
> 78

no; more just a shortcut to the activity manager. the reason for that can be 
plainly seen in the screenshots in that link: when you try to put activities 
in a small UI like that, you _innevitably_ get people wanting to 
stop/start/delete/create/configure them there too and it becomes a visual and 
usability mess.

not that the current activity manager is awesome, but it does at least give 
enough space to reasonably work with activities. the activity manager ought to 
be rewritten in QML and spiffied up.

> Also, if we are going with S&L, having a list of activities available
> within the S&L interface would probably be a good idea, especially if
> you are intending it to be a jumping-off point for other activities.

an icon and search term that would show activities would be good, yes. sounds 
like a runner that needs writing! :)

> - Why are you restricting it to one panel?  Having several panels by
> default with different sizes and shapes for different sets of items
> might be at least worth considering.
> 
> - It might be worth looking into merging the pager and activity
> manager.

they are orthoganal concepts, and that would make this awkward at best imho.

> - It might be worth re-visiting whether the current default
> application launcher is optimal.  Launchers like lancelot and raptor
> have some interesting ideas, and I have seen some other ideas batted
> around as well (such as an application launcher using a grid view
> instead of a list view).

agreed.

-- 
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 Development Frameworks
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